international ellipsoid of reference

international ellipsoid of reference

[¦in·tər¦nash·ən·əl ə′lip‚sȯid əv ′ref·rəns]

(geodesy)

The reference ellipsoid, based upon the Hayford spheroid, the semimajor axis of which is 6,378,388 meters; the flattening or ellipticity equals 1/297; by computation the semiminor axis is 6,356,911.946 meters. Also known as international spheroid.