Dynamic interpretation of geoid anomalies

The NASA Geodynamics program has as two of its missions precise determination of spatial variations in earth's geopotential (or geoid) and highly accurate monitoring of polar motion, including changes in the length of day (LOD). For the past several years, data sets provided by NASA, along with data and models from other areas of geophysic were used to place fundamental contraints on the large scale dynamics of earth and her sister planet Venus. The main approach was using fluid mechanical models of mantle flow to predict the long-wavelength variations in the geoid.