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Earth's rotation. Earth's rotation or Earth's spin is the rotation of planet Earth around its own axis, as well as changes in the orientation of the rotation axis in space. Earth rotates eastward, in prograde motion. As viewed from the northern polar star Polaris, Earth turns counterclockwise . The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North ...
Geodesy. The Earth-centered, Earth-fixed coordinate system (acronym ECEF ), also known as the geocentric coordinate system, is a cartesian spatial reference system that represents locations in the vicinity of the Earth (including its surface, interior, atmosphere, and surrounding outer space) as X, Y, and Z measurements from its center of mass.
The prime meridian is the centre of the near side of the Moon. A planetary coordinate system (also referred to as planetographic, planetodetic, or planetocentric) [ 1][ 2] is a generalization of the geographic, geodetic, and the geocentric coordinate systems for planets other than Earth. Similar coordinate systems are defined for other solid ...
The geographical centre of Earth is the geometric centre of all land surfaces on Earth. Geometrically defined it is the centroid of all land surfaces within the two dimensions of the Geoid surface which approximates the Earth's outer shape. The term centre of minimum distance [1] specifies the concept more precisely as the domain is the sphere ...
Polar vortex. A circumpolar vortex, or simply polar vortex, is a large region of cold, rotating air; polar vortices encircle both of Earth's polar regions. Polar vortices also exist on other rotating, low- obliquity planetary bodies. [1] The term polar vortex can be used to describe two distinct phenomena; the stratospheric polar vortex, and ...
High-pressure area. A high-pressure area, high, or anticyclone, is an area near the surface of a planet where the atmospheric pressure is greater than the pressure in the surrounding regions. Highs are middle-scale meteorological features that result from interplays between the relatively larger-scale dynamics of an entire planet's atmospheric ...
Earthrise, taken on December 24, 1968, by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders. Earthrise is a photograph of Earth and part of the Moon 's surface that was taken from lunar orbit by astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission. [1] [2] [3] Nature photographer Galen Rowell described it as "the most influential ...
A map of East Africa showing some of the historically active volcanoes (as red triangles) and the Afar Triangle (shaded at the center), which is a so-called triple junction (or triple point) where three plates are pulling away from one another: the Arabian Plate and two parts of the African Plate—the Nubian and Somali—splitting along the East African Rift Zone Main rift faults, plates ...