Dr.

Zubeida AlAdwan
Al albayt University
Geodesy science
Course Contents
Text Book and References
Geodesy History

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 What does this means?

How big is the Earth? Where am I?

Which is the shape of the planet? How far am I from a place?

How tall is a mountain? In which direction should I go?

Where my property ends? How big is my property?

Geodesy is answering these questions.

Dr. A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU

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 What is geodesy?

From Greek: “ Dividing the Earth ”.

Geodesy is the branch of applied

mathematics concerned with the
determination of the size and shape of the
Earth, with the exact positions of points on
its surface, and with the description of
variations of its gravity field.
Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU
◦ Determination of:
 Size and shape of the Earth
 External gravity field of the Earth and other celestial
bodies
 Earth Rotation
 Temporal variations in the shape, rotation and
gravity field

◦ To perform
 geodetic measurements and
 Computations

That lead to determination of the coordinates of

control stations on the Earth surface.
Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU 7
◦ Spherical Earth:
 Basic spherical geometry
 Spherical coordinates ◦ Ellipsoidal Earth:
and computations  Concept of best fitting ellipsoid
 Ellipsoid parameters
◦ Gravity field:  Geodetic coordinates
 Gravity field and  Radii of curvature
potential  Curves on ellipsoid surface
 Astronomic coordinates
 Geoid and level surfaces
 Height systems

Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying,

AABU 8
◦ Coordinate
◦ Inertial frames and Earth’s
transformations:
rotation
 Local- global
 Astronomic- geodetic
 Curvilinear- Cartesian ◦ Time systems:
 Sidereal, solar, atomic
◦ Celestial coordinate
systems: ◦ Dynamic coordinate systems
 Horizon  Satellites and their orbits
 Equatorial
 Ecliptic
 Transformations

Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying,

AABU 9
◦ Fundamentals of Geodesy- lecture notes, UoC
◦ Geodesy- W. Torge
◦ Basic Geodesy- National Geodetic Survey-NOAA.gov
◦ Geodesy- P. Vanícek E.J. Krakiwsky
◦ Basic Geodesy: GIS Fundamentals and Mapping-
GeoMindz.com YOUTube Channel

Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU

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Dr ZubeidaAladwan Dept. of Surveying, AABU 1
• Geodesy is the science of accurately measuring and
understanding three fundamental properties of the
Earth: its geometric shape, its orientation in space,
and its gravity field— as well as the changes of
these properties with time.

• By using GPS, geodesists can monitor the

movement of a site 24 hours a day, seven days a
week.

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov
National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration

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• Many organizations use geodesy to map the U.S.
shoreline, determine land boundaries, and improve
transportation and navigation safety. To measure
points on the Earth’s surface, geodesists assign
coordinates (similar to a unique address) to points all
over the Earth. In the past, geodesists determined the
coordinates of points by using Earth-based
surveying tools to measure the distances between
points. Today, geodesists use space-based tools like
the Global Positioning System (GPS) to measure
points on the Earth’s surface.
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov
National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration

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 • Geodesists must accurately define the coordinates of
points on the surface of the Earth in a consistent
manner.
• A set of accurately measured points is the basis for
the National Spatial Reference System, which
allows different kinds of maps to be consistent with
one another.

The National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) is a consistent coordinate system

that defines latitude, longitude, height, scale, gravity, and orientation throughout
the United States
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov
National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration

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• To measure the Earth, geodesists build simple
mathematical models of the Earth which capture the
largest, most obvious features. Geodesists have adopted
the ellipsoid as the most basic model of the Earth.
Because the ellipsoid is based on a very simple
mathematical model, it can be completely smooth and
does not include any mountains or valleys.
• When additional detail of the Earth is needed, geodesists
use the geoid. A geoid has a shape very similar to global
mean sea level, but this exists over the whole globe, not
just over the oceans
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov
National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration
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Geodesy may be broadly divided into two branches, namely,

1.Geometric Geodesy.
2.Physical Geodesy.

There is a third one also, known as Satellite Geodesy.

