Abstract
The impacts of satellite geodesy are being felt in all aspects of human development and environmental management. Its principal advantages stem from the global nature of its scope, the diversity of its sensors and the realtime capabilities to capture both visual, numerical and other data types for as long as desired and in all weather conditions. The capacity to pinpoint locations to high precision in fractions of a second and provide detailed geometric and graphical definitions of large swaths are proving useful for meeting the needs of a people desirous for automation in all aspects of human endeavours and for confronting the increasing challenges of sustainable development and environmental degradation. The most innovative facility provided by satellite geodesy is the technology of remote sensing which enables measurements of objects without physical contact for interpretative and mensurative analysis and mapping in static or kinematic modes. The aim of this paper is to showcase the contributions of satellite geodesy to sustainable environmental management its basic concepts and a brief exploration of some of its applications. The overall objective is to underscore its critical role in socio-economic development. The paper posits therefore that today’s rapidly changing environmental problems requiring static and realtime locational and graphical solutions can be solved through the facilities of satellite geodesy.
Highlights
Traditional geodesy has been known to be a means of defining the physical features of the global earth in mathematical, numerical and graphical forms for purposes of understanding and portraying the geographical distribution of its resources and their influence on socio-economic development
The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and other types of satellite systems with diverse sensors constitute one of the most recent innovations of geodesy which when used in combination with the new and intelligent software packages that can manage large spatial data in both real time and offline modes, can support a wide range of innovative applications in environmental management with optimal precision
The technology of GNSS in satellite geodesy can be deployed in acquiring accurate data for high-resolution Digital Terrain Model (DTM) creation using the real-time kinematic method of Global Positioning System (GPS) based on either a reference global and/or local geoid model
Summary
Traditional geodesy has been known to be a means of defining the physical features of the global earth in mathematical, numerical and graphical forms for purposes of understanding and portraying the geographical distribution of its resources and their influence on socio-economic development. In relation to Helmert’s classical definition (1880) of geodesy, which is basically still valid, the objectives of satellite geodesy are today mainly considered in an efficient way as indispensable to virtually all human sphere for socio-economic development, space science and technology, (Fubara, 2006) This branch of geodesy adopts observations connecting points on the earth’s surface to dynamic or stationary spatial points and uses the theories of celestial mechanics, dynamical and spherical astronomy to fix the points in space and on the earth surface. The use of satellite geodesy has some prerequisites; these are basically a comprehensive knowledge of the satellite motion under the influences of all acting forces as well as the description of the positions of the satellites, orbital parameters and ground stations in suitable references frames This method is an accurate means of relative-position determination of points on the earth's surface as shown, which are separated by thousands of kilometres. The results of geodetic- astronomic, space-based gravimetric observations are used within the field of astronomy and physical geodesy for the determination of the gravity field of the earth (Torge, 1991)
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