Physical geodesy

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Ocean basins mapped with satellite altimetry. Seafloor features larger than 10 k
m are detected by resulting gravitational distortion of sea surface. (1995, NOAA
)
Geodesy
Fundamentals
Geodesy
Geodynamics
Geomatics
Cartography
History
Concepts
Datum
Geographical distance
Geoid
Figure of the Earth
Geodetic system
Geodesic
Geographic coordinate system
Horizontal position representation
Latitude / Longitude
Map projection
Reference ellipsoid
Satellite geodesy
Spatial reference system
Technologies
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)
Global Positioning System (GPS)
GLONASS (Russian)
Galileo (European)
Indian Regional Navigation
Satellite System (IRNSS)
BeiDou-2 (Chinese)
Standards
ED50
European Datum 1950
SAD69 South American Datum 1969
GRS 80 Geodetic Reference System 1980
NAD83 North American Datum 1983
WGS84 World Geodetic System 1984
NAVD88 N. American Vertical Datum 1988
ETRS89
European Terrestrial Reference
System 1989
Spatial Reference System Identifier (SRID)
Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)
History
NGVD29 (Sea Level Datum 1929)
v
t

e
Physical geodesy is the study of the physical properties of the gravity field of
the Earth, the geopotential, with a view to their application in geodesy.
Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Measurement procedure
The geopotential
Units of gravity and geopotential
The normal potential
Disturbing potential and geoid
Gravity anomalies
See also
References

Measurement procedure
Traditional geodetic instruments such as theodolites rely on the gravity field f
or orienting their vertical axis along the local plumb line or local vertical di
rection with the aid of a spirit level. After that, vertical angles (zenith angl
es or, alternatively, elevation angles) are obtained with respect to this local
vertical, and horizontal angles in the plane of the local horizon, perpendicular
to the vertical.
Levelling instruments again are used to obtain geopotential differences between
points on the Earth's surface. These can then be expressed as "height" differenc
es by conversion to metric units.
The geopotential
The Earth's gravity field can be described by a potential as follows:
\mathbf{g} = \nabla W = \mathrm{grad}\ W = \frac{\partial W}{\partial X}\mat
hbf{i} +\frac{\partial W}{\partial Y}\mathbf{j}+\frac{\partial W}{\partial Z}\ma
thbf{k}
which expresses the gravitational acceleration vector as the gradient of W, the
potential of gravity. The vector triad \{\mathbf{i},\mathbf{j},\mathbf{k}\} is t
he orthonormal set of base vectors in space, pointing along the X,Y,Z coordinate
axes.
Note that both gravity and its potential contain a contribution from the centrif
ugal pseudo-force due to the Earth's rotation. We can write
W = V + \Phi\,
where V is the potential of the gravitational field, W that of the gravity field
, and \Phi that of the centrifugal force field.
The centrifugal force is given by
\mathbf{g}_c = \omega^2 \mathbf{p},
where
\mathbf{p} = X\mathbf{i}+Y\mathbf{j}+0\cdot\mathbf{k}
is the vector pointing to the point considered straight from the Earth's rotatio
nal axis. It can be shown that this pseudo-force field, in a reference frame corotating with the Earth, has a potential associated with it that looks like this

:
\Phi = \frac{1}{2} \omega^2 (X^2+Y^2).
This can be verified by taking the gradient (\nabla) operator of this expression
.
Here, X, Y and Z are geocentric coordinates.
Units of gravity and geopotential
Gravity is commonly measured in units of ms-2 (metres per second squared). This a
lso can be expressed (multiplying by the gravitational constant G in order to ch
ange units) as newtons per kilogram of attracted mass.
Potential is expressed as gravity times distance, m2s-2. Travelling one metre in
the direction of a gravity vector of strength 1 ms-2 will increase your potential
by 1 m2s-2. Again employing G as a multipier, the units can be changed to joules
per kilogram of attracted mass.
A more convenient unit is the GPU, or geopotential unit: it equals 10 m2s-2. This
means that travelling one metre in the vertical direction, i.e., the direction
of the 9.8 ms-2 ambient gravity, will approximately change your potential by 1 GP
U. Which again means that the difference in geopotential, in GPU, of a point wit
h that of sea level can be used as a rough measure of height "above sea level" i
n metres.
The normal potential
To a rough approximation, the Earth is a sphere, or to a much better approximati
on, an ellipsoid. We can similarly approximate the gravity field of the Earth by
a spherically symmetric field:
W \approx \frac{GM}{R}
of which the equipotential surfaces the surfaces of constant potential value are con
centric spheres.
It is more accurate to approximate the geopotential by a field that has the Eart
h reference ellipsoid as one of its equipotential surfaces, however. The most re
cent Earth reference ellipsoid is GRS80, or Geodetic Reference System 1980, whic
h the Global Positioning system uses as its reference. Its geometric parameters
are: semi-major axis a = 6378137.0 m, and flattening f = 1/298.257222101.
A geopotential field U is constructed, being the sum of a gravitational potentia
l \Psi and the known centrifugal potential \Phi, that has the GRS80 reference el
lipsoid as one of its equipotential surfaces. If we also require that the enclos
ed mass is equal to the known mass of the Earth (including atmosphere) GM = 3986
005 108 m3s-2, we obtain for the potential at the reference ellipsoid:
U_0=62636860.850 \ \textrm m^2 \, \textrm s^{-2}
Obviously, this value depends on the assumption that the potential goes asymptot
ically to zero at infinity (R\rightarrow\infty), as is common in physics. For pr
actical purposes it makes more sense to choose the zero point of normal gravity
to be that of the reference ellipsoid, and refer the potentials of other points
to this.
Disturbing potential and geoid
Once a clean, smooth geopotential field U has been constructed matching the know
n GRS80 reference ellipsoid with an equipotential surface (we call such a field
a normal potential) we can subtract it from the true (measured) potential W of t

