Reference ellipsoid

In geodesy
geodesy,, a reference ellipsoid is a mat hemat ically defined surface t hat approximat es t he
geoid,, which is t he t ruer, imperfect figure of t he Eart h,
geoid h, or ot her planet ary body, as opposed t o a
perfect , smoot h, and unalt ered sphere, which fact ors in t he undulat ions of t he bodies' gravit y
due t o variat ions in t he composit ion and densit y of t he int erior, as well as t he subsequent
flat t ening caused by t he cent rifugal force from t he rot at ion of t hese massive object s (for
planet ary bodies t hat do rot at e).
Because of t heir relat ive simplicit y, reference ellipsoids are
used as a preferred surface on which geodet ic net work comput at ions are performed and point
coordinat es such as lat it ude, longit ude, and elevat ion are defined.

Flattened sphere
In t he cont ext of st andardizat ion and geographic applicat ions, a geodesic reference ellipsoid is
t he mat hemat ical model used as foundat ion by spat ial reference syst em or geodet ic dat um
definit ions.

Ellipsoid parameters

In 1687 Isaac Newt on published t he Principia in which he included a proof t hat a rot at ing self-
gravit at ing fluid body in equilibrium t akes t he form of a flat t ened ("oblat e") ellipsoid of revolut ion,
generat ed by an ellipse rot at ed around it s minor diamet er; a shape which he t ermed an oblat e
spheroid.[1][2]

In geophysics, geodesy, and relat ed areas, t he word 'ellipsoid' is underst ood t o mean 'oblat e
ellipsoid of revolut ion', and t he older t erm 'oblat e spheroid' is hardly used.[3][4] For bodies t hat
cannot be well approximat ed by an ellipsoid of revolut ion a t riaxial (or scalene) ellipsoid is used.

The shape of an ellipsoid of revolut ion is det ermined by t he shape paramet ers of t hat ellipse.
The semi-major axis of t he ellipse, a, becomes t he equat orial radius of t he ellipsoid: t he semi-
minor axis of t he ellipse, b, becomes t he dist ance from t he cent re t o eit her pole. These t wo
lengt hs complet ely specify t he shape of t he ellipsoid.

In geodesy publicat ions, however, it is common t o specify t he semi-major axis (equat orial radius)
a and t he flat t ening f, defined as:

That is, f is t he amount of flat t ening at each pole, relat ive t o t he radius at t he equat or. This is
oft en expressed as a fract ion 1/m; m = 1/f t hen being t he "inverse flat t ening". A great many
ot her ellipse paramet ers are used in geodesy but t hey can all be relat ed t o one or t wo of t he set
a, b and f.

A great many ellipsoids have been used t o model t he Eart h in t he past , wit h different assumed
values of a and b as well as different assumed posit ions of t he cent er and different axis
orient at ions relat ive t o t he solid Eart h. St art ing in t he lat e t went iet h cent ury, improved
measurement s of sat ellit e orbit s and st ar posit ions have provided ext remely accurat e
det erminat ions of t he eart h's cent er of mass and of it s axis of revolut ion; and t hose paramet ers
have been adopt ed also for all modern reference ellipsoids.
The ellipsoid WGS-84, widely used for mapping and sat ellit e navigat ion has f close t o 1/300
(more precisely, 1/298.257223563, by definit ion), corresponding t o a difference of t he major and
minor semi-axes of approximat ely 21 km (13 miles) (more precisely, 21.3846857548205 km). For
comparison, Eart h's Moon is even less ellipt ical, wit h a flat t ening of less t han 1/825, while Jupit er
is visibly oblat e at about 1/15 and one of Sat urn's t riaxial moons, Telest o, is highly flat t ened, wit h
f bet ween 1/3 and 1/2 (meaning t hat t he polar diamet er is bet ween 50% and 67% of t he
equat orial.

Geodetic coordinates

Geodetic coordinates P(ɸ,λ,h)

Geodet ic coordinat es are a t ype of curvilinear ort hogonal coordinat e syst em used in geodesy
based on a reference ellipsoid.
They include geodet ic lat it ude (nort h/sout h) ϕ, longitude
(east /west ) λ, and ellipsoidal height h (also known as geodet ic height [5]).

The t riad is also known as Eart h ellipsoidal coordinat es[6] (not t o be confused wit h ellipsoidal-
harmonic coordinates).

Historical Earth ellipsoids

Equatorial (a), polar (b) and mean Earth radii as defined in the 1984 World Geodetic System revision (not to scale)

Current ly t he most common reference ellipsoid used, and t hat used in t he cont ext of t he Global
Posit ioning Syst em, is t he one defined by WGS 84.

Tradit ional reference ellipsoids or geodetic datums are defined regionally and t herefore non-
geocent ric, e.g., ED50. Modern geodet ic dat ums are est ablished wit h
t he aid of GPS and will
t herefore be geocent ric, e.g., WGS 84.

See also

Eart h ellipsoid

Eart h radius of curvat ure

Great ellipse

Meridian arc

Normal gravit y

Planet ary coordinat e syst em

Notes

1. Heine, George (September 2013). "Euler and the Flattening of the Earth". Math Horizons. 21 (1): 25–29.
doi:10.4169/mathhorizons.21.1.25 (https://doi.org/10.4169%2Fmathhorizons.21.1.25) .
S2CID 126412032 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:126412032) .
 2. Choi, Charles Q. (12 April 2007). "Strange but True: Earth Is Not Round" (https://www.scientificamerica
n.com/article/earth-is-not-round/) . Scientific American. Retrieved 4 May 2021.

3. Torge, W (2001) Geodesy (3rd edition), published by de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-017072-8

4. Snyder, John P. (1993). Flattening the Earth: Two Thousand Years of Map Projections. University of
Chicago Press. p. 82. ISBN 0-226-76747-7.

5. National Geodetic Survey (U.S.).; National Geodetic Survey (U.S.) (1986). Geodetic Glossary (https://bo
oks.google.com/books?id=sBlyBIfdHL8C&pg=PA107) . NOAA technical publications. U.S. Department
of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service, Charting and
Geodetic Services. p. 107. Retrieved 2021-10-24.

6. Awange, J.L.; Grafarend, E.W.; Paláncz, B.; Zaletnyik, P. (2010). Algebraic Geodesy and Geoinformatics
(https://books.google.com/books?id=XrCBEVCwAewC&pg=PA156) . Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
p. 156. ISBN 978-3-642-12124-1. Retrieved 2021-10-24.

References

P. K. Seidelmann (Chair), et al. (2005), “Report Of The IAU/IAG Working Group On Cart ographic
Coordinat es And Rot at ional Element s: 2003,” Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy,
91, pp. 203–215.
Web address: ht t ps://ast rogeology.usgs.gov/Project s/WGCCRE

OpenGIS Implementation Specification for Geographic information - Simple feature access - Part
1: Common architecture, Annex B.4. 2005-11-30
Web address: ht t p://www.opengeospat ial.org

External links

Geographic coordinat e syst em (ht t p://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocent er/db2luw/v8/t opic/co

m.ibm.db2.udb.doc/opt /csb3022a.ht m)

Coordinat e syst ems and t ransformat ions (ht t p://www.spenvis.oma.be/help/background/coort r

an/coort ran.ht ml) (SPENVIS help page)

Coordinat e Syst ems, Frames and Dat ums (ht t ps://web.archive.org/web/20061005140011/ht t

p://www.agnld.uni-pot sdam.de/~shw/3_ References/0_ GPS/GPSHelmert 1.ht ml)