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Geodesy

Geodesy is the science of measuring and representing the Earth's geometry, gravity, and spatial orientation in three dimensions, and it also applies to other celestial bodies. It encompasses both theoretical and practical aspects, including the study of Earth's shape, gravitational field, and geodynamical phenomena through various techniques and coordinate systems. The geoid and reference ellipsoid are key concepts in geodesy, with the former representing the Earth's mean sea level and the latter serving as a mathematical model for geodetic calculations.

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3 views

Geodesy

Geodesy is the science of measuring and representing the Earth's geometry, gravity, and spatial orientation in three dimensions, and it also applies to other celestial bodies. It encompasses both theoretical and practical aspects, including the study of Earth's shape, gravitational field, and geodynamical phenomena through various techniques and coordinate systems. The geoid and reference ellipsoid are key concepts in geodesy, with the former representing the Earth's mean sea level and the latter serving as a mathematical model for geodetic calculations.

Uploaded by

Alejandro Carlos Calero
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Geodesy or geodetics[1] is the science of measuring and representing the geometry,

gravity, and spatial orientation of the Earth in temporally varying 3D. It is


called planetary geodesy when studying other astronomical bodies, such as planets
or circumplanetary systems.[2] Geodesy is an earth science and many consider the
study of Earth's shape and gravity to be central to that science.[3][4] It is also
a discipline of applied mathematics.[5][6]

Geodynamical phenomena, including crustal motion, tides, and polar motion, can be
studied by designing global and national control networks, applying space geodesy
and terrestrial geodetic techniques, and relying on datums and coordinate systems.
Geodetic job titles include geodesist and geodetic surveyor.[7]

History
Main article: History of geodesy
Geodesy began in pre-scientific antiquity, so the very word geodesy comes from the
Ancient Greek word γεωδαισία or geodaisia (literally, "division of Earth").[8]

Early ideas about the figure of the Earth held the Earth to be flat and the heavens
a physical dome spanning over it.[9] Two early arguments for a spherical Earth were
that lunar eclipses appear to an observer as circular shadows and that Polaris
appears lower and lower in the sky to a traveler headed South.[10]

Definition
In English, geodesy refers to the science of measuring and representing geospatial
information, while geomatics encompasses practical applications of geodesy on local
and regional scales, including surveying.

In German, geodesy can refer to either higher geodesy (höhere Geodäsie or


Erdmessung, literally "geomensuration") — concerned with measuring Earth on the
global scale, or engineering geodesy (Ingenieurgeodäsie) that includes surveying —
measuring parts or regions of Earth.

For the longest time, geodesy was the science of measuring and understanding
Earth's geometric shape, orientation in space, and gravitational field; however,
geodetic science and operations are applied to other astronomical bodies in our
Solar System also.[2]

To a large extent, Earth's shape is the result of rotation, which causes its
equatorial bulge, and the competition of geological processes such as the collision
of plates, as well as of volcanism, resisted by Earth's gravitational field. This
applies to the solid surface, the liquid surface (dynamic sea surface topography),
and Earth's atmosphere. For this reason, the study of Earth's gravitational field
is called physical geodesy.

Geoid and reference ellipsoid


Main articles: Geoid and Reference ellipsoid

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Geoid, an approximation for the shape of the Earth; shown here with vertical
exaggeration (10000 vertical scaling factor).

Ellipsoid - a mathematical representation of the Earth. When mapping in geodetic


coordinates, a latitude circle forms a truncated cone.

Equatorial (a), polar (b) and mean Earth radii as defined in the 1984 World
Geodetic System
The geoid essentially is the figure of Earth abstracted from its topographical
features. It is an idealized equilibrium surface of seawater, the mean sea level
surface in the absence of currents and air pressure variations, and continued under
the continental masses. Unlike a reference ellipsoid, the geoid is irregular and
too complicated to serve as the computational surface for solving geometrical
problems like point positioning. The geometrical separation between the geoid and a
reference ellipsoid is called geoidal undulation, and it varies globally between
±110 m based on the GRS 80 ellipsoid.

A reference ellipsoid, customarily chosen to be the same size (volume) as the


geoid, is described by its semi-major axis (equatorial radius) a and flattening f.
The quantity f =
a − b
/
a
, where b is the semi-minor axis (polar radius), is purely geometrical. The
mechanical ellipticity of Earth (dynamical flattening, symbol J2) can be determined
to high precision by observation of satellite orbit perturbations. Its relationship
with geometrical flattening is indirect and depends on the internal density
distribution or, in simplest terms, the degree of central concentration of mass.

The 1980 Geodetic Reference System (GRS 80), adopted at the XVII General Assembly
of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), posited a 6,378,137 m
semi-major axis and a 1:298.257 flattening. GRS 80 essentially constitutes the
basis for geodetic positioning by the Global Positioning System (GPS) and is thus
also in widespread use outside the geodetic community. Numerous systems used for
mapping and charting are becoming obsolete as countries increasingly move to
global, geocentric reference systems utilizing the GRS 80 reference ellipsoid.

The geoid is a "realizable" surface, meaning it can be consistently located on


Earth by suitable simple measurements from physical objects like a tide gauge. The
geoid can, therefore, be considered a physical ("real") surface. The reference
ellipsoid, however, has many possible instantiations and is not readily realizable,
so it is an abstract surface. The third primary surface of geodetic interest — the
topographic surface of Earth — is also realizable.

Coordinate systems in space


Main article: Geodetic system
Further information: World Geodetic System

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citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
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Datum shift between NAD27 and NAD83, in metres


The locations of points in 3D space most conveniently are described by three
cartesian or rectangular coordinates, X, Y, and Z. Since the advent of satellite
positioning, such coordinate systems are typically geocentric, with the Z-axis
aligned to Earth's (conventional or instantaneous) rotation axis.

Before the era of satellite geodesy, the coordinate systems associated with a
geodetic datum attempted to be geocentric, but with the origin differing from the
geocenter by hundreds of meters due to regional deviations in the direction of the
plumbline (vertical). These regional geodetic datums, such as ED 50 (European Datum
1950) or NAD 27 (North American Datum 1927), have ellipsoids associated with them
that are regional "best fits" to the geoids within their areas of validity,
minimizing the deflections of the vertical over these areas.
It is only because GPS satellites orbit about the geocenter that this point becomes
naturally the origin of a coordinate system defined by satellite geodetic means, as
the satellite positions in space themselves get computed within such a system.

Geocentric coordinate systems used in geodesy can be divided naturally into two
classes:

The inertial reference systems, where the coordinate axes retain their orientation
relative to the fixed stars or, equivalently, to the rotation axes of ideal
gyroscopes. The X-axis points to the vernal equinox.
The co-rotating reference systems (also ECEF or "Earth Centred, Earth Fixed"), in
which the axes are "attached" to the solid body of Earth. The X-axis lies within
the Greenwich observatory's meridian plane.
The coordinate transformation between these two systems to good approximation is
described by (apparent) sidereal time, which accounts for variations in Earth's
axial rotation (length-of-day variations). A more accurate description also
accounts for polar motion as a phenomenon closely monitored by geodesists.

Coordinate systems in the plane


Main article: Horizontal position

2D grid for elliptical coordinates

A Munich archive with lithography plates of maps of Bavaria


In geodetic applications like surveying and mapping, two general types of
coordinate systems in the plane are in use:

Plano-polar, with points in the plane defined by their distance, s, from a


specified point along a ray having a direction α from a baseline or axis.
Rectangular, with points defined by distances from two mutually perpendicular axes,
x and y. Contrary to the mathematical convention, in geodetic practice, the x-axis
points North and the y-axis East.
One can intuitively use rectangular coordinates in the plane for one's current
location, in which case the x-axis will point to the local north. More formally,
such coordinates can be obtained from 3D coordinates using the artifice of a map
projection. It is impossible to map the curved surface of Earth onto a flat map
surface without deformation. The compromise most often chosen — called a conformal
projection — preserves angles and length ratios so that small circles get mapped as
small circles and small squares as squares.

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