Satellite Gravimetry and the Solid Earth

Satellite Gravimetry and the Solid Earth: Mathematical Foundations presents the theories behind satellite gravimetry data and their connections to solid Earth. It covers the theory of satellite gravimetry and data analysis, presenting it in a way that is accessible across geophysical disciplines. Through a discussion of satellite measurements and the mathematical concepts behind them, the book shows how various satellite measurements, such as satellite orbit, acceleration, vector gravimetry, gravity gradiometry, and integral energy methods can contribute to an understanding of the gravity field and solid Earth geophysics. Bridging the gap between geodesy and geophysics, this book is a valuable resource for researchers and students studying gravity, gravimetry and a variety of geophysical and Earth Science fields. Presents mathematical concepts in a pedagogic and straightforward way to enhance understanding across disciplines Explains how a variety of satellite data can be used for gravity field determination and other geophysical applications Covers a number of problems related to gravimetry and the gravity field, as well as the effects of atmospheric and topographic factors on the data Addresses the regularization method for solving integral equations, isostasy based on gravimetric and flexure methods, elastic thickness, and sub-lithospheric stress

Over the last two decades, satellite gravimetry has become a new remote sensing technique that provides a detailed global picture of the physical structure of the Earth. With the CHAMP, GRACE, GOCE and GRACE Follow-On missions, mass distribution and mass transport in the Earth system can be systematically observed and monitored from space. A wide range of Earth science disciplines benefit from these data, enabling improvements in applied models, providing new insights into Earth system processes (e.g., monitoring the global water cycle, ice sheet and glacier melting or sea-level rise) or establishing new operational services. Long time series of mass transport data are needed to disentangle anthropogenic and natural sources of climate change impacts on the Earth system. In order to secure sustained observations on a long-term basis, space agencies and the Earth science community are currently planning future satellite gravimetry mission concepts to enable higher accuracy and better spatial and temporal resolution. This Special Issue provides examples of recent improvements in gravity observation techniques and data processing and analysis, applications in the fields of hydrology, glaciology and solid Earth based on satellite gravimetry data, as well as concepts of future satellite constellations for monitoring mass transport in the Earth system.

This volume contains the proceedings of 24 peer-reviewed papers presented at the 3rd International Gravity Field Service (IGFS) General Assembly, which was organized by the International Gravity Field Service (IGFS), Commission 2 of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG), and Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO), Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Assembly was successfully held in Shanghai, China from June 30th to July 6th, 2014 with over 130 participants from 25 countries. The focus of the Assembly is on methods for observing, estimating and interpreting the Earth gravity field as well as its applications, including 6 sessions: gravimetry and gravity networks, global geopotential models and vertical datum unification, local geoid/gravity modelling, satellite gravimetry, mass movements in the Earth system and solid Earth investigations.

New and more accurate techniques for satellite gravimetry will be available soon, with promising applications in Earth sciences. With this special issue the authors want to stimulate discussion among Earth scientists on objectives and preferences for future satellite gravimetry missions. This is an urgently needed discussion. Visions for follow-on missions have to be developed today, if they are to be realized within 10 years, given the required preparation time of such satellite missions.

For the past three decades, it has been possible to measure the earth's static gravity from satellites. Such measurements have been used to address many important scientific problems, including the earth's internal structure, and geologically slow processes like mantle convection. In principle, it is possible to resolve the time-varying component of the gravity field by improving the accuracy of satellite gravity measurements. These temporal variations are caused by dynamic processes that change the mass distribution in the earth, oceans, and atmosphere. Acquisition of improved time-varying gravity data would open a new class of important scientific problems to analysis, including crustal motions associated with earthquakes and changes in groundwater levels, ice dynamics, sea-level changes, and atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns. This book evaluates the potential for using satellite technologies to measure the time-varying component of the gravity field and assess the utility of these data for addressing problems of interest to the earth sciences, natural hazards, and resource communities.

