Distortions of Spherical Data in the Wavenumber Domain

Sampling rates become inconsistent when spatial data in the spherical coordinate are resampled with respect to latitudinal or longitudinal degree for mathematical processes such as Fourier Transform, and this results in distortions of the processed data in the wavenumber domain. These distortions are more evident in the polar regions. An example is presented to show such distortions during the recovery process of free-air gravity anomalies from ERS-1 satellite radar altimeter data from the Barents Sea in the Russian Arctic, and a method is presented to minimize the distortion using the Lambert Conformal Conic map projection. This approach was found to enhance the free-air gravity anomalies in both data and wavenumber domains.