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.