Image credit: Unless otherwise noted, images are provided by University of Texas Center for Space Research and NASA
On
planet Earth, we tend to think of the gravitational effect as being
the same no matter where we are on the planet. We certainly don't see
variations anywhere near as dramatic as those between the Earth and the
Moon. But the truth is, the Earth's topography is highly variable with
mountains, valleys, plains, and deep ocean trenches. As a consequence
of this variable topography, the density of Earth's surface varies.
These fluctuations in density cause slight variations in the gravity
field, which, remarkably, GRACE can detect from space.
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