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Kaula 1993
Kaula, W.M. (1993). Higher order statistics of planetary gravities and topographies. Geophysical Research Letters 20: doi: 10.1029/93GL03086. issn: 0094-8276.

The statistical properties of Earth, Venus, Mars, Moon, and a 3-D mantle convection model are compared. The higher order properties are expressed by third and fourth moments: i.e., as mean products over equilateral triangles (defined as coskewance) and equilateral quadrangles (defined as coexance). For point values, all the fields of real planets have positive skewness, ranging from slightly above zero for Lunar gravity to 2.6&sgr;3 for Martian gravity (&sgr; is rms magnitude). Six of the eight excesses are greater than Gaussian (3&sgr;4), ranging from 2.0&sgr;4 for Earth topography to 18.6&sgr;4, for Martian topography. The coskewances and coexances drop off to zero within 20¿ arc in most cases. The mantle convective model has zero skewness and excess slightly less than Gaussian, probably arising from viscosity variations being only radial. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1993

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Planetology, Solid Surface Planets and Satellites, Gravitational fields, Geodesy and Gravity, Regional and global gravity anomalies and earth structure
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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