GE 153 EARTH’S GRAVITY AND GEOID MODELING

ROSALIE B. REYES, Dr. Eng.

Definition of height
 An appropriate definition of height is sourced from
the number 3 definition from National Geodetic
Survey Glossary (updated 2009) that states that:
“Height is that distance, measured upwards along a
plumb line (line of force), between a point and a
reference surface of constant geopotential. The term
height is also applied to elevation of the tide above or
below a specified level”.
The heights above Mean Sea Level
 Traditionally, heights are expressed above mean sea level or MSL.
 MSL is defined as the arithmetic mean of hourly heights recorded
from a tide gauge for a specific 19-year Metonic cycle (NGS Geodetic
Glossary, 2009).
 MSL can also be computed at specific periods such as monthly or
annual. The determination of the MSL involves the installation of tide
gauges at suitable places and taking one of them or the mean of several
of them as the location of the geoid (Bomford, 1971). Hence, the geoid
is established by tying it to the MSL (Torge, 1986).
 The location of the tide gauge also affects the MSL. River discharges to
the ocean could produce unreliable measurements (Rapp, 1994). Tide
gauge inside the bays influenced by geophysical and local factors may
not give the true level (Kumar, 2003).
 With regards to the suitability of using MSL to detect changes of
heights on land relative to the sea, Bomford (1971) stated that MSL is ill
adapted for that purpose.
 Another consideration of MSL as reference level is that it is not time-
invariant, which means that it changes over time. So that reference
value for MSL is defined at a specific epoch.
 equal if delta n ay imumultiply sa gdn

Geometric leveled heigths

 Usually, heights above MSL are carried out landward by
means of differential leveling or trigonometric leveling.
 Geometric leveling even observed with utmost precision
will produce a misclose (Heiskanen and Moritz, 1967).
 This is due to the nonparallelism of the equipotential
surfaces.
 Meyer (2006) described uncorrected leveling heights as
not single valued, which means that the result is
dependent on the path taken. Thus, a point measured
from two different leveling lines that started and ended at
the same station will not produce the same values.
 Heights from differential leveling can only be physically
meaningful if combined with gravity measurement.
difference between potential of two equipotential surfaces, will only be equal if you
corrected gravityu
Types of Heights
 Meyer et al (2004), classified heights into two:
1) Geopotential heights are referenced to the Earth’s
gravity field
2) Ellipsoidal heights are from a reference ellipsoid.

Between the two, geopotential heights are significant

because they determine which way the water will flow
since they are gravity related.
 Ellipsoidal heights
1. Local ellipsoid/spheroid (e.g. Bessel, Clarke 1866,
Everest, etc.) habang palayo, naglalayo yong geiod at

 Measuring the heights from the local spheroid/ ellipsoid is

quite a daunting task because it requires determination of
the deflection of the vertical derived from gravity and
astronomical measurements. Hence, these
spheroids/ellipsoids served mostly the purpose of the
horizontal geodetic datum (Meyer et al., 2004).
 The center of local spheroid/ellipsoid does not coincide
with the center of the earth. Thus, spheroidal heights do
not conform to mean sea level and were never used as
basis for topographic contouring (Bomford 1971).
msl dapat nakarefer sa geocentric . in the ph, clarke spheroid pa rin kahit nagtry tayo mag wgs84. we are having difficulties to relate sa geocentric
ellipsoid. geoid should be conincide sa geodentric.
geoid should be geocentric

Fitting of a local/regional ellipsoid to a geocentric ellipsoid and geoid

Ellipsoidal heights
2. Geocentric ellipsoid heights
 The most widely used heights are those that were
determined from GNSS positioning with WGS 84 as
reference ellipsoid.
 Heights derived from this method are normal to the
surface of the said ellipsoid.
 This type of height is a geometric quantity, with no
relation to the gravity potential that determines the fluid
flow (Jekeli 2006). Based on this, ellipsoidal heights are
not suitable to be used in some applications because it
also connotes water flowing "uphill” in some areas (Meyer
et al., 2004).
 Since this geocentric ellipsoid is well defined
mathematically, the heights referred from its surface can
be related from an equipotential surface (e.g. geoid) by a
simple formula: h=H-N. H=h-N
Geopotential Heights
1. Geopotential Number -C
2. Dynamic Height – Hdyn
3. Orthometric Height - H
4. Normal Height - HN
5. Normal-Orthometric Heights – HN-O
1. Geopotential Number
 The geopotential number is the potential difference between the
potential of a point of interest and the potential of a point at the
reference surface (e.g. geoid) (Featherstone and Kuhn, 2006).
Consider Point O at sea level (i.e. on the geoid) and Point A on
the earth surface. The geopotential number C is obtained by the
equation (Torge, 1986):

