NASA has released a new interactive 3D model of the Earth’s geoid, the theoretical surface the oceans would have if they were influenced solely by gravity, without the effects of wind, tides or ocean currents.
The model, published by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio, provides a detailed picture of how Earth’s gravitational field influences the shape of the oceans and is one of the most accurate visualizations of the geoid to date, ESA notes.
What is the geoid?
The geoid is an equipotential surface that serves as a reference for defining sea level and elevations on Earth.
Because gravity is not uniform across the planet, ocean levels do not form a perfectly smooth surface. Differences in gravitational attraction cause this surface to be slightly undulating, even though the variations are very small on a planetary scale.
According to NASA, the height of the geoid varies between +85 meters, near Iceland, and -106 meters, in southern India.
The model is based on over a billion observations
The data used come from the global gravity model GOCO06s, made within the Gravity Observation Combination (GOCO) project.
It is built on more than a billion observations collected over 15 years by 19 satellites, including NASA’s GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) missions.
Combining these measurements allows researchers to identify very fine anomalies in the Earth’s gravitational field.
The model is exaggerated 10,000 times
NASA notes that the shape shown in the animation and 3D model is not to scale.
In order for the height differences to be visible to the naked eye, the geoid variations were exaggerated 10,000 times. In reality, these bumps are extremely small relative to the size of the planet and almost impossible to notice.
In addition to the exaggerated version, NASA also published a full-scale rendering, in which the surface of the geoid appears almost perfectly smooth.
The new interactive model allows users to rotate and examine the shape of the geoid from any angle and better understand how gravity affects the planet.
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