The past few decades have witnessed the growth of the Earth Sciences in the pursuit of knowledge and understanding of the planet that we live on. This development addresses the challenging endeavor to enrich human lives with the bounties of Nature as well as to preserve the planet for the generations to come. Solid Earth Geophysics aspires to define and quantify the internal structure and processes of the Earth in terms of the principles of physics and forms the intrinsic framework, which other allied disciplines utilize for more specific investigations. The first edition of the Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics was published in 1989 by Van Nostrand Reinhold publishing company. More than two decades later, this new volume, edited by Prof. Harsh K. Gupta, represents a thoroughly revised and expanded reference work. It brings together more than 200 articles covering established and new concepts of Geophysics across the various sub-disciplines such as Gravity, Geodesy, Geomagnetism, Seismology, Seismics, Deep Earth Processes, Plate Tectonics, Thermal Domains, Computational Methods, etc. in a systematic and consistent format and standard. It is an authoritative and current reference source with extraordinary width of scope. It draws its unique strength from the expert contributions of editors and authors across the globe. It is designed to serve as a valuable and cherished source of information for current and future generations of professionals.

Modern Earth System Monitoring represents a fundamental change in the way scientists study the Earth System. In Oceanography, for the past two centuries, ships have provided the platforms for observing. Expeditions on the continents and Earth’s poles are land-based analogues. Fundamental understanding of current systems, climate, natural hazards, and ecosystems has been greatly advanced. While these approaches have been remarkably successful, the need to establish measurements over time can only be made using Earth observations and observatories with exacting standards and continuous data. The 19 peer-reviewed contributions in this volume provide early insights into this emerging view of Earth in both space and time in which change is a critical component of our growing understanding.

This thesis provides multidisciplinary perspectives on changes in global mass transports, especially in the global water cycle. It investigates the current time-varying states regarding global sea level, terrestrial water storage, mountain glacier mass and highland crustal deformation, drawing on fifteen years of satellite gravimetry observation to do so. The results reveal tremendous changes in various aspects of the global environment, which are due to both anthropogenic and natural factors. Further, the research presented here sheds new light on underlying connections and mechanisms in the global mass transport system.

Climate change has been the subject of thousands of books and magazines, scientific journals, and newspaper articles daily. It’s a subject that can be very political and emotional, often blurring the lines between fact and fiction. The vast majority of research, studies, projections and recommendations tend to focus on the human influence on climate change and global warming as the result of CO2 emissions, often to the exclusion of other threats that include population growth and the stress placed on energy sources due to emerging global affluence. Climate Vulnerability seeks to strip away the politics and emotion that surround climate change and will assess the broad range of threats using the bottom up approach—including CO2 emissions, population growth, emerging affluence, and many others—to our five most critical resources: water, food, ecosystems, energy, and human health. Inclusively determining what these threats are while seeking preventive measures and adaptations is at the heart of this unique reference work. Takes a Bottom-Up approach, addressing climate change and the threat to our key resources at the local level first and globally second, providing a more accurate and inclusive approach. Includes extensive cross-referencing, which is key to readers as new connections between factors can be discovered. Cuts across a number of disciplines and will appeal to Biological Science, Earth & Environmental Science, Ecology, and Social Science, comprehensively addressing climate change and other threats to our key resources from multiple perspectives

Climate Vulnerability, Volume 5

Advances in Geosciences is the result of a concerted effort to bring together the latest results and planning activities related to earth and space science in Asia and the international arena. The volume editors are all leading scientists in their research fields covering six sections: Atmospheric Science (AS), Hydrological Science (HS), Ocean Science (OS), Solid Earth (SE), Solar Terrestrial (ST) and Planetary Science (PS). The main purpose is to highlight the scientific issues essential to the study of earthquakes, tsunamis, atmospheric dust storms, climate change, drought, flood, typhoons, monsoons, space weather, and planetary exploration.