he real Earth. The result is defined as T, the disturbing potential:

T = W-U
The disturbing potential T is numerically a great deal smaller than U or W, and
captures the detailed, complex variations of the true gravity field of the actua
lly existing Earth from point-to-point, as distinguished from the overall global
trend captured by the smooth mathematical ellipsoid of the normal potential.
Due to the irregularity of the Earth's true gravity field, the equilibrium figur
e of sea water, or the geoid, will also be of irregular form. In some places, li
ke west of Ireland, the geoid mathematical mean sea level sticks out as much as 100
m above the regular, rotationally symmetric reference ellipsoid of GRS80; in oth
er places, like close to Ceylon, it dives under the ellipsoid by nearly the same
amount. The separation between these two surfaces is called the undulation of t
he geoid, symbol N, and is closely related to the disturbing potential.
According to the famous Bruns formula, we have
N=T/\gamma\,,
where \gamma is the force of gravity computed from the normal field potential U.
In 1849, the mathematician George Gabriel Stokes published the following formula
named after him:
N=\frac{R}{4\pi \gamma_0}\iint_\sigma \Delta g \,S(\psi)\, d\sigma.
In this formula, \Delta g stands for gravity anomalies, differences between true
and normal (reference) gravity, and S is the Stokes function, a kernel function
derived by Stokes in closed analytical form. (Note that determining N anywhere
on Earth by this formula requires \Delta g to be known everywhere on Earth. Welc
ome to the role of international co-operation in physical geodesy.)
The geoid, or mathematical mean sea surface, is defined not
t also under land; it is the equilibrium water surface that
sea water be allowed to move freely (e.g., through tunnels)
nically, an equipotential surface of the true geopotential,
on average) with mean sea level.

only on the seas, bu

would result, would
under the land. Tech
chosen to coincide (

As mean sea level is physically realized by tide gauge bench marks on the coasts
of different countries and continents, a number of slightly incompatible "neargeoids" will result, with differences of several decimetres to over one metre be
tween them, due to the dynamic sea surface topography. These are referred to as
vertical or height datums.
For every point on Earth, the local direction of gravity or vertical direction,
materialized with the plumb line, is perpendicular to the geoid. On this is base
d a method, astrogeodetic levelling, for deriving the local figure of the geoid
by measuring deflections of the vertical by astronomical means over an area.
Gravity anomalies
Main article: Gravity anomaly
Above we already made use of gravity anomalies \Delta g. These are computed as t
he differences between true (observed) gravity g=\|\vec{g}\|, and calculated (no
rmal) gravity \gamma=\|\vec{\gamma}\|=\|\nabla U\|. (This is an oversimplificati
on; in practice the location in space at which ? is evaluated will differ slight
ly from that where g has been measured.) We thus get
\Delta g = g - \gamma.\,

These anomalies are called free-air anomalies, and are the ones to be used in th
e above Stokes equation.
In geophysics, these anomalies are often further reduced by removing from them t
he attraction of the topography, which for a flat, horizontal plate (Bouguer pla
te) of thickness H is given by
a_B=2\pi G\rho H,\,
The Bouguer reduction to be applied as follows:
\Delta g_B = \Delta g_{FA} - a_B,\,
so-called Bouguer anomalies. Here, \Delta g_{FA} is our earlier \Delta g, the fr
ee-air anomaly.
In case the terrain is not a flat plate (the usual case!) we use for H the local
terrain height value but apply a further correction called the terrain correcti
on (TC).
See also
LAGEOS
Friedrich Robert Helmert
Geophysics
Gravity of Earth
gravimetry
satellite geodesy
References
B. Hofmann-Wellenhof and H. Moritz, Physical Geodesy, Springer-Verlag Wien,
2005. (This text is an updated edition of the 1967 classic by W.A. Heiskanen and
H. Moritz).
Categories:
Geodesy
Gravitation
Geophysics
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