Oceanography - Daniel Lipkie

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• A Coordinate System for a Non-Spherical Earth - Oblate Spheroidal Coordinates :
  Oceanography texts note that the earth is not a perfect sphere, that geopotential surfaces are not adequately described using spherical coordinates and that oblate spheroidal coordinates are more appropriate. They usually go on to state that oblate spheroidal coordinates are based on an ellipse for the surface of the earth and hyperbolas for marking latitude but do not give details on how such a coordinate system is constructed from arbitrary ellipses and hyperbolas. In this document we provide some additional detail on how an oblate spheroidal coordinate is constructed and how it may be applied to the earth.
  Written: April 23, 2001, last revised April 24, 2001
  pdf format PostScript format

Last Revised: April 24, 2001.