Referenciación Geográfica

Earth Shape

• Earth is our home planet. Scientists believe Earth

and its moon formed around the same time as
the rest of the solar system.
• They think that was about 4.5 billion years ago.
Earth is the fifth-largest planet in the solar
system. Its diameter is about 8,000 miles.
• And Earth is the third-closest planet to the sun.
• Its average distance from the sun is about 93
million miles. Only Mercury and Venus are closer.
 Approximating Earth as a sphere

• Isaac Newton suggested in 1687 that the

earth is not a perfectly round sphere but
rather an ellipsoid, and he was right.

• But since our planet is roughly a sphere, it’s

often useful to approximate it by a sphere.
Earth Shape
 What Does Earth
Look Like?
• From space, Earth looks like a
blue marble with white swirls
and areas of brown, yellow,
green and white.
– The blue is water, which
covers about 71 percent of
Earth's surface.
– The white swirls are clouds.
– The areas of brown, yellow
and green are land.
– And the areas of white are
ice and snow.
 Earth Shape

This picture of Earth is sometimes called the Blue Marble.

Credits: NASA
 What Does Earth Look Like?

• The equator is an imaginary circle that divides

Earth into two halves.
– The northern half is called the Northern
Hemisphere.
– The southern half is called the Southern
Hemisphere.
– The northernmost point on Earth is called the
North Pole.
– The southernmost point on Earth is called the
South Pole.
 How Do We Know Earth Is Round?

• Humans have known that Earth is round for more

than 2,000 years!
• The ancient Greeks measured shadows during
summer solstice and also calculated Earth's
circumference.
• They used positions of stars and constellations to
estimate distances on Earth.
• They could even see the planet's round shadow
on the moon during a lunar eclipse.
• (We still can see this during lunar eclipses.)
 How Do We Know Earth Is Round?
• Today, scientists use geodesy, which is the science of
measuring Earth's shape, gravity and rotation.
• Geodesy provides accurate measurements that show Earth is
round.
– With GPS and other satellites, scientists can measure
Earth's size and shape to within a centimeter.
– Pictures from space also show Earth is round like the
moon.

• Even though our planet is a sphere, it is not a perfect sphere.

• Because of the force caused when Earth rotates, the North
and South Poles are slightly flat.
• Earth's rotation, wobbly motion and other forces are making
the planet change shape very slowly, but it is still round.
 What is the shape of the Earth?

• Earth is not a perfect sphere.

• Its shape is an oblate spheroid.
• This just means that it flattens at the poles
and widens out at the equator.
• Earth bulges at the equator because of the
centrifugal force during rotation.
What is the shape of the Earth?
 La Forma de la Tierra
• Para hacer cálculos sencillos y aproximados,
normalmente se asocia la Tierra con una
esfera.
• Sin embargo, la forma de nuestro planeta es
más compleja: la Tierra está achatada por lo
polos, el hemisferio sur es un poco más
voluminoso que el norte, y tiene una cierta
rugosidad debida al relieve del terreno.
La Forma de
la Tierra
 Earth radius as a datum
• Geographers model Earth shape as an ellipsoid, which
is a sphere slightly flattened at the poles.
• They use a datum to reference geographic coordinates
on Earth.
• A datum describes the shape of the Earth in
mathematical terms.
• It defines the radius, inverse flattening, semi-major axis
and semi-minor axis for an ellipsoid.
– For example, the WGS84 datum identifies the longest
diameter of an ellipse (semi-major axis) as 6,378,137.0 m.
– Next, the semi-minor axis is 6,356,752.3 m.
– So, this aligns well with the radius of Earth at the equator
as 6,378 km.
 How Does Earth Move?
• Earth orbits the sun once every 365 days, or one year. The shape of
its orbit is not quite a perfect circle. It's more like an oval, which
causes Earth's distance from the sun to vary during the year.
• Earth is nearest the sun, or at "perihelion," in January when it's
about 91 million miles away. Earth is farthest from the sun, or at
"aphelion," in July when it's about 95 million miles away.

• At the equator, Earth spins at just over 1,000 miles per hour. Earth
makes a full spin around its axis once every 24 hours, or one day.
The axis is an imaginary line through the center of the planet
from the North Pole to the South Pole.
• Rather than straight up and down, Earth's axis is tilted at an angle of
23.5 degrees.
Earth Bulge
Earth Shape
 Earth’s Geoid

• The geoid is the equipotential surface that

defines sea level and is expressed relative to
the reference ellipsoid.
• Temporal variations in the geoid are caused by
lateral variations in the internal densities of
the Earth, and by the distribution of masses
(primarily hydrological) upon the surface of
the Earth.
 What is an ellipsoid?
• An ellipsoid satisfies the following equation.

– A sphere is an ellipsoid with a = b = c.

– An oblate spheroid is an ellipsoid with a = b > c.
– A prolate spheroid is an ellipsoid with a = b < c.
– A scalene ellipsoid is an ellipsoid for which a, b,
and c are all distinct.
 An ellipsoid
The ellipsoid, in shorthand terms, it is a smooth,
mathematically determined representation of
the Earth.

It isn't plagued with the irregularities of the

actual terrestrial surface, nor the irregularities of
gravity.

It's a smooth surface that is used to approximate

the surface of the Earth.
 How good is the oblate spheroid model?

