Figure of the Earth
Videos
In geodesy, the figure of the Earth is the size and shape used to model planet Earth. The kind of figure depends on application, including the precision needed for the model. A spherical Earth is a we
A view across a 20-km-wide bay in the coast of Spain. The curvature of the Earth is evident in the horizon across the image, and the bases of the buildings on the far shore are below that horizon and hidden by the sea.
Geoid
Videos
The geoid is the shape that the ocean surface would take under the influence of the gravity of Earth, including gravitational attraction and Earth's rotation, if other influences such as winds and tid
Figure of the Earth
…the purely local. Better approximations can be made by modeling the entire surface as an oblate spheroid, using spherical harmonics to approximate the geoid, or modeling a region with a best-fit reference ellipsoid. For surveys of small areas, a planar (flat) model of Earth's surface suffices because the…
Geoid undulation in pseudocolor, shaded relief and vertical exaggeration (10000 vertical scaling factor)
Geoid undulation in pseudocolor, without vertical exaggeration
Three-dimensional visualization of gravity anomalies in units of Gal., using pseudo color and shaded relief.