Study on the influence of atmospheric

parameters on the accuracy of the geodetic

measurements
Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 1796, 040009 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4972387
Published Online: 04 January 2017

Gabriel Murariu, Valentin Hahuie, Lucian Georgescu, et al.

ARTICLES YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN

Preface: TIM15-16 Physics Conference

AIP Conference Proceedings 1796, 010001 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4972348

Plasticizers effect on native biodegradable package materials

AIP Conference Proceedings 1796, 040008 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4972386

Experimental study of proton irradiation effect on silicon solar cells

AIP Conference Proceedings 1796, 040010 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4972388

AIP Conference Proceedings 1796, 040009 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4972387 1796, 040009

© 2017 Author(s).
 Study on the Influence of Atmospheric Parameters on the
Accuracy of the Geodetic Measurements

Gabriel Murariu1,a), Valentin Hahuie1,2, Lucian Georgescu1,2, Maxim Arseni1,2,

Catalina Iticescu1,2, Adrian Gabriel Murariu3, Florin Buhociu4 and Nicusor
Nistor1,2

1
Faculty of Sciences and Environment, Chemistry, Physics and Environment Department, „Dunărea de Jos”
University of Galati, Romania
2
European Centre of Excellence for the Environment, Chemistry, Physics and Environment Department, „Dunărea
de Jos” University of Galati, Romania.
3
Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
4
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, „Dunărea de Jos” University of Galati, Romania,
a)
Corresponding author: gmurariu@ugal.ro

Abstract. In the cadastral operations, geodesic measurements are extremely necessary. These measurements must be
accurate and precise. In the present work, we studied the measurement accuracy of electronic measuring devices and tried
to emphasize the influence of atmospheric parameters on measurement accuracy.

INTRODUCTION
In contemporary methodologies for determining the coordinates of different plots of land, measurements of
distances are important and necessary. Essentially, these measurements are currently performed using electronic
means which normally use light to transmit information between the two milestones [1, 2]. Therefore, it is extremely
important to conduct a study on the influence of atmospheric temperature, pressure, humidity etc. on remote
measurements in order to succeed the evaluating the proper sensibilities on the distance measurement.
In the present study we considered a grid of dots along two lines, each with five points (one being common) -
Fig. 1. Measurements focused on four different directions. Initially, the temperature was the main studied parameter
because it is the critical parameter influencing the electronic measurement system (EDM) [3, 4].

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study was performed in order to establish the influence of atmospheric parameters on measurements of
distances. In this respect, the study was conducted by distances determination between fixed points priori established
in different conditions of temperature, pressure and humidity. The measurement was performed in three different
ways: by default EDM, with the actualized temperature and with all atmospheric parameters updated (temperature,
pressure and relative humidity). Differences were assessed against the value determined a priori and corrections
were calculated. In the final step, we determined the sensitivity of the device to changes in atmospheric parameters
according to a multi-dimensional interpolation.
The planimetric system needs to be represented in the field of measurement through a network composed of
geometric points with known coordinates in this system. In order to succeed in analyzing the influence of

TIM15-16 Physics Conference

AIP Conf. Proc. 1796, 040009-1–040009-4; doi: 10.1063/1.4972387
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1462-4/$30.00

040009-1
temperature, pressure and humidity on the value of EDM total station, we conducted three types of distance
measurements: EDM with default settings: t (temperature) = 12.0 ° C; p (air pressure) = 1013mb; h (RH) = 40%.
The used device was the Leica 705.

(a) (b)
FIGURE 1. (a) The measurement area. (b) Total station Leica TC(R)-705

Total station TC (R) - 705 (Fig. 2) from Leica Geosystems is a high quality device designed for work requiring
high precision [1, 2]. With the Leica TC (R) - 705 distance can be measured using visible spectrum light (RL)
system or infrared light (IR) system [3]. The choice of mode depends on selected the measurement mode and type of
prism changes [3, 4]. By calling the configuration of measuring distances we can insert the reflector prism constant
value. The basic formula is introduced to the prism constant = - (x) mm + 34 mm, where x is the constant basic used
prism.

