Enter the latitude and longitude into the calculator to determine the geoid height at that location. The geoid height is the height above the Earth’s ellipsoid model.
Geoid Height Formula
The formula to calculate geoid height is complex and typically involves spherical harmonic series. However, for this calculator, a simplified placeholder function is used.
GH = f(latitude, longitude)
Variables:
- GH is the geoid height (meters)
- Latitude is the geographic coordinate (degrees)
- Longitude is the geographic coordinate (degrees)
To calculate the geoid height, a geospatial algorithm is used that takes into account the latitude and longitude of the location.
What is Geoid Height?
Geoid height is the height of the Earth’s geoid above or below the reference ellipsoid. The geoid is an equipotential surface of the Earth’s gravity field, which approximates mean sea level. It is used in geodesy to measure precise surface elevations and to convert between ellipsoidal height and orthometric height.
How to Calculate Geoid Height?
The following steps outline how to calculate the Geoid Height.
- First, determine the latitude of the location in degrees.
- Next, determine the longitude of the location in degrees.
- Use a geospatial algorithm or model such as EGM96 or EGM2008 to calculate the geoid height based on the latitude and longitude.
- Finally, obtain the Geoid Height (GH) in meters.
- After inserting the variables and calculating the result, check your answer with the calculator above.
Example Problem :
Use the following variables as an example problem to test your knowledge.
Latitude = 40 degrees
Longitude = -75 degrees
