NEW MARINE TRACKLINE DATA ADDED TO THE GEODAS ARCHIVE IN PREPARATION FOR AN UPDATE OF THE EARTH MAGNETIC ANOMALY GRID

The global Earth Magnetic Anomaly Grid (EMAG2) has a 2 arc minute (about 3.7 km) resolution. EMAG2 was created in 2009 based on marine and aeromagnetic surveys hosted as part of the Geophysical Data System (GEODAS) at the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). Since the previous release of the model, we have made a concerted effort to archive and ingest all available global marine and aeromagnetic trackline surveys into GEODAS. We have added over 500 surveys for integration into the next generation of EMAG. As a demonstration of the impact of adding these new data, this presentation focusses on a remote portion of the south Pacific (the Eltanin Fracture Zone System), where EMAG2 was primarily based on model predictions with relatively little data control and where we have added a significant number of new surveys. Comparison of EMAG2 with these surveys allows us to test the accuracy of the EMAG2 model, especially in remote regions where survey data had been scarce or missing. We also demonstrate how these new data will improve the accuracy and extent future EMAG models in this area.