Tens of thousands of satellite images of the Tibetan Plateau, including Lake Paiku, seen here, helped researchers create the clearest-ever picture of how the plateau is deforming. Credit: NASA/JSC, Public Domain

Despite their importance, the United States is losing the global race to field the best GPS technology and educate the best geodesists in the world.

Although GNSS systems like GPS have made pin-pointing locations on Earth’s sphere-approximating surface significantly easier and more precise, it’s always possible to go a bit further. The latest innovation involves …read more

Scientists usually use the “nonelliptical” geoid to consider the strength of Earth’s gravity at its surface, but the new study uses the “nonhydrostatic” geoid to highlight Earth’s poles. Credit: Glišović and Forte, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-28606-1, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0