The Effects of the Earth's Curvature on Gravity and Geoid Calculations

Cavsak H.

PURE AND APPLIED GEOPHYSICS, vol.169, no.4, pp.733-740, 2012 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 169 Issue: 4
  • Publication Date: 2012
  • Doi Number: 10.1007/s00024-011-0353-8
  • Journal Name: PURE AND APPLIED GEOPHYSICS
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.733-740
  • Karadeniz Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

While it is obvious that large-scale gravity studies should account for the sphericity of the Earth, each case should be examined. If a geometry model is very large for the 3D-gravity calculation, it cannot be correctly defined in Cartesian coordinates. Because of the Earth's curvature it is necessary to use spherical coordinates, the importance of which is shown in this paper. The calculation of the gravity for a cylinder reveals, 1 m above the center of the cylinder, a relative difference of 13% between the models with Cartesian and spherical coordinates.