Abstract
The Earth's gravitational field, and hence the shape of the Earth's sea-level surface, the geoid, can be determined from analysis of the motion of artificial satellites in orbit about the Earth. The method is particularly powerful in revealing the longitude-averaged meridional profile of the geoid, that is, an average slice through the poles, which from its north–south asymmetry is often called ‘pear-shaped’. We now report an improved determination of this profile, which should be accurate to about 50 cm at latitudes up to 86°, and replaces our previous evaluation1,2.
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King-Hele, D., Brookes, C. & Cook, G. The pear-shaped section of the Earth. Nature 286, 377–378 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/286377a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/286377a0
