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

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An Erratum to this article was published on 16 September 2011

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.

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Dr. Bernd Wolters for his editorial advice to improve this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geophysics Engineering Department, Karadeniz Technical University, 61080, Trabzon, Turkey

    Hasan Çavşak

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  1. Hasan Çavşak
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Correspondence to Hasan Çavşak.

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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00024-011-0389-9.

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Çavşak, H. The Effects of the Earth’s Curvature on Gravity and Geoid Calculations. Pure Appl. Geophys. 169, 733–740 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-011-0353-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-011-0353-8

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