Equigeopotential

Concepts

For geophysical applications, gravity is distinguished from gravitation. Gravity is defined as the resultant force of gravitation and the centrifugal force caused by the Earth's rotation. Likewise, the respective scalar potentials, gravitational potential and centrifugal potential, can be added to form an effective potential called the geopotential, ${\displaystyle W}$. The surfaces of constant geopotential or isosurfaces of the geopotential are called equigeopotential surfaces (sometimes abbreviated as geop), also known as geopotential level surfaces, equipotential surfaces, or simply level surfaces.