Open AccessReports on the Progress of Geophysics: Developments in Dynamical Geodesy *
Author(s) -
Cook A. H.
Publication year - 1959
Publication title -
geophysical journal of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.302
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1365-246X
pISSN - 0016-8009
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-246x.1959.tb05795.x
Subject(s) - figure of the earth , geodesy , geodetic datum , gravimetry , gravitational field , satellite geodesy , geophysics , geology , spherical harmonics , free air gravity anomaly , radius , triangulation , gravity of earth , earth radius , gravity anomaly , physics , bouguer anomaly , geometry , classical mechanics , magnetic field , mathematics , paleontology , computer security , oil field , computer science , magnetosphere , quantum mechanics , reservoir modeling , geotechnical engineering
Summary Progress in dynamical geodesy over the last ten years is reviewed with particular attention to the significance of observations of the orbits of artificial satellites and of direct measurement of the distance of the Moon by radar. As a result of these observations together with a great increase in the number of gravity observations, especially at sea, and with more extensive areas of geodetic triangulation, the ellipticity of the Earth can be determined to one part in 3000 and the radius to a few parts in 1. It is suggested that the Earth's gravitational field should be specified by the parameter J in the spherical harmonic expansion rather than by the derived ellipticity and that the mean rather than the equatorial values of the radius and sea‐level gravity should be employed.