[1] EGM2008 is a spherical harmonic model of the Earth's gravitational potential, developed by a least squares combination of the ITG-GRACE03S gravitational model and its associated error covariance matrix, with the gravitational information obtained from a global set of area-mean free-air gravity anomalies defined on a 5 arc-minute equiangular grid. This grid was formed by merging terrestrial, altimetry-derived, and airborne gravity data. Over areas where only lower resolution gravity data were available, their spectral content was supplemented with gravitational information implied by the topography. EGM2008 is complete to degree and order 2159, and contains additional coefficients up to degree 2190 and order 2159. Over areas covered with high quality gravity data, the discrepancies between EGM2008 geoid undulations and independent GPS/ Leveling values are on the order of AE5 to AE10 cm. EGM2008 vertical deflections over USA and Australia are within AE1.1 to AE1.3 arc-seconds of independent astrogeodetic values. These results indicate that EGM2008 performs comparably with contemporary detailed regional geoid models. EGM2008 performs equally well with other GRACE-based gravitational models in orbit computations. Over EGM96, EGM2008 represents improvement by a factor of six in resolution, and by factors of three to six in accuracy, depending on gravitational quantity and geographic area. EGM2008 represents a milestone and a new paradigm in global gravity field modeling, by demonstrating for the first time ever, that given accurate and detailed gravimetric data, a single global model may satisfy the requirements of a very wide range of applications.

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The study of the Arctic Ocean has been hampered by incomplete basic knowledge of the basin and its structure. An improved gravity anomaly map (Figure 1) and grid have been developed that complement the new International Chart of the Arctic Ocean [Jakobsson et al., 2008]. This article announces the availability of the Arctic Gravity Project (ArcGP) grid version 2.0 and discusses the genesis of the project.