quaff-nationalgeodeticsurvey-home.docVIP

The Right Place GPS, Geodesy, and the Perils of Modern Positioning National Geodetic Survey Convocation, October 2005 Michael L. Dennis, P.E. Shephard-Wesnitzer, Inc. E-mail: mdennis@ Prepared in cooperation with the Geospatial Committee of the Arizona Professional Land Surveyors Association The Global Positioning System (GPS) has become a dominant technology for positioning. GPS is used for a wide variety of mapping and surveying applications and is often employed for populating, verifying, and controlling Geographical Information System (GIS) databases. The software has also become easier to use, so that it is now possible for a user with minimal training to collect and process GPS data. Such “user-friendly” software has made GPS a much more accessible technology, yet this ease of use has come at a price: It is also easy for users with little geodetic knowledge to unwittingly generate erroneous coordinates. Modern technology is characterized by rapid change, and GPS is no exception. The pace of change has made it difficult to establish GPS positioning standards and specifications. Many users find themselves struggling to understand a tool that is both highly complex and unnervingly easy to use. GPS vendors have attempted to fill this void by developing their own specifications and methods, including their own jargon. While this has propelled the use of GPS, it has also led to confusion about procedures, accuracy, performance, and terminology. This has made it problematic for those seeking positioning services to write meaningful project specifications. The end result of all this is a greatly increased risk for creating or receiving a product that is not correctly georeferenced — that is, not in the right place. The positioning precision of GPS varies greatly, by as much as a factor of a thousand depending on the types of equipment and procedures used. Regardless of the precision, derivations and manipulations of GPS coordinates are based on the scie