Open AccessGravity field aspects from a topological invariant
Author(s) -
Bocchio F.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
geophysical journal international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.302
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1365-246X
pISSN - 0956-540X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-246x.1990.tb04578.x
Subject(s) - geopotential , gravitational field , equipotential , geodesy , geometry , curvature , equipotential surface , ellipsoid , gravitation , gravity anomaly , physics , geophysics , classical mechanics , geology , mathematics , optics , amplitude , quantum mechanics
SUMMARY It is shown that on near‐Earth geopotential surfaces, curves exist along which gravity is GM /r 1 r 2 , where r 1 , r 2 are the principal radii of curvature of the surfaces and GM the geocentric gravitational constant. As an example the case of the gravity field on the equipotential ellipsoid is considered.