A contemporary perspective of geoid structure

Abstract

A contemporary perspective of geoid structure: The present paper reviews the contemporary state of definition and theory of the geoid. Key features are:quasigeoid, external gravitational field from satellites and its analytical downward continuation to the Earth's interior, data combination by least-squares collocation, and a new view of gravity reduction. This is done under the modern systematic perspective provided by the possibility of a purely geometric satellite determination of the Earth' surface by GPS combined with satellite altimetry.