GG-TOP: Gravity Gradient - Technologies and Opportunities Programme

重力测量具有一种特殊的魅力，从日常生活中感受到把我们固定在地面上的引力，到广义相对论和时空的奥秘。与其他力相比，引力出奇地弱，使得屏蔽引力实际上是不可能的。重力测量非常适合观察地下深处，它们已经在石油和矿产勘探、地下测绘和气候研究等领域使用了100多年。然而，尽管重力测量受到高度重视，但在测量时间长、繁琐和地质噪声方面存在一些缺点。GG-TOP响应了对整体开发计划日益紧迫的需求，该计划驱动仪器灵敏度，建模仪器和地质噪声，区分地下物体，融合并呈现来自多传感器系统的信息。GG-TOP联盟是真正的多学科联合基础和应用物理学家，土木和电气工程师和考古学家在一个共同的目标。GG-TOP具有强大的利益相关者组成部分，在所有层面进行互动，潜在用户直接影响研究方案。GG-TOP将明确评估其新技术在各种应用中的潜力，如城市基础设施（管道、电缆……）和空间（地窖、隧道……）测绘、海底检查、考古学和物理学基本测试。我们预计该计划的结果将是一个适应各种需求的技术套件，并导致一系列后续产品开发计划。

Gravity measurements exert a particular fascination ranging from the everyday experience of feeling the gravitational force holding us on ground to the mysteries of general relativity and space time. Compared to other forces gravity is surprisingly weak, making shielding of gravitation practically impossible. Gravity measurements are ideally suited to look deep inside the ground and they have been used for over 100 years in fields as oil and mineral exploration, underground mapping and climate research. However, although gravity measurements are highly valued, there are some drawbacks in terms of long and tedious measurements and geological noise. GG-TOP responds to an increasingly pressing demand for a holistic development programme driving sensitivity of instrumentation, modelling instrument and geological noise, discriminating underground objects, fusing and presenting the information from multi-sensor systems. The GG-TOP consortium is truely multi-disciplinary uniting fundamental and applied physicists, civil and electrical engineers and archaeologists behind a joint goal. GG-TOP has a strong Stakeholder compontent with interactions at all levels and potential users directly influencing the research programme. GG-TOP will explicitly evaluate the potential of its new technology in applications as diverse as urban infrastructure (pipes, cables...) and void (cellars, tunnels,..) mapping, seabed inspection, archaeology and fundamental tests of physics.We anticipate the outcome of this programme to be a technology suite adaptable to various needs and leading to a range of follow-on product development programmes.