 Units are given in geopotential unit or GPU and 1 GPU = 1 kgal

meter = 100 000 cm2s-2 = 10 m2s-2.
 The significance of the geopotential number is that water will
not flow between points if the numbers are the same (Meyer et
al., 2005).
 Since it is a potential difference it is independent of the
leveling line used for relating the point to sea level. For
this reason, it is considered a natural measure of height
(Heiskanen and Moritz, 1967).
 Geopotential numbers theoretically provides zero error of
closure regardless of the leveling route taken (Sanso and
Vanicek, 2006).
 However, they are not practical to use because they
cannot be measured directly but they can be determined
from potential differences derived from precise leveling
and gravity observations (Featherstone and Kuhn, 2006).
 Another drawback for using geopotential number is its
unit that is not expressed in length.
 The USA and Europe are examples of providing
geopotential numbers on its individual benchmarks
(Meyer et al., 2004).
2. Dynamic Height
 The inconvenience of height unit given in GPU or kgal-
meter of a geopotential number can be resolve by dividing
it by a gravity value to convert it to meter. This now leads to
the definition of dynamic height (Heiskanen and Moritz,
1967):

where ϒ0 is normal gravity for an arbitrary standard

latitude, usually 45o:
ϒ45 = 980.6294 gals.
o

 Basically, dynamic height is not a geometric quantity; it is

purely a physical quantity (Jekeli, 2000) with units of
distance. Thus, the use of geopotential number is preferred
over dynamic heights.
 Heights from precise leveling can be converted to dynamic
heights by applying dynamic correction. Again, from Heiskanen
and Moritz (1967):

 where δnAB is the measured height difference from leveling

between A and B and DCAB is the dynamic correction. The
dynamic correction is given by:

 where g is the observed gravity at each station A and B, γ0= γ45o

and δn is the difference in height between A and B.
 This correction result in large value and has been the reason for
its unpopular use (Torge, 1986).
 But dynamic heights are of practical use whenever water levels
are needed and these heights were adopted by Canada (Meyer,
2006).
3. Orthometric Height
 Heights measured above the geoid are called orthometric heights
(Bomford 1971). It is also the length of the plumbline (curved-line
distance) from the geoid to the point of interest (Allister and
Featherstone, 2001)
 The geopotential number divided by the mean value of the gravity
gives the orthometric height as expressed in the following equation
(Heiskanen and Moritz, 1967):

 where H is the orthometric height, C is the geopotential number and ̅g

is the mean gravity given by the equation:

 The mean gravity can be computed if the actual values of gravity

between the geoid and the earth’s surface can be determined.
 The mean gravity derived from Prey reduction can be
approximated by

or (g in gals, H in km).
Helmert’s formula
thus C is given in GPU, g in gals and H in km

 The mean gravity can also be measured using the formula:

where g is the gravity measured at the surface point and g0

the gravity at the geoidal point.
The orthometric height H is the curved-line distance reckoned along
the plumbline from the point Po on the surface of the geoid to the
point of interest P
Orthometric Correction
 The difference in geometric heights such as the one
determined from leveling are also converted to difference
in orthometric heights by adding an orthometric
correction. It is given by the following equation
(Heiskanen and Moritz, 1967):

where g is the observed gravity at stations, , are the

average values of gravity along the plumblines at A and B
respectively and ϒ0= ϒ45o.
4. Normal Height
 Normal height was introduced by Molodensky in 1945 to avoid
making assumptions of the earth’s crust.
 Molodensky showed that the “physical surface of the earth can
be determined from geodetic measurements alone, without
using the density of the earth’s crust” (Heiskanen and Moritz,
1967).
 The equation for the normal height is similar in form for
orthometric heights and is given by:

where

where HN is normal height and γ is normal gravity. Note

that the zero in the lower integral of equation is not from
the geoid but from the reference ellipsoid.
 The average normal gravity along the plumbline can be
approximated using the formula (Heiskanen and Moritz,
1967):

