High resolution global harmonic models are necessary for high quality local geoid solution. However, the resolution of such models would only be realistic, if the region under consideration has gravity data contribution to the used geopotential models. EGM96 represents the most recent high degree global geopotential model that is completely released. Unfortunately, no Egyptian terrestrial gravity data were incorporated into it. In this paper, using the Stokes’ integral technique, the EGM96 harmonic model was tailored up to degree and order 650, based on the recent available gravity field observations in Egypt. Using the tailored EGM96 model, denoted as EGM96EGIT, as a reference field showed an improvement in gravity anomaly smoothing by about 44%. This result implies a high capability of recovering the long-medium wavelength features in Egypt. |