GREEN'S FUNCTIONS IN PHYSICAL GEODESY AND THE COMPUTATION OF THE EXTERNAL GRAVITY FIELD AND THE GEODETIC BOUNDARY VALUE PROBLEM.

Abstract

Of the two main approaches to boundary value problems-the use of Green's functions and of integral equations--the latter approach has been chosen almost exclusively for the geodetic boundary value problem. The present report shows how Green's functions may be used for re-deriving known formulas and also for obtaining new results. Formulas for the third boundary value problem for the sphere are developed and then specialized to Stokes' problem. As a limiting case, the boundary value problem for the plane is briefly considered. Then a formula for the variation of Green's function with the boundary surface is developed and applied to the problem of Molodensky. The main purpose of the present paper is to give formulas and, as an appendix, some estimates for the effect of topographic height on these computations. In addition, the paper presents connections between the determination of the external gravity field from surface data, which is related to the conventional boundary value problems of potential theory, and the determination of the earth's physical surface itself, which is specifically geodetic boundary value problem.

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1965
Accession Number
AD0620035

Entities

People

  • Helmut Moritz

Organizations

  • Ohio State University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Boundaries
  • Boundary Value Problems
  • Computations
  • Equations
  • Integral Equations
  • Integrals
  • Mathematical Analysis
  • Potential Theory

Fields of Study

  • Mathematics

Readers

  • Calculus or Mathematical Analysis
  • Geodesy