Wednesday, November 11, 2009

GOCE thoughts

Some thoughts on GOCE

GOCE is a great spacecraft that is measuring density. There are some great videos of findings and the satellite itself. It only measures the change in altitude to the density of material below.

I noticed a couple of things here.

1)It is only measuring material directly below the satellite.
2)There are vast changes in density in small areas. If there were gravity waves this change would be gradual.
3) The satellite is only affected by densities below the craft. It is not pulled towards areas of greater density, which is required by gravity.