A NEW CALIBRATION METHOD FOR GRAVITY METERS

Current calibration methods give gravity meter accuracies of 3 to 5-mu-Gal (1 microGal = 10 nm/s2) over 10 mGal intervals. The new calibration method should extend the accuracies to 100 mGal intervals. The new method nulls with both a micrometer screw and an electrostatic feedback nuller. The screw is calibrated and used only at discrete points and the electrostatic nuller completes the nulling to obtain gravity readings. Determining the calibration curve itself rather than measuring and integrating calibration (interval) factors avoids approximations. Circular errors (periods of the order of a turn of the screw) are completely taken into account at the discrete points. Calibration only at discrete points makes calibration time reasonable.