Gravity and Low Frequency Geodynamics

Preface to the Series Physics and Evolution of the Earth's Interior. Preface (R. Teisseyre). 1. The Earth's Gravity Field. Introduction (R. Teisseyre). Properties of the gravitational potential (C. Denis). The Green-Gauss identities (R. Teisseyre). The Earth's gravity field and the Stokes formula (R. Teisseyre). Decomposition of the gravitational potential into spherical harmonics (C. Denis). The Earth's inertia tensor (C. Denis, R. Teisseyre). The geoid (J.B. Zielinski). Gravimetric reductions, isostasy and gravity anomalies (J.B. Zielinski). Molodensky boundary-value problem (E. Majewski). 2. Space Geodesy Methods (J.B. Zielinski). Dynamic of satellite motion. Gravity field parameters from changes or orbits. Direct sounding of the geopotential. Geodetic positioning by satellites. New space methods. Very Long Base Interferometry (VLBI). 3. The Hydrostatic Figure of the Earth (C. Denis). Introduction. The figure of the Earth deduced from satellite data. The symmetry of equilibrium figures. The Clairaut-Laplace internal field theory. Foundation of the theory of figures. On the hydrostatic flattening of the Earth and some geophysical implications. 4. The Earth's Rotation (H. Legros, M. Amalvict). Historical evolution of the problem - rotation and observations. Principles and fundamental concepts. Deformation of the global Earth. Expression for the inner relations - constitutive equations. Systems of equations. Tesseral movements, free and forced. Study of precession and nutations. Axial rotation - rotation and geophysical problems. Numerical Love numbers. Conclusion. 5. Observational Determination of the Earth's Rotations (B. Kolaczek). Historical evolution of observational determination of the Earth's rotation. Methods of observations. Time scales. References coordinate systems. Results of analysis of the Earth's rotation parameters determined observationally. 6. Free Oscillations of the Earth (Z. Czechowski). Introduction. Free oscillations of a homogeneous liquid sphere. SNREI model. Excitation of free oscillations. Effect of general aspherical perturbation on the free oscillations. Generalized spherical harmonics approach. Oscillations of the Earth's fluid core. Inversion of the free oscillation data. 7. Earth Tides (T. Chojnicki). 8. Gravity and Reference Models (J.B. Zielinski, R. Teisseyre). Reference ellipsoid. Combined solutions. Geophysical interpretation. 9. Fundamental Systems of Astronomical and Geodetical Constants (B. Kolaczek). Introduction. The IAU system of astronomical constants. Geodetic reference systems. MERIT standards. Index.