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  4. On the gravitational potential energy of the Earth

On the gravitational potential energy of the Earth

ISTCGCAP.
2007;
Volume 69, Number 69
: pp. 34 – 42
Authors:
  1. Alexander N. Marchenko
1
Department of Geodesy, Institute of Geodesy, Lviv Polytechnic National University

To estimate the gravitational potential energy of Earth E, the 3D distribution of the density of the ellipsoidal planet together with its accuracy estimate is used. It was the use of the latter that allowed E to be evaluated on the basis of only the radial distribution of density in the form of its continuous and piecewise continuous models: Legendre-Laplace, Rosh, Bullard, and Gauss. The result is an inequality for E with an upper bound EH for a homogeneous distribution and the lower edge of EGauss, which corresponds to the Gaussian distribution for Earth's density. The main E ratings give a good agreement with EGauss: as in the case of E, based on the Rosh model with the 6 main drops of bounce, and the E estimates corresponding to the 4 most simple models with one jump of density at the boundary of the kernel-mantle.

gravitational potential
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