f Recent performance evaluations and applications of the Scintrex CG-3M Microgravimeter

Microgravity surveys demand high precision measurements, despite the sometimes hostile field survey conditions, which include physical shocks and vibration, ambient temperature gradients, station instability due to natural or man-made sources, and atmospheric pressure variations. In addition to the requirement for a high level of environmental tolerance, it is desirable, for certain applications that the microgravimeter should cover a very broad range of gravity (hopefully world-wide), without the need for reset. Any reset mechanism requires extensive calibration, and may introduce errors as well. The challenge to a manufacturer of gravimeters for microgravity surveys is to design and produce an instrument which can provide 1 μGal resolution, and a standard deviation (STD) of individual measurements of better than 5 μGal, but be robust enough to function well under the usual harsh environmental conditions listed above. The CG-3M is the only field portable relative gravimeter which matches all of these features. The process of independent evaluation by end users and ultimate publication of their findings is a multi-year one. It is the objective of this paper to report on the status of the Scintrex CG-3M microgravimeter in respect of this process. In the course of so doing we will provide some details of various applications of this gravimeter, both novel and somewhat more traditional. Following applications were mentioned and the references given for the papers in which the results were published: