Chapter Two

Physical Geodesy
2.1 Introduction
• Physical Geodesy: concerned with determining
gravity field of the Earth which is necessary for
establishing heights and determining the physical
shape/ figure of the Earth.

• Why should gravity enter in Geodesy?

It's because many geodetic instruments use gravity

as a reference.
 Cont’d
• For example, when geodesists or surveyors say
a surface is horizontal, what they really mean is
that it is a surface of constant gravitational
potential.

• So, geodesists have always had to measure

gravity in addition to relative positions, which
is why gravity has historically come under the
heading of geodesy.
 Cont’d
- Why physical Geodesy?
In a quest to determine the shape of the earth,
knowledge on the characteristic of the gravity
field is needed, such as :
Gravity field structure
Geoid undulating
Gravimetric vertical deflection, and
Earth’s flattening
 Cont’d
• In physical geodesy context,

Gravity is the resultant force of the earth’s

attraction force and the centrifugal force due
to the earth’s rotation.
Cont’d
 Cont’d
Components of the Earth’s Gravitational Field
• A body rotating with the earth experiences the
gravitational forces of the earth and of other
celestial bodies, as well as the centrifugal
force due to the earth's rotation.

• The resultant force is the force of gravity. It is a

function of position, but also undergoes temporal
variations.
 Cont’d
Gravity
Gravity value much influence by :
• texture and distribution of the earth’s mass
• variation of the earth rotation due to time factor
Measured gravity will contained :
• location of the observation area/site
• earth’s mass distribution on the earth’s surface
meant for geophysical use.
2.2 Theory of earth figure
• The Geoid is the surface of constant potential
energy that coincides with mean sea level over the
oceans.

• Potential Energy refers to the gravitational plus

centrifugal potential energy.

• The main function of the Geoid in physical

geodesy is to serve as a reference surface for
leveling.
 Cont’d
• To find the actual shape of the earth the
shape of the geoid has to be determined first
and, for that, gravity observations has to
be made.
 Cont’d
• The Geoid is the surface:

Along which gravity is always equal and

To which the direction of gravity is always perpendicular

To which the oceans would conform over the entire

earth’s mass attraction and the centrifugal force of the
earth’s rotation.

• Universal distribution of earth’s mass makes the geoid

surface irregular.
Cont’d
 Cont’d
• Due to the surface irregularity, Geoid surface has

some serious limitations

It has no complete mathematical expressions

Small variations in surface shape over time introduces

some errors in measurements.

It necessitates a prohibitive amount of computations

 Cont’d
The Gravity Field

• The law of gravitational attraction was

formulated by Isaac Newton (1642 –1727)
and published in 1687 after Galileo Galilei
determined the magnitude of the gravitational
acceleration.
 Cont’d
• Gravity is the force exerted on a mass m due to
the combination of:
1. The gravitational attraction of the earth, with
mass 𝑴𝑬 and
2. The rotation of the earth, which in turn results
The centrifugal force due to rotation with angular
velocity ω
The existence of an equatorial bulge that resulted
from the balance between self gravitation and rotation.
 Cont’d
• Newton made fundamental observations on gravitation:
• The force between two attracting bodies is proportional
to the individual masses

• The force is inversely proportional to the square of the

distance

• The force is directed along the line connecting the two

bodies.
 Cont’d
Mathematically,
F = Gm1m2/r2
Where

• G is the gravitational constant or Newton constant = 6.67

 10-11 N m2 kg-2,

• mass of the Earth = 6.0  1024 kg

• radius of the Earth = 6.4  106 m

 Cont’d
Examples
1. Communications satellites orbit the Earth at a height
of 36 000 km. How far is this from the centre of the
Earth? If such a satellite has a mass of 250 kg, what is
the force of attraction on it from the Earth?
 Cont’d
Solution

• It is (3.6 x 107 m + 6.4 x 106 m) = 4.24 x 107 m from the

centre of the Earth.

• The force is

F = Gm1m2/r2

= (6.67 x 10-11 x 6.0 x 1024 x 250)/ (4.24 x 107)2.

= 56 N
 Cont’d
2. The average force of attraction on the Moon from the Sun
is 4.4  1020 N. Taking the distance from the Sun to the Moon
to be about the same as that from the Sun to the Earth, what
value of mass does this give for the Moon?

Solution
m2 = Fr2/Gm1
= (4.4 x 1020 x (1.5 x 1011)2)/(6.67 x 10-11 x 2.0 x 1030)
= 7.4 x 1022 kg
 Cont’d
Exercise

1. What is the force of attraction between the Earth and

the Sun?

• Mass of the Sun = 2 x 1030 kg, mass of the Earth = 6 x

1024 kg, distance from the Earth to the Sun = 1.5 x 1011 m
 Cont’d
The Gravitational Force (F)

• The gravitational force between any two particles with

(point) masses M at position 𝑟0 and at position separated by
a distance r is an attraction along a line joining the particles.

𝑴𝒎
F =G
𝒓𝟐

or, in vector form: Where;

𝑴𝒎 G= 6.67  10-11 N m2 kg-2,

F=-G (r-𝑟0 )
||r−𝑟0 ||𝟑 Mass of the Earth = 6.0  1024 kg
 Cont’d

Where
𝑟 ′ = a unit vector in the direction of ( r-𝑟0 )

Vector diagram showing the geometry of the

gravitational attraction.
 Cont’d
• The minus sign accounts for the fact that the
force vector points inward (i.e., towards M)
whereas the unit vector points outward (away
from M ).

• In the following we will place M at the origin of

our coordinate system and take 𝑟0 at o to
simplify the equations (e.g., r -𝑟0 = r and the
unit vector 𝑟 ′ becomes ȓ).
 Cont’d
• Simplified coordinate system

• G is the universal gravitational constant:

6.67  10-11 N m2 kg-2, which has the same
value for all pairs of particles.
 Cont’d
•G must not be confused with g, the
gravitational acceleration, or force of a unit
mass due to gravity, for which an expression
can be obtained by using Newton’s law of
motion.

• If M is the mass of Earth:

𝑴𝒎 ′ 𝑴
F=ma=mg= -G 𝟐 𝒓 =g=||g||=G 𝟐
𝒓 𝒓
 Cont’d
• The acceleration g is the length of a vector g
(the gravitational acceleration per unit mass)
and is by definition always positive: g>0 .

• We define the vector g as the gravity field and

take, by convention, g positive towards the
center of the Earth, i.e., in the - r direction.
 Cont’d
• The Centrifugal Acceleration (Ω) and Centrifugal
Potential (ɸ) is a result of the rotation of the earth with
angular velocity ω about its axis.

 The Centrifugal Acceleration (Ω)

Ω = ω2 p ,

where p = 𝑥 2 + 𝑦 2
 Cont’d
 The Centrifugal Potential (ɸ)

𝟏
ɸ = ω2 𝒑𝟐
𝟐

• For points on the equator of the earth, the centrifugal

potential has a value of ɸ=1.1x105 𝑚2 /𝑠 2 and centrifugal
acceleration is Ω=0.03m/s2 (about 0.3% 0f gravitation).

• At the poles ɸ = 0 and Ω = 0.

Cont’d
 Cont’d
Gravity potential (U)
• By virtue of its position in the gravity field g due to mass M,
any mass has gravitational potential energy.
• This energy can be regarded as the work done(W) on a mass
by the gravitational force due to M in moving from 𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑓 to r
where one often takes 𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑓 =∞.
• The gravitational potential U is the potential energy in the
field due to M per unit mass.
 Cont’d

• The potential is a scalar field which is typically easier to

handle than vector fields. And, as we will see below, from
the scalar potential we can readily derive the vector field
anyway.
 Cont’d

Gravitational Potential (U) is negative when mass m

approaches the earth, its potential energy decreases while
its gravitational acceleration increases.
 Cont’d
• Earth models to determine the shape of the geoid
and its relation to measured (observed) gravity
are:
A. Spherically symmetric, Non rotating Earth Model
B. Spherically symmetric, Rotating Earth Model
C. Elliptically symmetric, Rotating Earth Model

Reading Assignment

• Read the models in detail

2.3 Physical Geodesy Problems

• The geoid is the surface of constant potential

energy that coincides with mean sea level over
the oceans.

• This is a standard definition of the geoid, but it

is a sloppy definition.

• For one thing, mean sea level is not quite a

surface of constant potential, due to dynamic
process within the ocean.
 Cont’d
• For another thing, wherever there are
continents, the geoid lies beneath the earth’s
surface.

• As a result, the actual equal potential surface

under continents is warped by the gravitational
attraction of the overlying mass.
 Cont’d
• Geodetic coordinates: latitude
 Cont’d
• Longitude measured by time difference of
astronomical events
 Cont’d
• The “problem” arises because we’re defining the
“location” (latitude) based on the orientation of
the “surface” of the earth (not the ellipsoid)
at the point where we want to determine the
location.

• “shape” of the surface of the earth - with the

variations greatly exaggerated.
 Cont’d
• For now we’re not being very specific about
what the surface represents/how it is defined.

(Assuming vertical perpendicular to

“level”.)
 Cont’d
• This means that we have to take the “shape” of
the surface into account in defining our
reference frame.

• We are still not even considering the vertical.

• We’re still only discussing the problem of 2-D

location on the surface of the earth.
 Cont’d
• Traditional approach was to define local/regional
datums (flattening, size, origin – typically not
earth centered, orientation).
 Cont’d
• These datums were “best fits” for the regions
that they covered.

• They could be quite bad (up to 1 km error)

outside those regions. However, These datums
are also not “earth centered” (origin not
center of mass of earth).

• Converting from one to another not trivial in

practice.
 Cont’d
• Real shape can also have uniqueness problem –
using level - more than one spot with same
“latitude”!
 Cont’d

• “Modern” solution is an earth centered Global

“best fit” ellipsoid to the shape of the earth –
the geoid.
 Cont’d
• Here we introduce the “thing” that defines the
“shape” of the earth – the GEOID.

• The geoid is what defines the local vertical

(and where gravity sneaks in).

• The geoid is a physical thing (like the

topographic surface)– an equipotential of
the gravity field.
 Cont’d
• But we may not be able to “locate” it (can’t see
it like we can the topographic surface). So we
have to make a “model” for the geoid.

• Here we introduce the concept of “physical”

vs “geometric” position.
 Cont’d
• The geoid gives a physical definition of
position.

• The ellipsoid gives a geometric definition of

position.
 Cont’d
• Geocentric coordinates (, , h) (this is based
on standard spherical coordinate system with
h=R-Re, height is clearly defined, simple to
understand).
 Cont’d
• For the Ellipsoid coordinates (, , h) –
Ellipsoidal/Geodetic height.

• Distance of a point from the ellipsoid measured

along the perpendicular from the ellipsoid to
this point.
Cont’d
 Cont’d
• For the Geoid things get a little more interesting

• The height is the distance of a point from the

geoid measured along the perpendicular from
the geoid (direction from gravity) to this point.

• Notice that – the height above the geoid may

not be/is not the same as the ellipsoid height
and that height above the geoid may not be
unique.
 Cont’d
• when we use a level to find the vertical
(traditional surveying) we are measuring with
respect to the geoid.

• This brings us to a fundamental problem in

Physical Geodesy.
Cont’d
 Cont’d
• The geoid is a representation of the surface the
earth would have if the sea covered the earth.

• This is not the surface one would get if one

poured more water on the earth until there is no
more dry land!

• It is the shape a fluid Earth (of the correct

volume) would have if that fluid Earth had exactly
the same gravity field as the actual Earth.
 Cont’d
• Since water is a fluid, it cannot support shear
stresses.

• This means that the surface of the sea (or of a

lake, or of water in a bucket, etc.) will be
perpendicular to the force of gravity - an
equipotential surface (or else it will flow until the
surface of the body of water is everywhere in this
state).
 Cont’d
• The geoid is a representation of the surface the
earth would have if a sea covered an earth with
the same gravity field.

• It is the shape a fluid Earth would have if it had

exactly the same gravity field as the actual
Earth.

• The definition is clear concise, and well defined

physically.
 Cont’d
• Problems arise when trying to find where this surface
actually physically resides due to things like- currents, winds,
tides effecting “sea level” where is this imaginary surface
located on land? (generally below the land surface – except
when the land surface is below sea level,

• e.g. Death Valley, Dead Sea - it is the level of fluid in channels

cut through the land [approximately].)
 Cont’d

So – what does this surface – the geoid – actually

look like? (greatly exaggerated in the vertical)
Thanks