Gravity gradiometer

An instrument for measuring the gradients of the accelerations due to gravity. The term gravity gradiometer includes curvature variometers. Gravity gradiometers are occasionally used in surface applications or in boreholes but their primary use is in moving-platform, particularly airborne, measurements. Moving-platform measurements of gravity are generally limited by the difficulty of distinguishing between accelerations due to gravity and those due to the motion of the platform. By rejecting platform motion, gravity gradiometers can provide significantly better sensitivity and spatial resolution measurements of gravity than is possible with a gravimeter.