The development of artificial satellites whose orbits could be observed from Earth totally revolutionized man’s ability to define the shape of Earth and its gravity field. A value for the flattening of the ellipsoid that superseded all previous values was obtained within weeks after the launching of the Soviet Sputnik I in 1957. Since that time, scientists have repeatedly refined the geoid with observations from a succession of Earth-orbiting satellites.

As a satellite moves through Earth’s gravitational field, it experiences forces, in addition to the central attraction, because of irregularities in that field. These forces perturb the orbit of the satellite from the simple form given by Johannes Kepler’s laws of planetary motion.

It is usual to start with an expression for the potential U of Earth’s gravitational field, in spherical coordinates (r,θ,λ), with origin at the mass centre of Earth. The gravitational potential U satisfies Laplace’s equation, a widely used second-order partial differential equation named after the 18th-century French mathematician and astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace. Accordingly, it can be expressed as a sum of spherical harmonics (a series of terms by which a variation of a quantity over the surface of a spherical or nearly spherical body such as Earth can be expressed mathematically to any desired degree of accuracy):where M = the mass of Earth; G = the gravitational constant; a = the equatorial radius of Earth; θ = colatitude; and λ = longitude measured from an arbitrary meridian. The functions P_l (cos θ) and P_l^m (cos θ) are Legendre polynomials and Legendre associated polynomials (particular solutions of Laplace’s equation), respectively. The quantities J_{l, o} and J_{l, m} are dimensionless numbers whose magnitudes give the relative importance of the different spherical harmonic terms (or “wavelengths”) in the potential field. They were so designated in honour of Sir Harold Jeffreys, a pioneer in the analysis of the gravitational field in the presatellite era. Two features of equation (7) are important. First, if all of the J’s were zero, U would have spherical symmetry and a satellite would move in a constant elliptical orbit, as deduced by Kepler. Properties of this orbit would yield a value for the product MG, but not for M or G separately. Similarly, all observations on actual orbits give the product MG; the mass of Earth can be determined only when G is measured independently. Second, equation (7) contains no terms in l = 1; this is a consequence of the selection of the mass centre of Earth as origin, with all first moments of mass about that origin vanishing.

The most important term in the summations is that involving J_{2, o}. Inserting the value of P₂ (cos θ), the contribution to the potential is seen to be

The derivative of this expression with respect to θ is the force per unit mass acting on the satellite in the direction of increasing θ.

Physically, the term represents the effect on the potential of the ellipsoidal shape of Earth, and it is not surprising, therefore, that J_{2, o}, known as the dynamical form factor, is closely related to the flattening f. In fact,where m is the quantity introduced in equation (3).

As a satellite in an inclined orbit passes over the equatorial region of Earth, it experiences a force toward the Equator as a result of the mass in the equatorial bulge. This force represents a torque about the origin, and as in the case of the spinning top or gyroscope, the application of the torque causes the rotation axis of the satellite (normal to the plane of the orbit) to precess about Earth’s rotation axis. The plane of the orbit therefore precesses, resulting in changes in the satellite’s path that can be observed from Earth with a high degree of accuracy.

Analysis of the dynamics gives the angular velocity of precession, ω, aswhere g_r is the value of g at satellite height and i is the inclination of the orbit. The numerical value of J_{2, o} is approximately 0.001; for a satellite at the height of roughly 740 kilometres, with i = 20°, equation (9) gives ω as 6.5° per day. Since the precession persists over the life of the satellite, the rate can be observed with great accuracy.

The higher degree zonal spherical harmonics (the first summation) in equation (7) lead to perturbations of the orbit in the precessing orbital plane. To achieve high accuracy in satellite tracking, special satellites carrying reflectors have been employed in conjunction with ground stations equipped with lasers that may be beamed at such satellites. The time that it takes for a laser pulse to travel to a satellite and back gives its instantaneous distance from the station. This technique represents an advance over an earlier method of geometric satellite geodesy in which a satellite was photographed simultaneously from a number of stations on Earth against a background of stars. That method did not require a precise knowledge of a satellite’s orbit and permitted the location of an unknown station on Earth to be fixed relative to known stations. The simultaneous measurement of the distance from ground stations to satellites (i.e., satellite trilateration) allows points on Earth to be precisely located when the orbit is well determined, but the latter, as indicated above, depends on a knowledge of the gravitational field being sought in the experiment. The solution to this apparent paradox is for sufficient observations to be obtained to permit the optimum determination of both station coordinates in a global system and orbital parameter simultaneously.

