ALBERT

Description: The International Centre for Global Earth Models (ICGEM, http://icgem.gfz-potsdam.de/) hosted at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) is one of the five Services coordinated by the International Gravity Field Service (IGFS) of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG). The goal of the ICGEM Service is to provide the scientific community with a state of the art archive of static and temporal global gravity field models of the Earth, and develop and operate interactive calculation and visualisation services of gravity field functionals on user defined grids or at a list of particular points via its website. ICGEM offers the largest collection of global gravity field models, including those from the 1960s, as well as the most recent ones that have been developed using data from dedicated gravity missions, advanced processing methodologies and additional data sources such as satellite and terrestrial gravity. The global gravity field models have been collected from different institutions at international level and after a validation process made publicly available in a standardized format with DOI numbers assigned through GFZ Data Services. The development and maintenance of such a unique platform is crucial for the scientific community in geodesy, geophysics, oceanography, and climate research. The services of ICGEM have motivated researchers worldwide to grant access to their gravity field models and also provide them an access to variety of other gravity field models and their products. In this article, we present the development history and future plans of ICGEM and its current products and essential services. We present the Earth’s static, temporal, and topographic gravity field models as well as the gravity field models of other celestial bodies together with examples produced by the ICGEM’s calculation and 3D visualisation services and give an insight how the ICGEM Service can additionally contribute to the needs of research and society.