The objectives of planetary geodesy are to determine the gravity, topography and rotation of the planets. These measurements are put to two basic uses. In a somewhat pragmatic vein, the geodetic parameters are useful for navigational purposes: the motion of a spacecraft in orbit around a planet, relative to features of interest on the planetary surface, depends on the gravity, topography, and rotation of the planet. On the other hand, these same geodetic parameters provide the only remotely accessible information on the internal mass distribution in the planet.
The methods used to obtain geodetic information on the planets are quite diverse. The earliest estimates of planetary masses came from observing the orbital motions of natural satellites. For a small satellite, the size of the orbit (semimajor axis a) and the mean orbital angular velocity (mean motion n) are related to the mass of the primary body M via GM = a 3 n 2, where Gis the gravitational coupling constant. Through the...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Bibliography
Anderson, J. D. (1975) Planetary geodesy. Rev. Geophys. 13, 274–5.
Bills, B. G. (1989) Planetary geodesy, In D. E. James (ed.), Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, pp 931–8.
Bills, B. G. and Synnott, S. P. (1987) Planetary geodesy. Rev. Geophys. 25, 833–9.
Bretagnon, P. (1982) Integration constants and mean elements for all the planets, Astron. Astrophys., 108, 69–75.
Davies, M. E., Bursa, M., Abalakin, V. K. et al. (1986) Cartographic coordinates and rotational elements of the planets and satellites. Celest. Mech., 39, 103–3.
De Vaucouleurs, G. (1964) Geometric and photometric parameters of the terrestrial planets. Icarus 3, 187–235.
Ferrari, A. J., and Bills, B. G. (1979) Planetary geodesy. Rev. Geophys. 17, 1663–77.
Hubbard, W. B., (1984) Planetary Interiors. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Sjogren, W. L., 1983, Planetary geodesy. Rev. Geophys., 21, 528–37.
Earth; Earth rotation; Gravity fields of the terrestrial planets; Jupiter; Mars; Mars: gravity; Mercury; Moon: gravity; Neptune; Planet; Planetary rotation; Pluto; Saturn; Uranus; Venus; Venus: gravity
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Chapman & Hall
About this entry
Cite this entry
Bills, B.G. (1997). Planetary geodesy . In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4520-4_313
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4520-4_313
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-0-412-06951-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4520-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive