Module IV

▪ Geodesy
▪ Figure of Earth
▪ Classification
▪ Earth Surface
▪ Geodetic Reference
surface
▪ Co-ordinate Systems
▪ Geodetic datums and
elements
▪ Map, Scale
▪ Projection UTM
▪ Map projections
▪ Space Geodesy
▪ VLBI, SLR, LLR
Geodesy
Geodesy is a branch of geophysics that studies the geometrical, structural, and
gravitational properties of the Earth, their time evolution, and the dynamic
interactions of the solid Earth with other physical components of the Earth
system(atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and the core), at a wide range of
temporal and spatial scales.
➢According to F.R. Helmert , geodesy is the “science of the measurement and
mapping of the Earth’s surface.”
➢The objectives of geodesy to determine accurately the positions of points on
the Earth’s surface and their variations and, second, to study the gravity field
of the Earth, the shape and size of the Earth, and the geodynamic phenomena.
➢The former is generally considered the practical objective of geodesy and the
latter the scientific objective. These two objectives are closely correlated.
➢Geomatics and surveying and mapping mainly study all forms of the Earth’s
surface; therefore the shape and size of the Earth and its gravity field are
studied and measured, and a unified coordinate system should be
established to show the exact geometric positions of an arbitrary point on
the Earth’s surface.
➢The geoid is an imaginary sea level surface that undulates (has a wavy
surface) over all of the earth; it isn’t just for the oceanic areas, it also
extends through the land masses.
Geoid + Ellipsoid = Earth

➢The earth is not really an ellipsoid because there are oceans, and mountains,
and valleys, and many other features that are not part of an ellipsoid.
 ➢ The Earth is an oblate spheroid, bulged at the equator and
Figure of Earth flattened at the poles.
➢ It is called ‘Geoid’ meaning the earth is earth-shaped.
➢ The bulge at the equator is caused by the centrifugal force of
the Earth’s rotation.
➢ The gravitational pull of the earth is the strongest at the
flattened poles and it is weaker towards the equator.
Classification:-
➢Geodesy can be classified into
• Ellipsoidal geodesy (i.e., theoretical geodesy, higher surveying)
• Geodetic control survey
• Marine geodesy and
• Engineering geodesy (i.e., plane surveying)
➢Ellipsoidal geodesy studies the body of the Earth as a whole, determines the shape of
the Earth and its external gravity field, and establishes the geodetic reference system.
➢Geodetic control survey measures the coordinates and heights of a sufficient number
of surface points within one or several countries in an appropriately chosen reference
system and establishes a unified national geodetic network to meet the needs of
topographic mapping and engineering construction.
➢Marine geodesy establishes a geodetic control network on the Earth’s surface covered
by oceans to realize positioning on the sea surface and underwater and to measure the
marine gravity field, sea surface topography, and marine geoid.
➢Engineering geodesy determines the details on the Earth’s surface regionally in a
small area and usually refers to the horizontal plane for measurement.
➢Ellipsoidal geodesy, geodetic control survey, marine geodesy, and engineering
geodesy are closely related to one another.
➢According to the technical means of carrying out the fundamental tasks, geodesy can be
divided into
▪ Terrestrial Geodesy (Conventional Geodesy, i.e., Astro-geodesy),
▪ Space Geodesy (Satellite Geodesy), And
▪ Inertial Geodesy
➢Terrestrial geodesy uses optoelectronic instruments to carry out short-distance (usually
shorter than 50 km) terrestrial geometric survey (triangulateration, leveling, and astronomic
surveying) and gravity measurement to determine the horizontal positions and heights of
surface points and calculate the local gravity field parameters indirectly.
➢By observing extraterrestrial objects (artificial Earth satellites, quasar radio sources, etc.),
space geodesy realizes the positioning of surface points, including the relative positioning
and the absolute positioning, which is relative to the center of the Earth.
➢Inertial geodesy applies the principle of inertia of a moving object in mechanics to carry out
the relative positioning of surface points and measure the gravity field parameters.