Advances in Geosciences is the result of a concerted effort to bring together the latest results and planning activities related to earth and space science in Asia and the international arena. The volume editors are all leading scientists in their research fields covering six sections: Atmospheric Science (AS), Hydrological Science (HS), Ocean Science (OS), Solid Earth (SE), Solar Terrestrial (ST) and Planetary Science (PS). The main purpose is to highlight the scientific issues essential to the study of earthquakes, tsunamis, atmospheric dust storms, climate change, drought, flood, typhoons, monsoons, space weather, and planetary exploration. This volume is abstracted in NASA's Astrophysics Data System: http://ads.harvard.edu Contents:Volume 10: Atmospheric Science (AS) Rainfall over Thailand during ENSO (1997–2000) (Wonlee & Prungchan)Formation of Tropical Cyclone Concentric Eye Walls by Wave–Mean Flow Interactions (J-Y Peng et al.)Anthropogenic Aerosol Radiative Forcing in the INDO-Gangetic Basi (S Dey & S N Tripathi)and other papersVolume 11: Hydrological Science (HS)Study for the Fresh Ground Water Resources, Neil, Island, India (V K Saxena)Emerging Concepts in Hydrology for Tropical Pacific Regimes (J Terry)Analysis of Monami Waves in Aquatic Vegetation (S Patil et al.)and other papersVolume 12: Ocean Science (OS)3D Current Characteristics Simulation with ANN (C Z Chew et al.)Classification of Ocean Waves from the Data Buoy Measurements (R Balaji et al.)Intercomparison of Various Latent Heat Flux Products in the South China Sea (Zhen et al.)and other papersVolume 13: Solid Earth (SE)The International Laser Ranging Service (M Pearlman et al.)Numerical Modeling of the 2006 Java Tsunami Earthquake (N R Hanifa et al.)Statistical Properties and Time Trend in the Number of Holocene Volcanic Eruptions. (A N Zemtsov & A A Tron)and other papersVolume 14: Solar Terrestrial (ST)ULF Waves: Exploring the Earth's Magnetosphere (B J Fraser)Spectrum of Density Fluctuations in the Solar Wind (V Krishnan)Polarization Properties of the Ultra-Low Frequency Waves in Non-Axisymmetric Background Magnetic Fields (K Kabin et al.)and other papersVolume 15: Planetary Science (PS)X-Rays from Nonmagnetic Planets (K Dennerl)Clouds, Clumps, Cores, and Comets — A Cosmic Chemical Connection? (S B Charnley & S D Rodgers)Comparative X-Ray Studies of Planetary Aurorae (G Branduardi-Raymont)and other papers Readership: Academics, researchers and postgraduate students in geosciences. Key Features: Provides an important source of new and not-yet-published results from the growing Asian and international geoscience community Presents a unique view of the rapid scientific progress made by Asian researchers in topics crucial to the future of the global environment Highlights a first-hand description of how the largest scientific population in the world is working together to manage the environmental problems which will determine the economic and social growth of the world itselfKeywords:Planetary Science;Atmosphere;Ionosphere;Magnetosphere “This set is the result of an effort to bring together the latest results and planning activities related to earth and space science in Asia and the international arena. The main purpose of this set is to highlight the scientific issues essential to the study of earthquakes, tsunami, atmospheric dust storms, climate change, drought, floods, typhoons, monsoons, space weather, and planetary exploration.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

This book will be based on the material of the lecture noties in several International Schools for the Determination and Use of the Geoid, organized by the International Geoid Serivice of the International Association of Geodesy. It consolidates, unifies, and streamlines this material in a unique way not covereed by the few other books that exist on this subjext. More specifically, the book presents (for the first time in a single volume) the theory and methodology of the most common technique used for precise determination of the geoid, including the computation of the marine geoid from satellite altimetry data. These are illustrated by specific examples and actual computations of local geoids. In addition, the book provides the fundamentals of estimating orthometric heights without spirit levelling, by properly combining a geoid with heights from GPS. Besides the geodectic and geophysical uses, this last application has made geoid computation methods very popular in recent years because the entire GPS and GIS user communities are interested in estimating geoid undulations in order to convert GPS heights to physically meaningful orthometric heights (elevations above mean sea level). The overall purpose of the book is, therefore, to provide the user community (academics, graduate students, geophysicists, engineers, oceanographers, GIS and GPS users, researchers) with a self-contained textbook, which will supply them with the complete roadmap of estimating geoid undulations, from the theoretical definitions and formulas to the available numerical methods and their implementation and the test in practice.

