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A Determination Of The Earth's Gravity Field In Spheroidal Coordinates, M. Spencer Hamilton Jr.

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The earth's gravity field G * at a point P in the region surrounding the earth's surface is defined as the force acting on a unit mass concentrated at P. This is a force resulting from two components: (1) G₁ due to the gravitational attraction of the earth's mass, and (2) G₂ due to the earth's rotation.

As a result of Newton's law of gravitation, G₁ can be written in integral form as follows:

G₁ = k ( (_V ( rdm/r³

where r = PQ, r = |r|, Q is a point which ranges …