Planetary geodesy

Abstract

Research in planetary geodesy in the United States during the period 1975–1978 has benefitted from data obtained by a number of U.S. planetary spacecraft and from some exciting ground‐based and aircraft‐based observations. Continuing analyses of data from the Mariner 9 orbiter of Mars obtained in 1971 and 1972, the Pioneer 10 and 11 fly‐bys of Jupiter in 1973 and 1974, the Mariner 10 fly‐bys of Venus and Mercury in 1974 and 1975, plus analyses of new data from the Viking orbiters and landers since 1976, have produced many of the highlights in planetary geodesy for this period. In addition, although results are not available for reporting herein, the Pioneer Venus orbiter and multiprobe spacecraft were scheduled for arrival at Venus in December 1978 and two Voyager spacecraft are enroute to encounters with Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. This review, of work subsequent to that reported by Anderson (1975), pertains to the typical geodetic topics of the masses, gravity fields, figures, topography, and rotational dynamics of the planets and, where applicable, of their satellites.