(Imagine the oceans of the world utterly still, completely free of currents, tides, friction,
variations in temperature and all other physical forces, except gravity. Reacting to gravity
alone, these unattainable calm waters would coincide with the figure known as the geoid.)
Geodetic Reference surface
➢The surface of the Earth is anything but not uniform. The oceans, can be
treated as reasonably uniform, but the surface or topography of the land
masses exhibits large vertical variations between mountains and valleys.
➢These variations make it impossible to approximate the shape of the Earth
with any reasonably simple mathematical model.

➢ Consequently, two main reference surfaces have been established to

approximate the shape of the Earth. One reference surface is called the Geoid,
the other reference surface is the ellipsoid.
➢We can simplify matters by imagining that the entire Earth’s surface is covered by
water. If we ignore tidal and current effects on this ‘global ocean’, the resultant water
surface is affected only by gravity.
➢This has an effect on the shape of this surface because the direction of gravity - more
commonly known as plumb line - is dependent on the mass distribution inside the
Earth.
➢Due to irregularities or mass anomalies in this distribution the 'global ocean' results in
an undulated surface. This surface is called the Geoid. The plumb line through any
surface point is always perpendicular to it.
➢Where a mass deficiency exists, the Geoid will dip below the mean ellipsoid.
Conversely, where a mass surplus exists, the Geoid will rise above the mean ellipsoid.
These influences cause the Geoid to deviate from a mean ellipsoidal shape by up to +/-
100 meters. The deviation between the Geoid and an ellipsoid is called the geoid
separation (N) or geoid undulation.
➢If the solid Earth didn't have these changes in density, the geoid and the ellipsoid would
be the same thing.
➢The Geoid is used to describe heights. In order to establish the Geoid as reference for
heights, the ocean’s water level is registered at coastal places over several years using
tide gauges (mareographs).
➢Averaging the registrations largely eliminates variations of the sea level with time. The
resulting water level represents an approximation to the Geoid and is called the mean
sea level.
➢Every nation or groups of nations have established those mean sea level points, which
are normally located close to the area of concern through tide-gauge.
➢ The height determined with respect to a tide-gauge station is known as the orthometric
height (height H above the Geoid).
 The use of satellite-based positioning equipment (e.g. GPS) to determine heights with
respect to a reference ellipsoid (e.g. WGS84) is becoming more in use. These heights are
known as the ellipsoidal heights (height h above the ellipsoid). Ellipsoidal heights have to
be adjusted before they can be compared to orthometric (mean sea level) heights. Geoid
undulations (N) are used to adjust the ellipsoidal heights (H = h - N).
➢As a result of satellite gravity missions, it is currently possible to determine the
orthometric height (height H above the Geoid) with centimeter level accuracy.
Co-ordinate Systems
➢Latitude lines run east-west and are
parallel to each other. If you go
north, latitude values increase.
Finally, latitude values (Y-values)
range between -90 and +90
degrees.

➢But longitude lines run north-

south. They converge at the poles.
And its X-coordinates are between
-180 and +180 degrees.

➢Latitude and longitude coordinates

make up our geographic coordinate
system.
➢Due to the irregular physical surface of the Earth, it is difficult to define it in
mathematical terms. The dilemma is illustrated by the ancient struggle to represent its
curved surface on flat maps.
➢There have been a whole variety of map projections developed over the centuries that
rely on mathematical relationships between positions on the Earth's surface and points
on the map.
➢ Each projection serves a particular application well, but none of them can represent
the Earth without distortion.
➢Plane surveying has traditionally relied on an imaginary flat reference surface, or
reference frame (datum), with Cartesian axes.
➢Even though we have always known that this assumption of a flat earth is
fundamentally unrealistic, it provided, and continues to provide, an adequate
arrangement for small areas. The attachment of elevations to such horizontal
coordinates somewhat acknowledges the topographic irregularity of the earth, but the
whole system is always undone by its inherent inaccuracy as the area grow large
With latitude and longitude data can you define a unique position on the
Earth?
➢The answer to the question relies, on the fact that there are several categories of latitude and
longitude, the geographical coordinates. From the various options, astronomic, geocentric
and geodetic.
➢These coordinates differ because down is governed by gravity when it comes to astronomic
coordinates. However, down is perpendicular to the ellipsoid for geodetic coordinates.
➢The geocentric latitude is indicated by the line from the point on the Earth's surface to the
geocenter, or the center of mass of the Earth.

