Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Vol. 124 (3-4) (2001) pp. 237-253
© 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S0031-9201(01)00200-X

Mean radius, mass, and inertia for reference Earth models

Frédéric Chambat a and Bernard Valette b,c *

a Laboratoire de Sciences de la Terre, ENS-Lyon, 46 Allée d'Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France
b LGIT-Savoie, Universit de Savoie, 73376 Le Bourget-du-Lac Cedex, France
c I.R.D., France

Received 26 September 2000; accepted 4 April 2001

Abstract

This paper focuses on the global quantities, radius, mass, and inertia that are needed for the construction of reference Earth density models. We recall how these quantities b,M, and I are measured and we give realistic estimates and uncertainties. Since a reference model corresponds to a spherical average of the real Earth, we detail how these estimates need to be corrected in order to be used as input data for such a mean model. The main independent data to be used for reference models are: b=6371230±10m, M0=(5.9733±0.0090)×1024kg, I0/M0=(1.342354±0.000031)×1013m2.

Keywords: Radius; Mass; Inertia; Reference models; Density; Perturbations

*Corresponding author.

Full text supplied by [ScienceDirect]

© Copyright 2001, Elsevier Science, All rights reserved.