where ,γ is the gravity at the ellipsoid at latitude

φ.
 The equation shows that the average normal gravity can
be computed without any gravity observations.
 Normal heights can also be determined from differential
leveling and applying a correction. Similar to orthometric
and dynamic corrections, the normal correction can also
be applied to measured height differences using the
equation:
Quasi geoid and height anomaly
 The straight-line distance from the earth’s surface and the
telluroid is the height anomaly ζ (Jekeli, 2000).
 Relating the geometric height h, that is, the height from the
ellipsoid to the ground surface yields the following equation
(Heiskanen and Moritz, 1967):
ζ = h – HN
which is similar to the geoidal undulation N = h - H.
 If the normal height is extended downward from the earth’s
surface it will yield the quasigeoid (Torge, 1986).
 Similarly if the height anomalies ζ are plotted above the
ellipsoid this will also give the quasigeoid.
 It can be said that the normal height is the height above the
quasigeoid just as orthometric height is the height above the
geoid.
 But this reference surface for normal heights is not a level
surface.
 Most countries in Eastern Europe such as France, Germany,
Sweden and adopted the normal heights.
A point P on the earth’s surface lying at an equipotential surface has a potential equal to
WP. Its normal potential is UP but is not equal to WP. At certain point Q on the
plumbline of P there exist UQ=WP, so that the normal potential U at Q is equal to the
actual potential W at P. The projection of P on this surface at which this point Q lies is
called the telluroid. The normal height HN of point P is the height of the point Q at the
telluroid above the ellipsoid .
5. Normal-orthometric heights
 The normal-orthometric height is similar to the normal
heights except that the height anomaly ζ becomes the
separation of the reference ellipsoid and the quasi geoid
and the normal-orthometric height is now the distance
from the quasigeiod to the point P on the earth’s surface
along the normal plumbline.
 The reference surface of this height system is the
quasigeoid and the values of the earth’s gravity field are
replaced by the values of the normal gravity field.
 The avoidance of gravity observations is an advantage but
it is also a disadvantage for it loses information of the
actual gravity field of the earth.
 Australia is one of the countries that adopted the normal-
orthometric height system.
Comparison of different height
systems Simply,
Dynamic height:
Orthometric height
Normal height
C is the direct result of leveling and is of great scientific
importance. However, it is not a height in a geometrical or practical
sense.
Hdyn has at least the dimension of height, it has no geometrical
meaning. One advantage is that points of the same level surface
have the same dynamic height.
H differs for points of the same level surface because the level
surfaces are not parallel.
Comparison of different height
systems
Dynamic correction can be very large, because gravity varies
from equator to pole by about 5000 mgal. For instance, a
leveling line of 1000 m difference of height at the equator,
where g=987.0 gal, computed γ0 at 45⁰=980.6 gal gives a
dynamic correction of approximately

Because of these large corrections, dynamic heights are not

suitable as practical heights, and the geopotential numbers
are preferable for scientific purposes.
Comparison of different height
systems
 Orthometric heights are the natural “heights above
sea level”, that is heights above the geoid.
 Have an unequalled geometrical and physical
significance.
 Their computation is laborious, unless Helmert’s
simple formula is used.
 The orthometric correction is rather small.
 In the Alpine leveling line of Mader (1954), leading
from an elevation of 754 m to 2505 m, the
orthometric correction is about 15 cm per 1 km of
measured differences.
Comparison of different height
systems
 The physical and geometrical meaning of the normal
heights, is less obvious; they depend on the reference
ellipsoid used.
 They have a somewhat artificial character as
compared to orthometric heights.
 Easy to compute rigorously.
 The order of magnitude of the normal correction is
about the same as that of the orthometric corrections.
Accuracy
 Leveling is one of the most accurate geodetic
measurements.
 A standard error of ±0.1 mm per km distance is possible; it
increases with square root of the distance.
 If the error of measurement and interpolation, etc., of
gravity is negligible, then the differences in C can be
determined with accuracy ±0.1 gal m per km distance.
 Gravity measurements is sufficient to measure at distances
of some kilometers.
 Dynamic heights and normal heights are clearly as accurate
as C, because normal gravity γ is errorless.
 Orthometric heights, however, are also affected by
imperfect knowledge of density, etc., but only slightly.
Triangulated heights
 The main problem of heights by triangulation is the
atmospheric refraction affecting the zenith angles.
 Thus, the accuracy of triangulated heights is much less
than the leveling.
 For small distances (e.g., 1 km), trigonometric height
measurements referred to the local plumb line have
the character of a leveled height difference δn.
 This fact may be used (with care!) to fill small gaps in a
leveling network.
Comparison of different height
systems
 All these height systems based on C are functions of
positions only.
 There are, thus, no misclosures, as there are with
measured heights.
 The desired requirements of a height systems are:
 Misclosures be eliminated
 Corrections to the measured heights be as small as
possible
Remark on misclosures
All misclosures in any acceptable system of heights
denoted for the moment by h (not to be confused with
ellipsoidal heights) must be zero:

For any closed path. Height networks consisting of triangles,

if computed by least-squares adjustment thus must satisfy
the condition that the sum of height differences must be
zero for each triangle.
GPS leveling
The basic equation H=h-N relates the orthometric height H,
the ellipsoidal height h, and the geoidal undulation N.
Given:

The height difference :

This is a tremendous advantage since the orthometric height difference

may be computed with h difference from GPS leveling and with a known
geoid, the N difference.
Research Work (2 per group)
 Geoid model and height system
 Select from the following countries:
Japan S. Korea
USA Canada
Denmark UK
Iran Sweden
Germany Australia
New Zealand Italy
Greece Russia
France Spain
Malaysia Brazil