• The error in approximating the Earth’s shape as an

oblate spheroid is less than 100 meters, two orders
of magnitude better than the spherical model.
 The Geoid

• An often-used description of the geoidal

surface involves idealized oceans.
• 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.
 The Geoid

Sea Level is not the Surface of the Geoid; Source: NASA

 The Geoid

• Of course, the 70% of the earth covered by

oceans is not so cooperative.
• In addition, the physical forces eliminated
from the model cannot be avoided in reality.
• These unavoidable forces actually cause mean
sea level to deviate from the geoid.
• This is one of the reasons that Mean Sea Level
and the surface of the geoid are not the same.
 The Geoid: An Equipotential Surface

• Gravity is not consistent across the topographic

surface of the earth.
• At every point it has a magnitude and a direction.
• In other words, anywhere on the earth, gravity
can be described by a mathematical vector.
• Along the solid earth, such vectors do not have
all the same direction or magnitude, but one can
imagine a surface of constant gravity potential.
• Such an equipotential surface would be level in
the true sense.
The Geoid
 The Geoid
• The geoid is a reality. It is a physical reality.
• I hasten to add that the ellipsoid, the nice, smooth,
mathematical surface that we use as a reference in
datums, is different than the geoid.
Three Surfaces
 Three Surfaces
• The geoid approximates mean sea level.
• The shape of the ellipsoid was calculated
based on the hypothetical equipotential
gravitational surface.
• A significant difference exists between this
mathematical model and the real object.
• However, even the most mathematically
sophisticated geoid can only approximate the
real shape of the earth.
Vertical Datum – Earth’s Elevation
Reference Frame
 What is a Vertical Datum?

• Surveyors and geodesists use the vertical

datum as a surface of zero elevation to which
heights can be referred to.

• When you talk about vertical datums, you can

break them into two: Tidal Datums vs Vertical
Geodetic Datums.
 Vertical Datum

• TIDAL DATUMS reflect the interface between

water and land and is defined by the tidal
variation.
• For example, a tide gauge in the water
measures mean sea level.
• Tidal datums are localized because the
transition between types of datums can shift
quickly. It’s also time dependent.
 Vertical Datum

• GEODETIC DATUMS are reference surfaces of

zero elevation to which heights are referred to
over a large geographic extent.
• These datums are used to measure height
(altitude) and depth (depression) above and
below mean sea level.
• A (vertical) geodetic datum often ties in tidal
datums.
• A geodetic datum reference might use a tidal
datum as a start point.
Elevation
 Types of Reference Heights

• There are different types of heights to be aware of

when referring to a vertical datum.
• These are the 3 primary types of heights, although
other types of heights exist:
 Types of Reference Heights

• ORTHOMETRIC represents the height distance

between the Earth surface and geoid at a
specific point.
• Surveyors usually refer to orthometric heights.
• When you take the height at the peak of a
mountain.
• It’s an orthometric height measured as a
distance between the surface and the geoid.
 Types of Reference Heights

• GEOID coincides with mean sea level as if you are

imagining it as an extension under (or over) land
areas.
• The geoid is an equipotential surface at which
gravity is normal – closely approximating mean
sea level.
– This is because of the varying densities that are
present in the Earth at different places.
– There are gravity anomalies with undulations
differing from place-to-place.
 GEOID
• Land and mountains prevent us from the seeing
the geoid surface on the Earth.
• The Earth’s interior differs in density everywhere.
• This means that gravity varies everywhere on the
Earth.
• This is why we measure gravity or the gravitational
equipotential surface.
• We can then infer that this is how water would settle
and model it mathematically.
• The geoid then gives a true zero surface for measuring
elevations.
 Types of Reference Heights

• REFERENCE ELLIPSOID is a mathematical

model of the shape of the Earth with the
major axis along the equatorial radius.

• It approximates the geoid, but mostly

coincides with geodetic network
computations which point coordinates
(latitude and longitude) are referred to.
 Types of Reference Heights

• Most vertical datums in North America use

sea level as the basic reference plane from
which we measure elevation changes.
• With mean sea level (MSL) as a reference
point of zero, it is possible to measure height
or topography accurately.
• We can also begin to understand if ocean
levels are rising or falling over time.
 What is longitude?
• Global position is described by two
coordinates, latitude and longitude,
measured in degrees.
• Lines of latitude measure positions north and
south and run parallel to the equator.
• Lines of longitude run pole to pole and
measure positions east and west.
• Latitude is easy to measure from the Sun.
• Longitude presents a bigger challenge.
 The Longitude Act
• In 1714, the British Government offered, by Act
of Parliament, £20,000 for a solution which could
find longitude to within half a degree (equivalent
to 2 minutes of time), and a group later known as
the Board of Longitude was set up to assess
submissions and offer rewards.
• These experts included the Astronomer Royal at
Greenwich and other scientific, maritime and
political leaders.
 The problem of longitude.

• John Harrison, born in 1693, is best known as

the man who solved the problem of
longitude.
• The Royal Navy had lost many ships at sea
because although latitude could be
determined by the height of the sun,
longitude was more difficult to determine.
 The problem of longitude.
• Harrison thought the problem could be solved,
and the Longitude Prize of £20,000 that went
with it won, by designing a clock carried at sea
that could keep time to within about a minute
over 50 days.
• By knowing the time the ship had been at sea,
and knowing local time from the height of the
sun, it would be possible to determine longitude
accurately, as local time is one hour ahead for
every 15 degrees of longitude eastwards and one
hour behind for every 15 degrees west.