These proceedings contain a selection of peer-reviewed papers presented at the International Symposium on Geodesy for Earthquake and Natural Hazards (GENAH), Matsushima, Japan, 22-26 July, 2014. The scientific sessions focused on monitoring temporal and spatial changes in Earth's lithosphere and atmosphere using geodetic satellite systems, high rate GNSS as well as high resolution imaging (InSAR, Lidar). Researchers in various fields of geodesy discussed the role of geodesy in disaster mitigation and how groups with different techniques can collaborate toward such a goal.

The report reviews NASA's solid-earth science strategy, placing particular emphasis on observational strategies for measuring surface deformation, high-resolution topography, surface properties, and the variability of the earth’s magnetic and gravity fields. The report found that NASA is uniquely positioned to implement these observational strategies and that a number of agency programs would benefit from the resulting data. In particular, the report strongly endorses the near-term launch of a satellite dedicated to L-band InSAR measurements of the land surface, which is a key component of the U.S. Geological Survey’s hazards mitigation program and the multi-agency EarthScope program.

The Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) has been established by the Int- national Association of Geodesy (IAG) in order to integrate the three fundamental areas of geodesy, so as to monitor geodetic parameters and their temporal varia- ?9 tions, in a global reference frame with a target relative accuracy of 10 or b- ter. These areas, often called ‘pillars’, deal with the determination and evolution of (a) the Earth’s geometry (topography, bathymetry, ice surface, sea level), (b) the Earth’s rotation and orientation (polar motion, rotation rate, nutation, etc. ), and (c) the Earth’s gravity eld (gravity, geoid). Therefore, Earth Observation on a global scale is at the heart of GGOS’s activities, which contributes to Global Change - search through the monitoring, as well as the modeling, of dynamic Earth processes such as, for example, mass and angular momentum exchanges, mass transport and ocean circulation, and changes in sea, land and ice surfaces. To achieve such an - bitious goal, GGOS relies on an integrated network of current and future terrestrial, airborne and satellite systems and technologies. These include: various positioning, navigation, remote sensing and dedicated gravity and altimetry satellite missions; global ground networks of VLBI, SLR, DORIS, GNSS and absolute and relative gravity stations; and airborne gravity, mapping and remote sensing systems.

Man’s intensifying use of the Earth’s habitat has led to an urgent need for scientifically advanced ‘geo-prediction systems’ that accurately locate subsurface resources and forecast the timing and magnitude of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and land subsidence. As advances in the earth sciences lead to process-oriented ways of modeling the complex processes in the solid Earth, the papers in this volume provide a survey of some recent developments at the leading edge of this highly technical discipline. The chapters cover current research in predicting the future behavior of geologic systems as well as the mapping of geologic patterns that exist now in the subsurface as frozen evidence of the past. Both techniques are highly relevant to humanity’s need for resources such as water, and will also help us control environmental degradation. The book also discusses advances made in seismological methods to obtain information on the 3D structure of the mantle and the lithosphere, and in the quantitative understanding of lithospheric scale processes. It covers recent breakthroughs in 3D seismic imaging that have enhanced the spatial resolution of these structural processes, and the move towards 4D imaging that measures these processes over time. The new frontier in modern Earth sciences described in this book has major implications for oceanographic and atmospheric sciences and our understanding of climate variability. It brings readers right up to date with the research in this vital field.