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Abstract: Spectral formulas for the evaluation of gravitational gradients generated by upper Earth''s mass components are presented in the manuscript. The spectral approach allows for numerical evaluation of global gravitational gradient fields that can be used to constrain gravitational gradients either synthesised from global gravitational models or directly measured by the spaceborne gradiometer on board of the GOCE satellite mission. Gravitational gradients generated by static atmospheric, topographic and continental ice masses are evaluated numerically based on available global models of Earth''s topography, bathymetry and continental ice sheets. CRUST2.0 data are then applied for the numerical evaluation of gravitational gradients generated by mass density contrasts within soft and hard sediments, upper, middle and lower crust layers. Combined gravitational gradients are compared to disturbing gravitational gradients derived from a global gravitational model and an idealised Earth''s model represented by the geocentric homogeneous biaxial ellipsoid GRS80. The methodology could be used for improved modelling of the Earth''s inner structure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Third-order gradients of the gravitational potential (gravitational curvatures) have already found some applications in geosciences. Observability of these parameters, describing the Earth's gravitational field in a more complex way than any other currently available gravitational parameter, such as gravitational acceleration (first-order gradient) or gravitational (second-order) gradient, is currently discussed by physicists. Moreover, first designs of observational devices (sensors) have already been proposed. The spherical harmonic analysis and synthesis are the common tools used by geoscientists to study spectral properties of various functionals of the Earth's gravitational potential. However, the conventional spherical harmonic expansions of the gravitational curvatures in the local north-oriented reference frame have rather complicated forms that depend on the first-, second- and third-order derivatives of the associated Legendre functions. Moreover, some of these expansions also contain singular terms at the poles. In this paper, the conventional series are transformed to new simpler and non-singular forms based on relations between the associated Legendre functions and their derivatives. Numerical experiments demonstrate the applicability and correctness of the new expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]