On The Linearized Boundary Value Problems Of Physical Geodesy

On the Linearized Boundary Value Problems of Physical Geodesy

Geodetic Boundary Value Problem: the Equivalence between Molodensky’s and Helmert’s Solutions

This book offers a new approach to interpreting the geodetic boundary value problem, successfully obtaining the solutions of the Molodensky and Stokes boundary value problems (BVPs) with the help of downward continuation (DC) based methods. Although DC is known to be an improperly posed operation, classical methods seem to provide numerically sensible results, and therefore it can be concluded that such classical methods must in fact be manifestations of different, mathematically sound approaches. Here, the authors first prove the equivalence of Molodensky’s and Stoke's approaches with Helmert’s reduction in terms of both BVP formulation and BVP solutions by means of the DC method. They then go on to show that this is not merely a downward continuation operation, and provide more rigorous interpretations of the DC approach as a change of boundary approach and as a pseudo BVP solution approach.

Geodesy - the Challenge of the 3rd Millennium

Geodesy as the science which determines the figure of the earth, its orientation in space and its gravity field as well as its temporal changes, produces key elements in describing the kinematics and the dynamics of the deformable body "earth". It contributes in particular to geodynamics and opens the door to decode the complex interactions between components of "the system earth". In the breathtaking development recently a whole arsenal of new terrestrial, airborne as well as satelliteborne measurement techniques for earth sciences have been made available and have broadened the spectrum of measurable earth parameters with an unforeseen accuracy and precision, in particular to resolve the factor time. The book focusses on these topics and gives a state of the art of modern geodesy.