Big Data & Space Science

Earth is a sphere!

For big data this statement is, of course, wrong. Earth is flattened at the poles due to its rotation, which in turn would mean that the Earth’s gravitational field is weaker at the poles than at the equator. But even if this effect were numerically corrected, what remains is anything but a homogeneous gravitational field, as shown by our evaluations of the freely accessible data from the GOCE scientific satellites:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Water displacement in the Euphrates Tigris basin

A very impressive application of big data is the measurement of groundwater’s changing positions. Since 2002, the GRACE twin satellites have been making detailed measurements of changes in earth's gravity field caused by groundwater displacement.

In the framework of a project at the International Space University (ISU), we were tasked with the evaluation of water displacement in the Euphrates Tigris basin. After removing seasonal fluctuations, we could derive a groundwater drainage of almost 3 km3 between 2002 and 2011.