#Dr. gladys west how to#

#Dr. gladys west how to#

The guide was published to explain how to increase the accuracy of the estimation of geoid heights and vertical deflection, important components of satellite geodesy. In 1986, Dr West published Data Processing System Specifications for the Geosat Satellite Radar Altimeter, a 51-page technical report from The Naval Surface Weapons Center. Her data ultimately became an important enabler for the Global Positioning System (GPS). Generating an extremely accurate model required her to employ complex algorithms to account for variations in gravitational, tidal, and other forces that distort Earth's shape. Dr West introduced innovations, cutting her team's processing time in half, and was recommended for a commendation in 1979.įrom the mid-1970s through to the 1980s, Dr West designed, developed, tested and then used computer programmes to deliver increasingly precise calculations to model the shape of the Earth – an ellipsoid with irregularities, known as the geoid. She became project manager for the Seasat radar altimetry project, one of the first satellites that could remotely sense oceans.

Subsequently, Dr West began to analyse data from satellites, putting together altimeter models of the Earth's shape. In the early 1960s, she participated in an award-winning astronomical study that proved the regularity of Pluto’s motion relative to Neptune. West was a programmer in the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division for large-scale computers and a project manager for data-processing systems used in the analysis of satellite data. Four years later she was hired to work at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia, (now called the Naval Surface Warfare Center), where she was the second black woman ever hired and one of only four black employees. Now aged 90, Dr West was born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, and started her career as a maths and science teacher after graduating from Virginia State University in 1952. To hear more about the engineering behind the Global Positioning System, check out our episode with the winners of the 2019 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.

We discuss her early career, hear what it meant to be awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Prince Philip Medal in 2021, touch on her continued passion for education, and ask whether she uses GPS today. In this episode of Create the Future, we speak with Dr West about the methods she employed to calculate an accurate geodetic earth model using a room-sized computer. This work required her to process early satellite data and use complex algorithms to account for variations in gravitational, tidal, and other forces that distort Earth's shape. Dr Gladys West is a pioneer in the use of complex mathematics and efficient programming to generate accurate, repeatable and global models of the Earth’s geoid that were eventually incorporated into the mapping functions of the Global Positioning System (GPS).