Initial Publication Date: June 20, 2012 | Fix Links: February 21, 2025
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Geodesy Visualizations

Geodesy Basics

Animation: Brief History of Geodesy

Video: 9 Impacts of Geodesy

Animation: What is Sea Level?

Tutorial: Shape of Earth and Reference Ellipsoids

Tutorial: NOAA's Global Positioning

Geodetic Methods and Applications

Altimetry

Presentation: Overview of Satellite Radar Altimetry

Data animation: 27-year Sea Level Rise - TOPEX/JASON

Data visualization site: CU Sea Level Explorer - allows comparison between altimetry and sea level gauge data

Lidar

Animation: How Lidar Works in Earth and Environmental Sciences

GPS/GNSS

Animation: How Does GPS Work?

Poster: What can GPS Tell Us About Earth?

Cryosphere

Animation: Measuring Changing Glaciers with GPS

Earthquakes

Animation: What can GPS tell us about future earthquakes?

Animation: Using GPS to Enhance the Earthquake Early Warning System

Animation: Tectonics & Earthquakes of the Himalaya (includes GPS data from the 2015 Nepal Earthquake)

Hydrosphere

Animation: Measuring Drought: A GPS Network Offers A New Perspective

Animation: How to Measure Atmospheric Water Vapor with GNSS

Animation: How to Measure Soil Moisture Using GNSS

Tectonics/structural geology

Data visualization site: GPS Velocity Viewer - interactive tool to explore GPS/GNSS-measured crustal movement

Animation: Measuring Plate Tectonic Motion with GPS

Animation: Basin & Range: GPS measures extension

Animations on GPS and subduction zones:
Island Arc Setting
Ocean/Continent Setting
Variable Deformation across a Subduction Zone

Volcanoes

Animation: Measuring Volcanic Deformation with Tilt and GPS

Other

Animation: Unexpected Ways Scientists Use GPS

Animation: How to Measure Ionospheric Composition with GNSS

Gravity

Video: GRACE: Tracking Water from Space

Data visualization site: CU GRACE Mascon Visualization Tool

Data animations:
Antarctic Ice Mass Loss GRACE
Greenland Ice Mass Loss GRACE
GRACE polar ice mass loss

Data animations:
GRACE Tracks Freshwater Movements
GRACE Measures Changes in Total Freshwater Storage 2003-2009

SAR/InSAR

Poster: InSAR: Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar

Cryosphere

Presentation: Using SAR to Measure Ice Velocity

Data animations:
Greenland Ice Flow
Antarctic Ice Flow

Earthquakes

Presentation: How does InSAR Work?

Volcanoes

Animation: Volcano Monitoring: Using InSAR to See Changes in Volcano Shape

Structure from Motion (SfM)

Presentation: OpenTopography Introduction to SfM

Other resources

Demonstrations: Hands-on demonstrations related to geodesy



The Teaching Geodesy site was developed and is being maintained in conjunction with EarthScope Consortium (previously called UNAVCO) with funding provided by the National Science Foundation.