One of the Geodesy's problems is to determine the masses external gravity field, beyond the boundary surface, as well as the temporal variation. Stokes proposed a formulation in the 18th century to solve this problem, however some problems were implied. The formulation proposed by Molodensky in the middle of the -20th century opened a new perspective to solve this problem. Throughout the years, in Geodesy, the relevance of the Boundary Value Problem of Geodesy (BVPG) has been recognized as a theoretical basis for that discipline. In addition, the BVPG gained new impulse with the spatial era and in the maentime, many alternatives have been developed (overdetermined, mixed, Brovar's solution). This paper aims at presenting Stokes' and Molodensky's formulations as well as the main BVPG alternatives.
Geodesy; Boundary Value Problem; Boundary surface
