Earth-centered, Earth-fixed coordinate system

3 D coordinate system centered on the Earth

The Earth centered, Earth fixed coordinate system (acronym ECEF), also known as the geocentric coordinate system, is a cartesian spatial reference system that represents locations in the vicinity of the Earth (including its surface, interior, atmosphere, and surrounding outer space) as X, Y, and Z measurements from its center of mass. Its most common use is in tracking the orbits of satellites and in satellite navigation systems for measuring locations on the surface of the Earth, but it is also used in applications such as tracking crustal motion. The distance from a given point of interest to the center of Earth is called the geocentric distance, 1=R = (X^(2) + Y^(2) + Z^(2))^(0.5), which is a generalization of the geocentric radius, R0, not restricted to points on the reference ellipsoid surface. The geocentric altitude is a type of altitude defined as the difference between the two aforementioned quantities: ; it is not to be confused for the geodetic altitude. Conversions between ECEF and geodetic coordinates (latitude and longitude) are discussed at geographic coordinate conversion.

Geocentric coordinates can be used for locating astronomical objects in the Solar System in three dimensions along the Cartesian X, Y, and Z axes. They are differentiated from topocentric coordinates, which use the observer's location as the reference point for bearings in altitude and azimuth. For nearby stars, astronomers use heliocentric coordinates, with the center of the Sun as the origin. The plane of reference can be aligned with the Earth's celestial equator, the ecliptic, or the Milky Way's galactic equator. These 3D celestial coordinate systems add actual distance as the Z axis to the equatorial, ecliptic, and galactic coordinate systems used in spherical astronomy.