Fundamental geodetic parameters of the earth's figure and the structure of the earth's gravity field derived from satellite data

Summary

Using the geocentric constant GM=398 601.3 × 10⁹m³s⁻², the known value of the angular velocity of the Earth's rotation ω, Stokes' constants J ^(k)_n and S ^(k)_n upto n=21 (zonal), n=16 (tesseral and sectorial) [2], the geocentric co-ordinates and heights above sea-level of SAO satellite stations [2], the following will be derived: the potential on the geoid W_o, the scale factor for lengths R_o=GM/W_o, the radius-vector of the surface W=W_o, the parameters of the best-fitting Earth tri-axial ellipsoid, and the components of the deflections of the vertical with respect to the geocentric rotational IAG ellipsoid (Lucerne 1967), as well as to the best-fitting geocentric tri-axial ellipsoid. Some of the differences in the structure of the gravity field over the Northern and Southern Hemispheres will be given, and the mean values of gravity over the equatorial zone, determined from the dynamics of satellite orbits, on the one hand, and from terrestrial gravity data, on the other, will be compared.