ECEF meaning in Academic & Science ?

The Earth-centered, Earth-fixed coordinate system (acronym ECEF) is a geographic and Cartesian coordinate system (sometimes known as a "conventional terrestrial" system). It represents positions as X, Y, and Z coordinates. The origin (point 0, 0, 0) is defined as the center of mass of Earth, hence the term geocentric Cartesian coordinates.

The distance from a given point of interest to the center of Earth is called the geocentric distance, R = (X2 + Y2 + Z2)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: h' = R-R0; it is not to be confused for the geodetic altitude.

Its axes are aligned with the international reference pole (IRP) and international reference meridian (IRM) that are fixed with respect to Earth's surface, hence the descriptor earth-fixed. This term can cause confusion, since Earth does not rotate about the z-axis in this coordinate system (unlike in an inertial system such as earth-centered inertial ECI), and is therefore alternatively called ECR.

The z-axis extends through true north, which does not coincide with the instantaneous Earth rotational axis. The slight "wobbling" of the rotational axis is known as polar motion. The x-axis intersects the sphere of the earth at 0° latitude (the equator) and 0° longitude (the prime meridian which passes through Greenwich). This means that ECEF rotates with the earth, and therefore coordinates of a point fixed on the surface of the earth do not change. Conversion from a WGS84 datum to ECEF can be used as an intermediate step in converting velocities to the north east down coordinate system.

Conversions between ECEF and geodetic coordinates (latitude and longitude) are discussed at geographic coordinate conversion.