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Susanna Zerbini (born 1948) is an Italian geophysicist, geodesist, and geodynamicist. She is known as a pioneer in developing and applying satellite geodesy for research in geodynamics and Earth system sciences. [1]
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Susanna Zerbini (born 1948) is an Italian geophysicist, geodesist, and geodynamicist. She is known as a pioneer in developing and applying satellite geodesy for research in geodynamics and Earth system sciences. [1]
Zerbini completed classical secondary school education (including Latin and Greek) and then decided to become a scientist. [2] In 1972 she graduated from the University of Bologna with a Ph.D. ( Laurea ) in physics. From 1973 to 1981 she was supported by fellowships from the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italian National Council of Research) and Zonta International. From 1975 to 1976 and again from 1978 to 1979 she held appointments as a visiting scientist in geoastronomy at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. At the University of Bologna, she was from 1981 to 1987 a research associate, from 1987 to 2011 an associate professor of geodesy, and from 2011 to 2018 a full professor in the department of physics. In 2018 she retired as professor emerita. [3]
Zerbini played a key role in explaining anomalous orbital effects for PAGEOS (PAssive Geodetic Earth Orbiting Satellite) — a balloon satellite was launched by NASA in June 1966. PAGEOS was important in research on direct solar radiation and terrestrial albedo radiation. She identified the flux of micrometeoroids in the near-Earth environment as the cause of unexpected oblateness and precession of PAGEOS. [4] She developed models for precise computations of the orbits of LAGEOS-1 and LAGEOS-2. Her research was important for using the LAGEOS data for precisely determining Earth's crustal motion, especially for the Mediterranean region and the San Andreas Fault. [1] [5] [6] She was the leader for Italy's science participation in the LAGEOS-2 mission jointly sponsored by the USA (via NASA) and by Italy. [1]
Beginning in the 1990s, much of Zerbini's research has focused on studies of changes in sea levels. She was one of the main organizers of the European Union project SEa Level Fluctuations (SELF), consisting of two parts: SELF-1 and SELF-2, designed to study sea-level variations of the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. In the SELF project from 1993 to 1998, scientists from Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, and Russia used GPS techniques to measure sea-level variations to an accuracy of a few millimeters per year. The SELF scientists made use of tide gauges, satellite-oriented reference and intermediate stations, and water vapor radiometers (WVRs). The basic aim of SELF-1 and SELF-2 was the synchronization by GPS of a large, coordinated ensemble of tide gauges surrounding the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea – thus allowing, in data analysis, the separation of sea-level changes from tectonic movements. [1] [7] [8] In the first decade of the 21st century, she and her colleagues used GPS and large, coordinated ensembles of superconducting gravimeters to study changes in Earth's mascons for the purpose of better understanding of tectonic movements. [1]
In more recent years, she has done research on sea-level changes by rescuing and analyzing data from tide gauge data dating back to 1873. For better understanding of climate change, she and her colleagues compare tide gauge data with long-period time series of GPS heights and gravity data acquired at the radio observatory in Medicina. [2] [9] [10]
Zerbini has served on numerous scientific committees, panels, and advisory boards. She was from 2007 to 2008 a member of the Board of Administrators of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), from 2008 to 2010 a member of the Waldo E. Smith Medal Committee of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and from 2009 to 2011 the chair of the Vening Meinesz Medal Committee of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). She was from 1992 to 1996 an associated editor for geodesy in the AGU's Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth. For Elsevier's Journal of Geodynamics , she was from 1996 to 2002 an associate editor and is since 2002 a member of the journal's editorial board. [3]
Zerbini was elected in 1999 a Fellow of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG). In 2001 she was awarded the "Gold Badge" of the European Geophysical Society (EGS), which was merged in 2002 into the European Geosciences Union (EGU). [3] In 2009 she was awarded the EGU's Vening Meinesz Medal. [1]
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Geodesy or geodetics is the science of measuring and representing the geometry, gravity, and spatial orientation of the Earth in temporally varying 3D. It is called planetary geodesy when studying other astronomical bodies, such as planets or circumplanetary systems. Geodesy is an earth science and many consider the study of Earth's shape and gravity to be central to that science. It is also a discipline of applied mathematics.
Geophysics is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists, who usually study geophysics, physics, or one of the Earth sciences at the graduate level, complete investigations across a wide range of scientific disciplines. The term geophysics classically refers to solid earth applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational, magnetic fields, and electromagnetic fields ; its internal structure and composition; its dynamics and their surface expression in plate tectonics, the generation of magmas, volcanism and rock formation. However, modern geophysics organizations and pure scientists use a broader definition that includes the water cycle including snow and ice; fluid dynamics of the oceans and the atmosphere; electricity and magnetism in the ionosphere and magnetosphere and solar-terrestrial physics; and analogous problems associated with the Moon and other planets.
The geoid is the shape that the ocean surface would take under the influence of the gravity of Earth, including gravitational attraction and Earth's rotation, if other influences such as winds and tides were absent. This surface is extended through the continents. According to Gauss, who first described it, it is the "mathematical figure of the Earth", a smooth but irregular surface whose shape results from the uneven distribution of mass within and on the surface of Earth. It can be known only through extensive gravitational measurements and calculations. Despite being an important concept for almost 200 years in the history of geodesy and geophysics, it has been defined to high precision only since advances in satellite geodesy in the late 20th century.
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Post-glacial rebound is the rise of land masses after the removal of the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial period, which had caused isostatic depression. Post-glacial rebound and isostatic depression are phases of glacial isostasy, the deformation of the Earth's crust in response to changes in ice mass distribution. The direct raising effects of post-glacial rebound are readily apparent in parts of Northern Eurasia, Northern America, Patagonia, and Antarctica. However, through the processes of ocean siphoning and continental levering, the effects of post-glacial rebound on sea level are felt globally far from the locations of current and former ice sheets.
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Satellite geodesy is geodesy by means of artificial satellites—the measurement of the form and dimensions of Earth, the location of objects on its surface and the figure of the Earth's gravity field by means of artificial satellite techniques. It belongs to the broader field of space geodesy. Traditional astronomical geodesy is not commonly considered a part of satellite geodesy, although there is considerable overlap between the techniques.
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