➢In the period before space-based geodesy was tenable, regional datums were used. Some of
them are
▪ The Australian Geodetic Datum 1966,
▪ The European Datum 1950, and
▪ The South American Datum 1969, among others,
➢ They were also designed as non-geocentric systems. Achievement of the minimum
distortion over a particular region was the primary consideration in choosing their ellipsoids,
not the relationship of their centers to the center of mass of the earth.
Geodetic datums and elements
➢Three distinct figures are involved in a geodetic datum for latitude, longitude, and height:
the geoid, the reference ellipsoid, and the topographic surface.
➢From the continents to the floors of the oceans, the solid earth’s actual surface is too
irregular to be represented by a simple mathematical statement. The geoid, which is
sometimes under, and sometimes above, the surface of the earth, has an overall shape that
also defies any concise geometrical definition. But the ellipsoid not only has the same
general shape as the earth, but, unlike the other two figures, can be described simply and
completely in mathematical terms.
➢Therefore, a global geocentric system has been developed based on the ellipsoid adopted by
the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) in 1979. It is called the
Geodetic Reference System 1980 (GRS80). Its semimajor axis, a, is 6378.137 km long and
is probably within a few meters of the earth’s actual equatorial radius. Its flattening, f, is
1/298.25722 and likely deviates only slightly from the true value, a considerable
improvement over Newton’s calculation of a flattening ratio of 1/230. But then, he did not
have orbital data from near-earth satellites to check his work.
➢The goal is to have the reference ellipsoid we use for satellite geodesy, to be geocentric.
 Modern Geocentric Datum
Two Reference Ellipsoids
Ellipsoid Semi-major axis inverse flattening
GRS80 6,378,137 m 298.257222101
WGS84 6,378,137 m 298.257223563
(World Geodetic System 1984)

WGS84 is the reference

ellipsoid for WGS84 datum.
➢There have been six incarnations of WGS84 since then. While WGS84 has
always been the basis for the GPS Navigation message, the particular
version of the datum has changed. The latest version of WGS84 is WGS84
(G1762).
➢With time other datums were also introduced like NAD- North American
Datum and ITRF- International Terrestrial Reference Frame. ITRF is truly
geocentric, hence most widely used.
➢Today, the ITRF is maintained by the International Earth Rotation Service
(IERS), which monitors Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP) for the
scientific community through a global network of observing stations.
➢This is done with GPS, Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), Lunar
Laser Ranging (LLR), Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), the Doppler
Orbitography and Radio positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS), and
the positions of the observing stations are considered to be accurate to the
centimeter level.
Year Realization (Epoch) For all practical purposes
:

1987 WGS 1984 (ORIG) NAD83 (1986)

1994 WGS84 (G730) ITRF91/92
1997 WGS84 (G873) ITRF94/96
2002 WGS84 (G1150) ITRF00
2012 WGS (G1674) ITRF08
2013 WGS (G1762) ITRF2014

ITRF is Geocentric and NAD83 is not Geocentric

➢ NAD83 and WGS84, originally differed by only a centimeter or two. That is no longer
true. In their new definitions—NAD83 (2011) and WGS84 (G1762)—differ up to one or
two meters within the continental United States. On the other hand ITRF08, ITRF2014
and WGS84 (G1762) are virtually identical if their epochs (moment in time) are the same.
Map, Scale, Projection UTM & Map projections
➢Maps are one of the world’s oldest types of document. For quite some time it was thought
that our planet was flat, and during those days, a map simply was a miniature
representation of a part of the world. Now that we know that the Earth’s surface is curved
in a specific way, we know that a map is in fact a flattened representation of some part of
the planet.
➢A map projection is a mathematically described technique of how to represent the Earth’s
curved surface on a flat map. To represent parts of the surface of the Earth on a flat paper
map or on a computer screen, the curved horizontal reference surface must be mapped
onto the 2D mapping plane.
➢Map projections can be described in terms of their:
▪ Class (cylindrical, conical or azimuthal),
▪ Point Of Secancy (tangent or secant),
▪ Aspect (normal, transverse or oblique), and
▪ Distortion Property (equivalent, equidistant or conformal).
Class wise Point of Secancy wise

