Credit: University of Texas Center for Space Research and NASA
A gravity model of the Earth constructed with data from GRACE.
GRACE and GOCE both measure gravity on Earth. GRACE measures the time variations whereas GOCE will measure the static field. We can use information about the planets gravity field for all sorts of applications and I'll mention monitoring climate change as one of the hot ones these days. Unprecedented knowledge about regional ice melting on Greenland is based on GRACE data will be published in October, adding to our understanding of sea level rise.
Oh yeah, as you can clearly observe with your naked eyes - the Earth is NOT round! :-)
You could say that the Earths bumpiness is explained by the varying g - gravitational acceleration. We learn in school that it is a constant g=9.81. As can be seen above that is a truth with modifications. The system Earth is a little more complicated...
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