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October 23, 2015 Leave a comment Share

Fundamentals of Geodesy
This entry is part 3 of 7 in the series xyHt in print October 2015

Part 1: An Introduction

Editor’s note: With this article we start an overview of GeoLearn courses offered by Dave Doyle,
former chief geodetic surveyor for the National Geodetic Survey and geodesy editor of xyHt.
GeoLearn (geo-learn.com) is an online education business helping professionals reach mandatory
continuing education requirements and sort through everyday work issues. Dave’s series includes
eight courses on fundamental aspects of geodesy and a ninth on tips for reading and understanding
NGS datasheets. Here we’ll outline all his geodesy courses, but sign up if you’d like the full
content.

Surveyors, many times, treat geodesy as a “take it or leave it” topic. But with the increasing
demands on positioning accuracy, the necessity of reporting information on a plane coordinate

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system, and ubiquitous use of technology that relies on GNSS, the ability to properly understand
what to do and how to do it with modern reporting requirements makes it essential to understand
geodesy.

As the types of surveys change, the need to understand geodesy can often mean the difference in
being able to get the job done or not. And it may start with being conversant at a conceptual level
with your client and stakeholders before getting the job.

Why Is Geodesy Important?

More often than not, a client or state or

local requirements mandate a connection
to the State Plane Coordinate System
(SPCS). The system was created to
enable surveyors to work on large areas
of the Earth and to be connected to a
plane coordinate system without having
to use geodetic surveying techniques. But
that does not mean anyone can operate in
total ignorance of geodesy.

Surveyors have a professional responsibility to achieve quality, accurate results for their clients.
That means understanding all the processes, from research to field work to data analysis to
conversion of surveying results to the resulting coordinates. Having a basic understanding of
geodesy is fundamental to performing these steps properly.

This is especially true when surveyors combine any non-global-satellite technology with a satellite
technology. Combining satellite-surveying-based data with data from total stations, lidar (ground-
based, mobile land, marine, or airborne), and many other terrestrial technologies require
manipulations of the observed data into a database in a common datum.

This is not as trivial as it sounds, and many surveyors, unfortunately, are content to press a button
or select a menu option (the trained monkey syndrome) to have these operations done for them.

While nobody is advocating that surveyors understand how to do these conversions longhand, most
surveyors do not even have a conceptual understanding of how the observations are converted.

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Without this understanding, knowing how data collection conditions limit the conversions leaves
surveyors with exposure to liability. After all, we are selling accuracy, regardless of whether the
survey demarcates property boundaries, results in a topographic map, or controls the layout of
facilities in a major engineering project.

Additionally, the development of GPS and other GNSS provide us with the capacity to locate
virtually anything, anywhere, at any time to within a few centimeters. This capability will increase
positioning to the point of ubiquity, among not just surveyors but also many others who are not
even aware of geodesy.

Being able to evaluate and explain what the measurement data means creates an additional
professional burden to particularly understand geodesy, as all GNSS surveying involves geodetic
mathematical processes. That’s because GPS and other GNSS are created to inherently first
determine a 3D position on an ellipsoid of the Earth (such as WGS-84 or another ellipsoid relevant
to another GNSS).

Surveyors need to understand the process of converting that first ellipsoidal position to one on the
Earth’s surface or on a plane projection that has a well-known relationship to the ground. So,
understanding the basic principles of physical (gravity field) and geometric (positional
relationships) geodesy is vital to being able to accurately describe the vast amounts of high-
accuracy positioning information that is being collected, shared, and used all around the world.

If you’ve tried to develop an

understanding of geodesy and are
drowning in concepts and terms like
GRS80, WGS, NAD, and NSRS, you
need to get all the basics organized in
your head. The subtitle for this series of
Fundamentals of Geodesy courses is
Demystifying the Reference Frame.
With the announced upcoming changes
with the 2022 datum by NGS and the news that it will be referred to as the Reference Frame, this is
a good way to begin that shift in understanding. 2022 is not that far off!

Intro Highlights

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This introduction starts by reviewing the historical development of our knowledge of the size and
shape of the Earth and the fundamental design of horizontal and vertical datums and their
realization. It also covers:

Why the Earth is not a sphere. Most of us know that the Earth is an irregularly shaped body that
only looks like a sphere from thousands of miles away, but relating this understanding to the
regular, mathematically defined ellipsoids is an important concept for surveyors on a practical
level.

Early efforts to measure the size and shape of the Earth are described to give surveyors an
appreciation for the great thinkers and experimenters who have preceded us and who contributed
greatly, even when in error(!), to the body of knowledge we all partake of.

Why there are different ellipsoid models of the Earth is a question that is easily addressed when you
understand how much the Earth is not a sphere. But still, the impacts on positions with changing
models is an important concept to eliminate the “close enough” attitude that some take when faced
with a choice on how to designate a datum associated with their positions.

A brief overview of various types of

geodetic datums. Yes, there are different
types of datums. For example, with
vertical datums, the first differentiator is
tidal and geodetic. There’s a place for
both.

Understand the phrase: “How datums are

realized.” While the concept of a
realization was not talked about much even a couple of decades ago, modern datums go through
constant updates that must be fixed to a certain time or epoch. Knowing when a datum is realized
and how it is realized is an important part of connecting to a datum, and also in publishing results.

Who is responsible for geodetic datums in the United States. Not everyone knows!

The science of geodesy is at the heart of all accurate horizontal and vertical positioning. Today, not
knowing anything about geodesy is an invitation to a damaged reputation because a surveyor’s
deliverables were not complete or accurate enough or because the surveyor was not able to provide

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advice with the deliverables that took geodesy into account. It’s time to learn.

The next article in this series covers classical horizontal datums.

Series Navigation
<< Indiana Jones With a Tripod A Shore Thing >>

Article by Dave Doyle

Dave Doyle joined the National Geodetic Survey in 1972 and held the
position of Chief Geodetic Surveyor at his retirement in January,
2013. He was responsible for the development, technical design and
management of plans and programs that enhance the United States
National Spatial Reference System. He has provided technical
assistance in geodesy to international, federal, state and local
surveying, mapping and GIS agencies.

“Fundamentals of Geodesy” Comments

Roja Priya
February 10, 2019 at 8:54 am - Reply to Comment
Thank you for sharing your article. Great efforts put it to find the list of articles which is very
useful to know, Definitely will share the same to other forums.

Aaradhana
August 3, 2019 at 2:30 am - Reply to Comment
Valuable information from this post really helpful for all, looking for more updates.

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mehammed
December 7, 2019 at 8:20 am - Reply to Comment
the best

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