NGS provided
Online Positioning User Service (OPUS) Projects Manager's Training at the NGS Testing and Training Center in Woodford, Virginia
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NOS leadership toured the
NGS Testing and Training Center in Woodford, Virginia, and the NGS Field Operations Branch facility in Norfolk, Virginia, to assess the facilities' contributions to the NOS mission and their preparedness for the future
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NGS participated in and represented the United States at the 2019
Sistema de Referencia Geocéntrico para las Américas Symposium (SIRGAS) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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Scientists from NGS and the Canadian Geodetic Survey (CGS) met to discuss the coordinated modernization of the
American National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) and the Canadian Spatial Reference System (CSRS) by 2022
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For more than 200 years, NGS has provided access to the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS), a consistent coordinate system that defines latitude, longitude, height, scale, gravity, and orientation throughout the United States. The datums that define this positioning framework are currently fixed with respect to time.
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NGS Director Juliana Blackwell and senior staff visited the Ohio State University (OSU) to discuss strategic partnerships and research opportunities in the field of geodesy. The meeting was coordinated by a delegation from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)...
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A new study estimates the value of the NGS Gravity Program to be between $4.2 and $13.3 billion over ten years, with a middle scenario of $8.7 billion. The socio-economic study was conducted for NGS by ARCBridge Consulting of Herndon, Virginia...
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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and NGS have co-issued a Federal Register Notice (FRN) to retire the U.S. survey foot as part of modernizing the National Spatial Reference System. Since 1893, the United States has defined the foot based on the meter..
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NGS participated in the Unified Analysis Workshop, held in Paris, France. The workshop, co-organized by the
International Association of Geodesy's Global Geodetic Observing System and the
International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service...more
This week, federal, state, and academic partners, including NGS, are observing more than 48 local survey control points with GPS equipment, from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to the Delaware Bay.
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The NGS Chief Geodesist participated in the United Nations
Global Geodetic Reference Frame (GGRF) Workshop in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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NGS released its annual experimental geoid models, known as
xGEOID19. The new models contain airborne gravity data from the Gravity for the Redefinition of the American Vertical Datum project, data from the latest satellite gravity models, and other sources.
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NGS completed a major reprocessing of 22 years of data from 3,050 worldwide permanent GPS reference stations to improve coordinates at 2,000 NOAA Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORSs) around the U.S. and its territories.
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NGS employees coordinated and conducted a geodetic survey to support the "Aids to Navigation System" units in the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), establishing a control point at a facility in Crisfield, Maryland.
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NGS participated in the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) meeting in New York, New York.
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NOS is developing an innovative and evolving software tool called Vertical Datum Transformation, also known as VDatum. Free to the public, VDatum's primary purpose is to convert elevation data from various sources into a common height reference system
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NGS assisted the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands’ (CNMI) Division of Historic Preservation in verifying the location of Japanese structures reported on the East Island of Maug during World War II.
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NGS personnel collaborated on a special-purpose survey to support the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST’s) Public Safety Communications Research Division.
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NGS commemorated the 120th anniversary of the Gaithersburg International Latitude Observatory with equipment demonstrations, tours of the Observatory, and activities for the public related to the science that was conducted there.
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The NGS Pacific Regional Geodetic Advisor presented NOAA’s plans and procedures for modernizing the U.S. National Spatial Reference System at the Workshop on the Applications of Global Navigation Satellite Systems in Suva, Fiji, sponsored by the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG)
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Retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, received briefings on a
variety of equipment system testing and training functions of the NGS Testing and Training Center in Woodford, Virginia.
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NGS personnel provided site-specific information to researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University's Rice Rivers Center. The Center is a field station devoted to environmental research, teaching, and public service, and is the most recent site to be adopted into the Chesapeake Bay Sentinel Site Cooperative.
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Since 1959, two definitions of the foot have been used in the United States: the International Foot and the U.S. Survey Foot. The U.S. survey foot is longer by 2 parts per million than the international foot, and having both measurements in use creates confusion.
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NGS staff updated the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on modernizing the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS). The USACE relies on accurate geospatial information referenced to the proper datum to accomplish its mission
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An NGS surveying team is conducting a local site survey at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Haystack Observatory in Westford, Massachusetts. The objective of the survey is to determine the precise spatial relationship between geodetic instruments that contribute observations to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF)
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The
NGS Testing and Training Center in Woodford, Virginia, hosted Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) training for NGS and OCS personnel. UAS represent animportant data-collection platform for shoreline mapping and other mission-critical programs.
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NGS hosted the 2019 Geospatial Summit in Silver Spring, Maryland. Summit participants received progress updates on the planned modernization of the National Spatial Reference System
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NGS released
NOAA Technical Report NOS NGS 67, which addresses how geospatial professionals can expect to work within the modernized National Spatial Reference System (NSRS), beginning in 2022
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Since 1959, the United States has used two types of feet, the "international foot" and the "U.S. survey foot." The two units of measurement differ by only 0.01 foot per mile, but having both in use often creates problems with real costs.
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The International Great Lakes Datum of 1985 (IGLD 85) will be updated to IGLD 2020 in 2025. At the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly in Vienna, Austria, NGS scientists gave a presentation on their findings for improvements to the IGLD.
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A new interactive map shows differences between the GEOID18 and GEOID12B models. The updated map shows areas where data gaps were filled, provides a new error estimation layer, and shares information about each of the marks that were used to create the model
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Approximately 950 attendees tuned in to NGS’s March webinar: "State Plane Coordinate System Update." This webinar presented the feedback NGS received on the planned State Plane Coordinate System of 2022 (SPCS2022) and the final SPCS2022 Policy and Procedures
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NGS personnel conducted a local site survey at the Haleakalā Observatory in Maui, Hawaii, to determine the spatial relationship of two instruments—one of which is operated by NASA—for conducting space geodesy. The international body responsible for maintaining global time and reference frame standards uses information from local site surveys,
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NGS staff gave a presentation on successes from the “GPS on Bench Marks” citizen science campaign at the CitizenScience.org conference in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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GEOID18 will provide improved GPS-derived North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88) equivalent heights and will be the last hybrid geoid model NGS will release before replacing the nation's current height reference frame, NAVD 88, with the North American-Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022.
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NGS updated its
strategic plan (PDF) to
focus on the next five years. The update does not significantly change NGS
priorities, but rather outlines the progress NGS has made in implementing
its strategic plan over the past five years
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The
Gravity for the Redefinition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D) project is conducting airborne gravity surveys over American Samoa and Hawaii. GRAV-D is an ongoing initiative to redefine the nationwide vertical datum by 2022. Accurate heights are critical to numerous scientific endeavors but are particularly important for protecting low-lying coastal ecosystems
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NGS personnel from Norfolk, Virginia, completed a sensor and reference mark survey of the NOAA Ship Pisces in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The survey provides a current, precise coordinate system of the ship's infrastructure and sensors, which are critical to successfully completing its missions
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NGS released a significant upgrade to its Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) for user review and testing. CORS provides GPS data to support very accurate 3D positioning, meteorology, space weather, and geophysical applications in the U.S.
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Staff from the
NGS Testing and Training Center (NTTC) conducted Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and real-time kinematic (RTK) training for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) at the Department of Commerce’s Boulder Labs in Colorado.
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