UN INTÉGRATEUR POUR LE CALCUL DES CORRECTIONS TOPOGRAPHIQUES*

When gravimetric prospecting is concerned with a region featuring broken relief the calculation of topographical corrections becomes vitally important, for these rectify apparent anomalies completely. It is essential that they should be calculated as exactly as possible. By the classic method this takes an extremely long time and may in the long run involve an outlay actually higher than that expended on operations on the terrain.

It has thus been felt necessary to seek methods which would speed up calculation, and, bearing that in mind, the use of a polar integrator has been envisaged. With this the contour lines of a map can be followed between two fixed radii, the pole corresponding to the location of the position. Two integrator roulettes will give the values of the first two terms of the expansion in terms of the quotient of the height divided by the distance, the second of the terms resulting from the curvature of the earth. Unless there are escarpments very close to the position, the use of these two terms will be sufficient.

Polar integration will deal successively with different contour lines and a subsidiary graph will be plotted, giving the value of each of the integrals in terms of the height. By means of this subsidiary graph the values of the corrections will be obtained with a planimeter and a moment integrator. It is envisaged that the same operation could be repeated in the case of two maps with different scales, for instance, 1–20,000 and 1–200,000 the effect of the areas in the immediate neighbourhood of the position being taken into account by the observer. It is hoped that in this way the calculation of topographical corrections will be made quicker, more exact and less laborious.