Portal:Geodesy

Image 1Global plate tectonic movement using GPS (from Geodesy)

Image 2Mapping can be done with GPS and laser rangefinder directly in the field. Image shows mapping of forest structure (position of trees, dead wood and canopy). (from Cartography)

Image 3A map of recent volcanic activity and ridge spreading. The areas where NASA GRACE measured gravity to be stronger than the theoretical gravity have a strong correlation with the positions of the volcanic activity and ridge spreading. (from Gravity of Earth)

Image 4Deviation of day length from SI-based day (from Earth's rotation)

Image 5Axial tilt (or Obliquity), rotation axis, plane of orbit, celestial equator and ecliptic. Earth is shown as viewed from the Sun; the orbit direction is counter-clockwise (to the left). (from Geodesy)

Image 6Topographic map of Easter Island (from Cartography)

Image 7Navigation device, Apollo program (from Geodesy)

Image 8Geoid, an approximation for the shape of the Earth; shown here with vertical exaggeration (10000 vertical scaling factor). (from Geodesy)

Image 9Variations in the gravity field of the Moon, from NASA (from Geodesy)

Image 10GPS Block IIA satellite orbits over the Earth. (from Geodesy)

Image 11Areal distortion caused by Mercator projection (from Cartography)

Image 12Principles of geolocation using GPS (from Geopositioning)

Image 13Earth's axial tilt is about 23.4°. It oscillates between 22.1° and 24.5° on a 41,000-year cycle and is currently decreasing. (from Earth's rotation)

Image 14A relative gravimeter (from Geodesy)

Image 15A modern instrument for geodetic measurements using satellites (from Geodesy)

Image 16Relief map Sierra Nevada (from Cartography)

Image 17Gravity measurement devices, pendulum (left) and absolute gravimeter (right) (from Geodesy)

Image 18Europa regina in Sebastian Münster's "Cosmographia", 1570 (from Cartography)

Image 19On a prograde planet like Earth, the stellar day is shorter than the solar day. At time 1, the Sun and a certain distant star are both overhead. At time 2, the planet has rotated 360 degrees and the distant star is overhead again but the Sun is not (1→2 = one stellar day). It is not until a little later, at time 3, that the Sun is overhead again (1→3 = one solar day). (from Earth's rotation)

Image 20Plot of latitude versus tangential speed. The dashed line shows the Kennedy Space Center example. The dot-dash line denotes typical airliner cruise speed. (from Earth's rotation)

Image 21Geodetic control mark (from Geodesy)

Image 22Valcamonica rock art (I), Paspardo r. 29, topographic composition, 4th millennium BCE (from Cartography)

Image 23Height measurement using satellite altimetry (from Geodesy)

Image 24A simulated history of Earth's day length, depicting a resonant-stabilizing event throughout the Precambrian era (from Earth's rotation)

Image 25A medieval depiction of the Ecumene (1482, Johannes Schnitzer, engraver), constructed after the coordinates in Ptolemy's Geography and using his second map projection. The translation into Latin and dissemination of Geography in Europe, in the beginning of the 15th century, marked the rebirth of scientific cartography, after more than a millennium of stagnation. (from Cartography)

Image 26Visual fix by three bearings plotted on a nautical chart (from Geopositioning)

Image 27Surveyor using a total station (from Geomatics)

Image 28Datum shift between NAD27 and NAD83, in metres (from Geodesy)

Image 29A stylized map inspired by Renaissance cartographic traditions, created using GIS technology and complemented by a hand-crafted linocut. (from Cartography)

Image 30A Munich archive with lithography plates of maps of Bavaria (from Geodesy)

Image 31Copy (1472) of St. Isidore's TO map of the world. (from Cartography)

Image 32Illustrated map (from Cartography)

Image 33Small section of an orienteering map (from Cartography)

Earth's gravity vs. distance from it, from the surface to 30000 km (from Gravity of Earth)

Image 35The cartographic process (from Cartography)

Image 36Starry circles arc around the south celestial pole, seen overhead at ESO's La Silla Observatory. (from Earth's rotation)

Image 37The Bedolina Map and its tracing, 6th–4th century BCE (from Cartography)

Image 38A plumb bob determines the local vertical direction (from Gravity of Earth)

Image 39Gravity at different internal layers of Earth (1 = continental crust, 2 = oceanic crust, 3 = upper mantle, 4 = lower mantle, 5+6 = core, A = crust-mantle boundary) (from Gravity of Earth)

Image 40Earth's gravity measured by NASA GRACE mission, showing deviations from the theoretical gravity of an idealized, smooth Earth, the so-called Earth ellipsoid. Red shows the areas where gravity is stronger than the smooth, standard value, and blue reveals areas where gravity is weaker. (from Gravity of Earth)

Image 41Global gravity anomaly animation over oceans from the NASA's GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) (from Geodesy)

Image 422D grid for elliptical coordinates (from Geodesy)

Image 43Ellipsoid - a mathematical representation of the Earth. When mapping in geodetic coordinates, a latitude circle forms a truncated cone. (from Geodesy)

Image 44The Tabula Rogeriana, drawn by Muhammad al-Idrisi for Roger II of Sicily in 1154. South is at the top. (from Cartography)

Image 45A pre-Mercator nautical chart of 1571, from Portuguese cartographer Fernão Vaz Dourado (c. 1520 – c. 1580). It belongs to the so-called plane chart model, where observed latitudes and magnetic directions are plotted directly into the plane, with a constant scale, as if the Earth were a plane (Portuguese National Archives of Torre do Tombo, Lisbon). (from Cartography)

Image 46An artist's rendering of the protoplanetary disk (from Earth's rotation)

Image 47Double hemisphere map by Hendrik Hondius, 1630 (from Cartography)

Image 48Equatorial (a), polar (b) and mean Earth radii as defined in the 1984 World Geodetic System (from Geodesy)

Image 49This long-exposure photo of the northern night sky above the Nepali Himalayas shows the apparent paths of the stars as Earth rotates. (from Earth's rotation)

Image 50A 14th-century Byzantine map of the British Isles from a manuscript of Ptolemy's Geography, using Greek numerals for its graticule: 52–63°N of the equator and 6–33°E from Ptolemy's Prime Meridian at the Fortunate Isles. (from Cartography)

Image 51The definition of latitude (φ) and longitude (λ) on an ellipsoid of revolution (or spheroid). The graticule spacing is 10 degrees. The latitude is defined as the angle between the normal to the ellipsoid and the equatorial plane. (from Geodesy)

Image 52How very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) works (from Geodesy)

Image 53Earth's rotation imaged by Deep Space Climate Observatory, showing tilt (from Earth's rotation)