"Introduction to Geodesy: The History and Concept of Modern Geodesy" by James R. Smith

Abstract

Geodesy, the study of the size and shape of the Earth, has undergone a major revolution since start of the space-age with the launch of Sputnik in 1957. The use of Earth-orbiting satellites fundamentally changed the way the positions of points on the Earth were measured and yielded for the first time truly global measurements of the Earth's gravity and magnetic fields. James R. Smith's book Introduction to Geodesy: The History and Concepts of Modern Geodesy traces the developments in geodesy from its earliest beginnings with Pythagoras (c. 580-500 B.C.) to the modern applications of the Global Positioning System (GPS). The book is non-technical (by design) and addresses the major issues in historical and modern geodesy through illustrative examples. The major conceptual issue that the book needs to address is the distinction between measurements made with respect to the Earth's gravity field (nearly all conventional methods) and the modern geodetic...