Aspect wise
➢ The three classes of map projections are cylindrical, conical and azimuthal. The Earth's
reference surface projected on a map wrapped around the globe as a cylinder produces a
cylindrical map projection. Projected on a map formed into a cone gives a conical map
projection. When projected directly onto the mapping plane it produces an azimuthal (or
zenithal or planar) map projection.
➢ The planar, conical, and cylindrical surfaces in the figure above are all tangent surfaces;
they touch the horizontal reference surface in one point (plane) or along a closed line
(cone and cylinder) only. Another class of projections is obtained if the surfaces are
chosen to be secant to (to intersect with) the horizontal reference surface;
➢ Projections can also be described in terms of the direction of the projection plane's
orientation (whether cylinder, plane or cone) with respect to the globe. This is called the
aspect of a map projection. The three possible apects are normal, transverse and oblique.
In a normal projection, the main orientation of the projection surface is parallel to the
Earth's axis (as in the figures above for the cylinder and the cone). A transverse projection
has its main orientation perpendicular to the Earth's axis. Oblique projections are all other,
non-parallel and non-perpendicular.
➢ The distortion properties of map are typically classified as follow
• conformal (orthomorphic) map projection
• equal-area (equivalent) map projection
• equidistant map projection
➢A particular map projection can have any one of these three properties. No map projection
can be both conformal and equal-area. A projection can only be equidistant (true to scale)
at certain places or in certain directions.
➢Based on these discussions, a particular map projection can be classified. An example
would be the classification ‘conformal conic projection with two standard parallels’
having the meaning that the projection is a conformal map projection, that the
intermediate surface is a cone, and that the cone intersects the ellipsoid (or sphere) along
two parallels; i.e. the cone is secant and the cone’s symmetry axis is parallel to the
rotation axis.
Scale distortions on a map
➢A map projection without distortions would correctly represent shapes, angles, areas,
distances and directions, everywhere on the map. Unfortunately, any map projection is
associated with scale distortions.
➢ Scale distortions can be measured and shown on a map by ellipses of distortion. The
ellipse of distortion, also known as Tissot's Indicatrix, shows the shape of an infinite small
circle with a fixed scale on the Earth as it appears when plotted on the map.
➢Every circle is plotted as circle or an ellipse or, in extreme cases, as a straight line. The
size and shape of the ellipse shows how much the scale is changed and in what direction.

➢Scale distortions on a map can also be shown by means of a scale factor (ratio of the scale
at a given point to the true scale). Scale distortions exist at locations where the scale factor
is smaller or larger than 1.
E.g. a scale factor at a given point on the map is equal to 0.99960 signifies that 1000 metres
on the reference surface of the Earth will actually measure 999.6 metres on the map. This is
a contraction of 40 centimetre per kilometre.
Map projections in common use
➢A variety of map projections have been developed, each with its own specfic qualities.
Only a limited amount are frequently used. Here are some well-known projections
grouped into cylindrical, conical and azimuthal projections.
➢Some of the cylindrical projections are
• Mercator projection
• Transverse Mercator projection
• Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection
• Equidistant cylindrical projection etc.
But our discussion is confined to UTM.
➢The Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection uses a transverse cylinder, secant to
the reference surface.
➢ It is recommended for topographic mapping by the United Nations Cartography
Committee in 1952. The UTM divides the world into 60 narrow longitudinal zones of 6
degrees, numbered from 1 to 60. The narrow zones of 6 degrees (and the secant map
surface) make the distortions so small that they can be ignored when constructing a map
for a scale of 1:10,000 or smaller.
➢The UTM projection is designed to cover the world, excluding the Arctic and Antarctic
regions. The areas not included in the UTM system, regions north of 84°N and south of
80°S, are mapped with the Universal Polar Stereographic (UPS) projection. The figure
below shows the UTM zone numbering system. Shaded in the figure is UTM grid zone
3N which covers the area 168° - 162°W (zone number 3), and 0° - 8°N (letter N of the
latitudinal belt).
➢Each zone has it's own central meridian. E.g. zone 11 extends from 120°W to 114°W,
therefore the central meridian has a longitude value of 117°W (figure below).
➢If a map series covers more than one UTM zone it is inconvenient to have the Eastings
changing suddenly at a zone junction. For this reason a 40 kilometre overlap into an
adjacent zone is allowed (figure below). Mapping beyond this area will result in
distortions at the edges of a UTM zone which may not be acceptable for the larger map
scales.

