Using an Inertial Navigation System for Gravimetric Applications. A Comparative Study Between an INS, a Microgravity Meter and a Seismometer

The goal of this study is to test the feasibility of gravimetric measurements with a small Inertial Navigation System (INS) unit in order to use it with various platforms (drone, plane, satellite) in the future. The INS operated in this study is the SPATIAL model developed by Advanced Navigation which has 3-axis accelerometers of precision 2.10−4m/s2. To start we shall compare its gravimetric capabilities with an LPS-1 seismometer (Micro-g LaCoste) during an in situ experiment over a long period of time at the Géosciences Environnement Toulouse (GET) laboratory in order to see if the INS can detect the varying gravimetric signals at least related to the Earth tides. Then we'll compare its precision with the measurements made by a CG-5 Autograv gravimeter (Scintrex) during an excursion between the GET laboratory and the Cammazes dam, which has an altitude difference of more than 400 meters so the gravity variation should be detectable.