THE EARTH

GREAT CIRCLE ( GC)

A great circle is a circle on the surface of a sphere, plane of which passes through
the centre of the sphere. It divides the sphere into two equal parts or hemispheres.
A great circle is the largest circle that can be drawn on a sphere. There is only one
great circle from any two points on the surface of sphere except if the two points
are at the two ends of a diameter, in this case an infinite number of great circles are
possible.

SMALL CIRCLE (SC)

This is a circle on the surface of sphere,
plane of which does not pass through the
centre of the sphere. Thus we can also
say that this is any circle on the surface
of a sphere which is not a great circle.
Since the plane of small circle does not
pass through the centre of the sphere, it
does not divide the sphere into equal
parts.

EQUATOR
This can be defined as a great circle on the surface of Earth, midway between the
two poles & hence perpendicular to the axis. The equator divides the Earth into two
equal halves i.e. Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. This is a reference
from which latitudes are measured North or
South.

PARALLELS OF LATITUDES

These are small circles parallel to the Equator.

They are named North or South according to
the hemisphere they lie. All parallels of latitude
run East- West. The value of latitude is same
throughout the same parallel of latitude.

MERIDIANS
These are semi great circles on the
surface of Earth and join two poles.
The other half of the same circle
forms another meridian.

All meridians cut all parallels of

latitudes and equator at right
angle. Since all meridians join both
the poles, we can say that all
meridians run North and South.

SHAPE OF EARTH
The shape of Earth is such that it resembles flattened sphere, slightly bulging
at the equator than the poles. The diameter about which the Earth rotates is called
the axis of rotation. The two points where axis meets the surface of Earth are called
poles of Earth. The circle drawn around the Earth midway between the poles is
called equator. Every point on the equator is at equal distance from each pole i.e.,
900 away. Earth rotates West to East ; that is anticlockwise motion when viewed at
the top of North pole. The axis of Earth is tilted and make some angle ( about 23.5 0
) with the vertical.
 The more accurate description of the
shape of Earth is that it is an oblate spheroid.
An oblate spheroid is a shape obtained if an
ellipse is rotated about its minor axis. Thus we
can say that equatorial diameter or major axis
is more than polar diameter or minor axis.

The value of equatorial radius is

6378.137 km whereas polar radius is 6356.752
km. The difference is 21.385 Km In order to
understand the shape of Earth we need to
understand the term called compression or
flattening. This is a measure of compression of
a circle along a diameter to form an ellipse or ellipsoid of revolution or spheroid.
( These values of radius are as per WGS84 standrads)

Compression or Flattening,
ab
f=
a

In case of Earth , f =
6378.1376356.752 1
=
6378.137 298.25

= 0.0033528

It is very important to realize that

Earth would have been a true sphere, if a was equal to b and factor f will be zero
in that case. Now if we compare the value of f which is 0.0033528, we can say that
Earth is nearly spherical.

Now let us discuss few definitions which will be useful to explain the measurement
of positions on the Earths surface.