➢Widely used standard for topographic maps and military maps.

Space Geodesy
➢Space geodesy realizes the positioning of surface points, including the relative
positioning and the absolute positioning, which is relative to the center of the
Earth.
➢The satellite gravity technique involved in space geodesy can obtain gravity
field information on a global scale, including the oceans.
➢The variations in polar motion and the Earth’s rotation velocity are linked to
information about the Earth’s structure and diverse geodynamic processes. The
precision of the Earth’s rotation parameters determined by space geodesy has
been the most effective tool in extracting and differentiating such information.
➢The breakthrough in technology has allowed the discipline to undergo an
epoch-making revolutionary transformation and develop into a new stage of
modern geodesy, as represented by space geodesy.
➢The transformations are primarily:
1. Separated one-dimensional (vertical) and two-dimensional (horizontal) geodetic
measurements have been developed into three- and four-dimensional measurements,
which include time variables.
2. Measurement of the geometric and gravity field elements on the Earth’s surface
under the hypothesis of a static and rigid Earth has been developed into the
observation of dynamic variations of the nonrigid (elastic and rheological) Earth.
3. Regional (relative) geodetic measurement in the local reference coordinate
system has been developed into global (absolute) geodetic measurement in the
unified geocentric coordinate system.
4. Measurement accuracy has been increased by two to three orders of magnitude.
These transformations have greatly expanded the research area of geodesy and
have formed modern geodesy as opposed to classical geodesy.
Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI)
VLBI is a space geodetic technique based on radio astronomy. Radio signals emitted by extragalactic
sources (quasars: quasi-stellar radio sources, radio galaxies) are captured by a pair of directional
antennas (radio telescopes) located on the Earth’s surface. Due to the different position of the
antennas, the same signal arrives at each antenna with a slight time difference ranging from 0.003 to
0.050 seconds. This time delay is measured to a precision of few trillionth of one second (picosecond)
with sophisticated atomic clocks installed at each antenna. By multiplying the time delay with the
speed of light, the distance between the two antennas can be determined with an accuracy of few
millimetres.
Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) & Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR)
Laser distance measurements are made from ground stations to satellites equipped
with corner cube reflectors (SLR) or to retroreflectors on the moon surface (LLR).
SLR and LLR use very short laser pulses and fast electronics and detectors to measure
the pulse’s instantaneous roundtrip-time-of-flight to the satellites or to the moon.
Using the time interval between emission and reception of the ultra-short laser pulses
at the same station, engineers infer the precise ranges which analysts use to determine
the satellite position at the time of reflection. New laser systems operate at kilohertz
(kHz) rates; legacy systems (soon to be replaced) operate at rates of 5 – 10 Hz. Data
are aggregated by means of statistical averaging into normal points over intervals of 5
seconds to 5 minutes depending on the altitude of the satellite.
VLBI
SLR
References
➢Geodesy, Introduction to Geodetic Datum and Geodetic Systems By Zhiping Lu,
Yunying Qu, & Shubo Qiao
➢[Link]
➢[Link]
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➢[Link]
➢[Link]
used-map-projections
➢[Link]
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