Covering both astronomical and geophysical perspectives, this book describes changes in the Earth's orientation, specifically precession and nutation, and how they are observed and computed in terms of tidal forcing and models of the Earth's interior. Following an introduction to key concepts and elementary geodetic theory, the book describes how precise measurements of the Earth's orientation are made using observations of extra-galactic radio-sources by Very Long Baseline Interferometry techniques. It demonstrates how models are used to accurately pinpoint the location and orientation of...

This contributed volume arose from the idea of assembling scientists from space research and ground development, time transfer techniques and radio science missions, the time-frequency community, and both the geodesy-geophysics and solar system exploration communities.