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 Geodesy is the science of accurately
measuring and understanding the Earth's
geometric shape, orientation in space, and
gravity field.
 Today, geodesists use space-based tools like
the Global Positioning System (GPS) to
measure points on the Earth's surface

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/geodesy.html

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 Introduction
Historical development of geodesy

Basic concepts are the same today, GPS are the new ‘stars’
Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU
 Historical development

Pythagoras (~ 580-500 BC)

Suggested earth as sphere.

Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU

 Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes (276-195 BC)

• “Father of Geodesy”
• First to make measurement
of size of earth

Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU

A Bernardo Strozzi’s painting
Source: Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal
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Eratosthenes was born in Cyrene, a city located in
modern-day Libya, around 276 B.C. and in the year
236 B.C. became Chief Librarian of the prestigious
Library of Alexandria. He made contributions in
fields as apparently disparate as poetry, philosophy,
mathematics, astronomy, history and geography, among
others.

https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/mathematics/eratosthenes-measuring-the-impossible/

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How Eratosthenes calculated the
Earth's circumference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw30CgaXiQw&t=111s

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Wikimedia Commons 30
 Eratosthenes

• Measured length of shadow from a gnomon

at noon in Alexandria at the summer solstice
21/6 ‫(االنقالب الصيفي‬.
• In Syene )‫(اسوان‬, which was assumed to be on
same meridian and known to lie under the
Tropic of Cancer(23.5 degrees latitude), sun’s
rays reached the bottom of a well.

Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU

 Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes (215 BC)

S = 4400 stadia ~787 km
 = 7.2o, C = 39376 km

R  6371 km

Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU

 Eratosthenes

• How was distance measured?

1. Camel caravan traveled 100 stadia/day and took
about 50 days to travel distance.
2. Probably determined by Egyptian cadastral
maps made by ‘bematists’ clerks who measured
distances by walking evenly and counting their
steps).
• Calculated distance 5000 stadia therefore
circumference of earth 250,000 stadia

Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU

 Eratosthenes

• Difficulty in converting stadia into meters

therefore one estimate is the circumference is
too large by 16% and another 0.6% too Small.
• Errors:
1. Sun could not be directly overhead at time of
measurement off by about 22′.
2. Alexandria and Syene not on same meridian.
3. Unit conversion problem.

Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU

 Newton

Isaac Newton (1642-1727 AC)

• mathematician and physicist
• Suggested earth as ellipsoid.

Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU

 Newton
Newton demonstrated that the concept of a truly
spherical earth was inadequate as an explanation of
the equilibrium of the ocean surface.
He argued that because the earth is a rotating planet,
the forces created by its own rotation would tend to
force any liquids on the surface to the equator.
He showed, by means of a simple theoretical model,
that hydrostatic equilibrium would be maintained if
the equatorial axis of the earth were longer than the
polar axis.

Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU

 The shape of the earth
By the figure of the earth we mean the
topographical (physical) and the mathematical
surface of the earth. The physical surface of the
earth is the border between the solid or fluid
masses and the atmosphere.

then you should model it by mathematical one.

Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU

Spheroid Ellipsoide

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 Spheroid / Ellipsoid

Spheroid is a solid generated by rotating

an ellipse about either the major or minor
axis.
Ellipsoid is a solid for which all plane
sections through one axis are ellipses and
through the other are ellipses or circles.
If any two of the three axes of that ellipsoid
are equal, the figure becomes a spheroid
(ellipsoid of revolution).
If all three are equal, it becomes a sphere.
Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU
Geoid

Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU

 Geoid

The real shape of the earth is approximated by

the Geoid or mean sea level that is a surface of
constant gravity potential (equipotential
surface).
What we call the surface of the earth in the
geometrical sense is nothing more than that
surface which intersects everywhere the
direction of gravity at right angles, and part of
which coincides with the surface of the oceans.
Dr.A'kif Al_Fugara, Dept. of Surveying, AABU
Geoid and Ellipsoid
Geoid and Ellipsoid
“Positioning starts from the three-dimensional model, followed by
horizontal positioning and height determination, after proper reductions
to the ellipsoid and the geoid, respectively. “

Geodesy-Torge
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