The ColSRBF-DGFI2019 gravimetric quasi-geoid model has been computed by the Deutsches Geodätisches Forschungsinstitut (DGFI), Technical University of Munich (TUM). It has been worked out in the frame of the International Association of Geodesy Joint Working Group 2.2.2 "The 1 cm geoid experiment" and the so called "Colorado experiment". The area covered by the model is 251°E ≤ longitude ≤ 257°E, 36°N ≤ latitude ≤ 39°N with a grid spacing of 1' in both latitude and in longitude. Input data include terrestrial and airborne gravity observations, both used with their original observation sites. The computation method is based on spherical radial basis functions (SRBFs), using the Shannon function and the Cubic Polynomial (CuP) function for the terrestrial and airborne data, respectively. The computation is performed in the framework of a remove-compute-restore procedure, taking XGM2016 as global gravity model and Earth2014 / ERTM2160 for the topographic gravity effects. The terrestrial and airborne observations are combined within a parameter estimation procedure, and the relative weight between these two types of observations are determined by the method of variance component estimation (VCE). The accuracy of the quasi-geoid model, when compared against GSVS17 GPS/leveling, is equal to 2.9 cm.

The geoid model is provided in ISG format 2.0 (ISG Format Specifications), while the file in its original data format is available at the model ISG webpage.

The International Service for the Geoid (ISG) was founded in 1992 (as International Geoid Service - IGeS) and it is now an official service of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG), under the umbrella of the International Gravity Field Service (IGFS). The main activities of ISG consist in collecting, analysing and redistributing local and regional geoid models, as well as organizing international schools on the geoid determination (Reguzzoni et al., 2021).