Overview
- NASA published the visualization on July 15, based on GOCO06s, a gravity model built from more than one billion satellite observations gathered over 15 years.
- The graphic depicts the geoide, an equipotential surface that represents how mean sea level would lie if only gravity and Earth’s rotation acted, not the planet’s physical topography.
- Vertical differences in the animation have been exaggerated by about 10,000 times to make tiny gravity-driven variations visible, which in reality range roughly from +85 meters in Iceland to −106 meters in parts of southern India.
- The GOCO06s model was compiled by the GOCO project using data from 19 satellites, including NASA’s GRACE missions and ESA’s GOCE mission.
- Scientists say the geoide model matters for practical work such as precise maps, GPS and navigation calibration, tracking sea-level and glacier mass changes, and modernizing vertical datums used by agencies like NOAA.