(a) (b)
FIGURE 2. (a) The PCA diagram basing on the correlation magnitudes. (b) The surface response of the measured distance
dependence by the temperature and the humidity value

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

To analyse the results and the sensitivities were calculated the preliminary descriptive statistics (Table 1), the
errors and standard deviations of measurements [2]. As a reference, we considered the real value of the distance that

040009-2
has been determined as the arithmetic sum of measurements calculated with all corrections applied [2]. By way of
observation, coordinates have been determined on the basis of using a GPS precision [2, 3].
As you can see, there is a dependence of the measured values depending on the values of atmospheric parameters
(Table 2).
TABLE 1. Descriptive statistics
Valid
Magnitude Mean Minimum Maximum Std. Dev.
N
temperature [0C] 500 16.040 12.000 31.000 5.86747
Humidity [%] 500 47.640 36.000 79.000 12.36674
Pressure [mbar] 500 1014.060 1008.000 1023.000 2.85529

Using the method of multivariate analysis PCA it was determined that temperature and humidity influences are
significant (Fig. 2(a)). It also implies that the pressure is less significant. Fig. 2(b) shows the surface response of the
mathematical model obtained by us on the influence distance dependence on the first two quantities that describe
atmospheric conditions.
Note that the slope of the temperature influence is more pronounced than humidity. It is notable that the linear
trends of standard deviations are generally increasing.
The correlations magnitudes show there is a strong link between the measured distance and the temperature
(p<0.0003) and a weaker link between the measured distance and pressure (Table 2). The observation is correct and
from this reason the refractive index of the air is nearly equal to the vacuum refractive index value.
TABLE 2. Correlation coefficients
temperature Humidity Pressure distance
Correlation
[0C] [%] [mbar] [m]
1.0000 .0309 .0262 .6663
temperature [0C]
p= --- p=.491 p=.559 p=0.00
.0309 1.0000 .0086 .1181
Humidity [%]
p=.491x p= --- p=.849 p=.008

.0262 .0086 1.0000 .0480

Pressure [mbar]
p=.559 p=.849 p= --- p=.284
.6663 .1181 .0480 1.0000
distance [m]
p=0.00 p=.008 p=.284 p= ---

ANOVA FACTORIAL ANALYSIS

ANOVA is a statistical method that stands for analysis of variance. Using this method could be assessed the
effective influence of different factor on a final result.
In the following are presented the ANOVA factorial analysis results and the goodness of fitting model by using
multidimensional polynomial regression method. The reason was that we would have a model for multi-dimensional
linear polynomial function highlighting the ways of making the corrections required for a proper evaluation.
Analysis of multi-factor ANOVA necessitated a chi square analysis [2, 3] (Table 3).
TABLE 3. Statistics of goodness of fit
Magnitude D. f. Stat. Stat/D. f.
Deviance 496 0.002 0.000004
Scaled Deviance 496 500.000 1.008065
Pearson Chi² 496 0.002 0.000004
Scaled P. Chi² 496 500.000 1.008065

The results being promising, the next step was to made an evolution of the multi-dimensional linear polynomial
using a proper statistical analysis of the model (Table 4). As it was expected the pressure value was the single
parameter that can vary without causing significant increases.

040009-3
 TABLE 4. The univariate analysis coefficients
Param. distance Std. Param. Param.
Effect
distance Err Distance t Distance p
Intercept 459.9728 0.030259 15200.99 0.000000
temperature [0C] 0.0003 0.000015 19.96 0.000000
Humidity [%] 0.0000 0.000007 2.94 0.003471
Pressure [mbar] 0.0000 0.000030 0.90 0.369556

CONCLUSIONS
In electronic distances measurements the main source of errors comes from the atmospheric environment, which
has three important atmospheric parameters: temperature, air pressure and relative humidity [4].
For the considered experimental device we could find out the mathematical model which is able to made good
corrections on the measured distances. The obtained results are promising and the study work should continue.

REFERENCES
[1] V. Paśagič, T. Parlić Risović, The influence of temperature and pressure on performance of optical
surveying instruments, XVII IMEKO World Congress Metrology in the 3 rd Millennium, Dubrovnik,
Croatia, 187, (2003).
[2] G. Murariu, L. Georgescu, N. I. Savin, Gh. Puscasu, I. Mocanu, F. Mingireanu, C. Trif, Thickening of
topographic networks to achieve ortho-photo-plans. Case Study-forest Garboavele, Annals of “Dunarea de
jos” University of Galati Mathematics, Physics, Theoretical Mechanics Fascicle II, year V(XXXVI) 2013,
No. 2, 472-481 (2011).
[3] A. Năstase, G. Osaci-Costache, Topografie, Cartografie, (Editura Fundației România de Mâine, București,
2005), 61.
[4] J.-M. Rüeger, Electronic Distance Measurement: An Introduction, (Springer Science & Business Media,
2012).

040009-4