Gravity field of theEarth
• Newton’s law of universal gravitation – force of gravity –
proportional to the product of body masses – inversely
proportional to the square of distance between them
F = gravitational attraction between two masses
m1, m2 = masses of two bodies
r = distance between the centers of masses
G = universal gravitational constant
Contd….
This equation is accurate if the masses are point masses, i.e.; all
the mass of a body is assigned to the point at its center.
Not valid for real shapes – however accurate for spherical solid
bodies of constant density
For Earth – not good assumption – allow rough estimation
Contd…
Eq. 2 is vector form the Eq. 1, direction represented by a unit vector
For gravitation unit vector points from smaller mass to larger
Contd…
Newton’s second law of motion: F = m x a .. (Eq.3)
Combining equations (2) and (3) for the smaller mass
Contd…
Similarly,
Refer to equations (5) and (6) implies if m1 is much less
than m2, so
a2 is much less than a1 and vice versa
Contd…
For spherical earth
• G = 6.673 x 10-11 m3/s2kg
• m = 5.972 × 1024 kg
r = 6,371,000.79 m
• a = gravitational acceleration of any object
near to the Earth is 9.82 m/s2
Usually rounded to 10 m/s2 or 9.8 m/s2 directed towards
the Earth’s center
Contd…
For rough estimate – spherical
earth is fine
Better estimate – with ellipsoid
Equatorial radius > polar radius
Difference = 21 km (13.3 miles)
Two radii – key parameters to define
modern ellipsoidal datum
The difference implies that gravitation
acceleration vary with location
Newtonian Gravitational Attraction
• putting M = *v
– : mean density of the Earth
– v: volume of the Earth
• g = G v/r2
• Taking
– the mean density of the earth as 5.517 +/-
0.004,
• g is only dependent on the value of r,
the radius of the earth which is larger
at equator than at poles
Contd….
• The gravitational attraction has units m/s^2.
• In geodesy, normally the unit Gal, named after Galileo
Contd…
• So the value of g at equator (~978cm/sec2) is less than that at poles
(~983cm/sec2) at sea levels.
• In the open air above sea level the value of g decreases with height by
about 1 gal per 3250 meters.
• The density distribution of the earth is not even due to the topographic as
well as the interior structure of the earth so the value of g varies with the
variation in density.
• When the observations are made on land the space between the sea level
and the ground level is not filled with air but with rock which increases the
value of g
So what is Gravity???
• The Earth’s gravity is the sum of gravitational attraction and
centrifugal force that the Earth exerts on an object on or near
its surface.
• i.e. Gravity = gravitational attraction + centrifugal attraction
• Its strength is quoted as an object acceleration being
approximately 9.8m/s2.
• The precise strength and direction of the Earth’s gravity
vary from point to point
Gravitational Potential
• Gravitational Potential V is equal to the work done in taking a unit mass
from infinity to a point P without any changes in kinetic energy (i.e speed
remains constant). Why ΔK.E = 0
Center o f
Earth
Fexternal
∞
Small mass(m)
Earth Point P
𝐺𝑀
𝑉𝑝 = − Note:
𝑟 • Gravitational potential is a scalar
Why -ve quantity
Gravitational acceleration and Gravitational potential
• And to get the gravitational acceleration (b) from the potential we
have to take the gradient of the potential (V)
i.e b = 𝛻 𝑉 𝑜𝑟 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑑 𝑉
𝜕 𝜕 𝜕
so , 𝛻 𝑉 𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧 = 𝑉 + 𝑉 + 𝑉
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑧
Centrifugal acceleration and Centrifugal potential
• The centrifugal force arises as a result of the rotation of the
earth about its axis
• Angular velocity 𝜔 about the rotational axis of earth
• So, the centrifugal acceleration (z)
z = 𝜔2𝑝 p
where, 𝜔 = 7.29215 * 10 ^-5 rad/s
• From fig, p
p = 𝑥2 + 𝑦2
• Again, centrifugal acceleration can be obtained by applying
gradient over centrifugal potential (Փ)
1
where, Փ = 2 𝜔2𝑝2 Fig
Therefore,
z = grad Փ
Gravity acceleration and Gravity potential
Gravity acceleration or simply gravity (g)
is the resultant of gravitation (b) and
centrifugal acceleration (z)
i.e g = b+z
And the gravity potential of the earth is
given as
W=V+Փ Fig : Gravitation (b), centrifugal acceleration
(z), gravity acceleration (g)
So applying the gradient over the gravity
potential we derive the gravity
acceleration
i.e g= grad W
Gravitational Potential
• We have Which express the force exerted by a mass m on a body P at a
distance of l
• Let the rectangular coordinate system xyz and denote the
coordinate of attracting mass m by and the coordinate of
attracted point P by x, y, z.
• The component of force F can be represented as
where,
Contd….
• Now we have which is called Gravitational potential.
• the component of X, Y, Z of the gravitational force F are then given by
• In vector notation it can be represented as,
• Thus if we have a system of several point masses m1, m2,………..mn, the
potential of the system is the sum of the individual contribution
Contd….
• If we assume that point masses are distributed continuously over a
volume v with density Where dv is an element of volume and dm is an element of
mass
• Then total contribution become ,
• It can be written as
Contd…
• The component of force can be represented as,
• The portion on differentiation yields
• So,
Contd….
• The potential V is continuous throughout the whole space and vanishes
1
at infinity i.e for l tends to infinity.
𝑙
• The first derivative of V, that is the force components are also continuous
throughout the space, but on calculating the second derivative it is not
so because density changes discontinuously.
• Thus in such a case potential V is represented by Poisson’s equation
Where is a called a laplacian operator and it has a
form of
Contd…
• So, the piosson’s equation
• It is satisfied when second derivative of potential V is discontinuous with
density
• But outside the attracting body in empty space the density is zero thus
we get,
• This is called Laplace’s equation. Its solution is called harmonic function
• Thus the potential of gravitation is a harmonic function outside the
attracting masses but not inside the masses, there it satisfies Poisson’s
equation.
Contd…
• The spherical harmonics considering the spherical coordinate
• Let the spherical coordinate r, v, λ
• From figure,
• We have laplace equation