The course covers mathematical models and methods used for describing Earth's gravity field: gravitation, rotation and potential, terrestrial and satellite gravimetry, geoid computation and height systems, including elements from parameter estimation and statistics.

The Department of Geomatics educates candidates who, upon completion of their degree, will be able to contribute to reaching the following selected Sustainable Development Goals: (3) Good Health and Well-being, (6) Clean Water and Sanitation, (9) Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, (11) Sustainable Cities and Communities, and (13) Climate Action.

Geodesy concerns monitoring variations in the Earth's shape, gravity field, and rotation, i.e., dynamic processes linked to geophysics, hydrology, cryosphere, atmospheric science, ocanography, and climate change. The measured changes span timescales from seconds to decades, with some processes continuing over thousands (postglacial rebound) or millions (plate tectonics) of years. As such, geodesy forms a fundamental tool for monitoring the Earth system, and, in turn, developing strategies for sustainable adaptation of human behavior to it.

A key concern is the continued improvement of infrastructure, which is decisive for the development of sustainable cities and communities. For example, an improved vertical reference frame will give more reliable predictions of future sea-level rates, which in turn will be used for coastal planning and climate studies. A global geodetic reference frame is understood as critical infrastructure, which long-term maintenance is the concern of the UN-GGIM Subcommittee on Sustaining the Global Geodetic Reference Frame (https://www.unggrf.org/).

The students will learn the theoretical basis for computation methods and measurement techniques in physical geodesy, and apply this to problems in geoid computation and height systems.

By the end of the course, the students will be able to describe a physical reference system including its gravity field, perform measurements with relative and absolute gravimeters, implement numerical computation methods for the determination of Earth's gravity field and the geoid, and apply these to gravity data from terrestrial and satellite-based sensors.

Hofmann-Wellenhof and Moritz (2006): Physical geodesy, 2nd edition, ISBN: 978-3-211-33544-7.

Supporting literature: Torge and Müller (2012): Geodesy, 4th edition, ISBN: 978-3-11-025000-8.

An overview as well as supplementary material (lecture compendiums, articles) will be made available on Canvas.

Calculus, linear algebra, differential equations. Classical mechanics. Programming and Data Processing (https://www.nmbu.no/course/INF120INF120). Introduction to data analysis and visualization (http://www.nmbu.no/course/DAT110DAT110) or Statistics (http://www.nmbu.no/course/STAT100STAT100).

Geodesy (http://www.nmbu.no/course/GMGD200GMGD200), Applied Satellite Geodesy (http://www.nmbu.no/course/GMGD222GMGD222), Parameter Estimation (http://www.nmbu.no/course/GMPE240GMPE240).

Evaluation of written report (30%)

Oral exam at the end of the semester (70%)

Lectures: 26 hours

Discussion groups: 26 hours

Exercises: 26 hours

The course was formerly a part of Geodesy Graduate Course (GMGD300).

Students who demand teaching in English must put this request at least two weeks before the teaching period starts.