quadrature formulas

The project of European Space Agency and a recent achievement in satellite geodesy, the GOCE satellite mission (Gravity of Field and Steady-State of Ocean Circulation Explorer) exploits a method of satellite gradientometry. Gravitational field of the Earth is usually represented as a finite series of spherical harmonic functions, the model containing a finite number of coefficients, Cnm, Snm. The coefficients Cnm, Snm are derived in our work, based on the second method of Neumann and the Gauss-Legandre quadrature decomposition.

As well-known, one of the oldest geodetic problems has today a new development. There is the method of satellite gradientometry allowing essentially improvement of the Earth's gravity field. So, the development of geodesy together with the expansion of various types of measurements is characterized by traditional increase of their level of accuracy and solving the basic problems of geodesy – definition of shape and gravity field of the Earth on the new level.