Improvements in the Earth gravity field model have other obvious applications to the geodetic sciences. To adapt from the Executive Summary of the US National Research Council Report on Satellite Gravity & The Geosphere [1997], the GRACE gravity model will enable:

• an improved reference frame for defining position coordinates
• better calculation of orbits for geodetic satellites (including altimetric & interferometry missions) without the problem of residual geographically correlated orbit errors
• a more accurate equipotential surface to which land elevations can be referenced
• the adjustment and datum correction of a vast array of regional terrestrial, marine and airborne gravity survey data.

For further reading:

• US National Research Council, Satellite Gravity and the Geosphere, National Academy Press, Washington DC (1997)