A pioneer satellite designed for geodetic purposes was Lageos (Laser Geodynamic Satellite), launched by the United States on May 4, 1976, into a nearly circular orbit at a height of approximately 6,000 kilometres. It consisted of an aluminum sphere 60 centimetres (23.6 inches) in diameter that carried 426 reflectors suitable for reflecting laser beams back along their paths. The relatively high elevation was chosen to minimize both the effects of atmospheric drag and local gravity anomalies. Height, however, also attenuates the very effects that are sought, for, as equation (7) indicates, these decrease with increasing values of r. Satellites are therefore most effective at providing values of J_{l, o} to about l = 16 (a wavelength on the order of 2,500 kilometres). For larger values of l, measurements of gravity on Earth’s surface, reduced to mean values representative of 1° × 1° areas, must be used.

The tesseral harmonics in equation (7), those terms involving J_{l, m}, present an additional difficulty. Because the terms represent contributions to the potential having a longitude dependence, their effect in general is averaged out as Earth rotates under a satellite. The only exception is if the orbit and period of the satellite are such that the satellite tracks over points on Earth equally separated in longitude, repeating each track precisely after an integral number of cycles. Such a satellite is said to be resonant to a particular value of m. Values of m for which resonant satellites can be found are limited, lying between 9 and 15. For other tesseral harmonics, observations of surface gravity must again be used.

A great advantage of the spherical harmonic expansion is that there is a simple relationship between weighting functions in the geoid undulations, N_l,m; gravity anomalies, Δg_{l, m}; and the J_{l, m} terms. It is

Equation (10) is an approximation to the extent that mean values of radius, a, and gravity, g, have been used. For the construction of maps of the geoid, however, it is usually sufficiently accurate, and it indicates clearly how the undulation coefficients N_{l, m} can be obtained either from the gravity anomalies Δg or from the terms J_{l, m} determined by satellites. The global map of the geoid is obtained by synthesizing the spherical harmonics, weighted by N_{l, m}, up to the maximum values of l and m available from the analysis of the observations.

Equation (10) is also useful for predicting the general nature of a map of the geoid, as contrasted to a map of gravity anomalies Δg. Each term in the expansion of N is reduced by the factor 1/(l − 1) in comparison with the corresponding term in Δg. As l increases, the reduction becomes more significant in that local effects do not appear on the geoidal map.

A geoid was determined from a combination of satellite observations, including Lageos, and surface measurements of gravity. The departures of the geoid from the ellipsoid ranged up to about 100 metres, the most pronounced inward warp lying just south of India. There was no obvious direct correlation between continents and oceans, but there were correlations with some of the major features of global tectonics.

Radar altimetry of the ocean surface

As noted above, the geoid over the oceans coincides with mean sea level, provided the dynamic effects of winds, tides, and currents are removed. The surface of the sea acts as a reflector for radar waves, and a satellite equipped with a radar altimeter can be used to sound from the satellite’s instantaneous position to the sea. The accuracy with which the sea surface can be reconstructed depends on how precisely the satellite orbit is known, and the reduction of the dynamic effects on the sea surface (waves and semidiurnal and diurnal tides) depends on averaging—over several days—of heights obtained from successive passes over identical points on Earth.

The first satellite dedicated to mapping the ocean surface was Seasat 1, launched by the United States on June 26, 1978. Seasat was operational until October 10, 1978, and reproduced its path over Earth every three days. It sampled elevation every three kilometres along the track and thereby provided average ocean heights for literally millions of points on the sea surface. The precision of a single determination of satellite height above the ocean surface was a few centimetres.

A global map was produced from 18-day averages of Seasat elevations. While it was not strictly the geoid, because long-term dynamic effects such as those of currents had not been averaged out, it was very close to it. Comparisons between the Seasat map and the geoids determined by the method described above showed agreement to about one metre, which was estimated to be the maximum dynamic effect on sea surface “topography.” The differences between true geoidal maps and maps of the sea surface are expected eventually to form a powerful tool for physical oceanography. Thus far, the main contribution of Seasat has been to provide a direct visual confirmation of the reality of the oceanic geoid and observations of higher resolution of some parts of the world ocean.