The International Association of Geodesy: from an ideal sphere to an irregular body subjected to global change

Abstract

The history of geodesy can be traced back to Thales of Miletus (∼600 BC), who developed the concept of geometry, i.e. the measurement of the Earth. Eratosthenes (276–195 BC) recognized the Earth as a sphere and determined its radius. In the 18th century, Isaac Newton postulated an ellipsoidal figure due to the Earth's rotation, and the French Academy of Sciences organized two expeditions to Lapland and the Viceroyalty of Peru to determine the different curvatures of the Earth at the pole and the Equator. The Prussian General Johann Jacob Baeyer (1794–1885) initiated the international arc measurement to observe the irregular figure of the Earth given by an equipotential surface of the gravity field. This led to the foundation of the International Geodetic Association, which was transferred in 1919 to the Section of Geodesy of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. This paper presents the activities from 1919 to 2019, characterized by a continuous broadening from geometric to gravimetric observations, from exclusive solid Earth parameters to atmospheric and hydrospheric effects, and from static to dynamic models. At present, we identify geodesy as the discipline of quantifying global change by geodetic measurements.