Skip to main content

Transition to the 2022 National Coordinate System without Getting Left Behind

Published Date
Author Trimble Geospatial

 

3 minute read

Dru Smith from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will be presenting at the Trimble Dimensions user conference in Las Vegas (Nov 5-7) on the upcoming changes to the national coordinate system and how you and your organization can prepare for it. A summary of his presentation topic is below:

Title: How to Transition to the 2022 National Coordinate System without Getting Left Behind

2022-Datum

Abstract: In 2022, the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) will replace all components of the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS), including NAD 83 and NAVD 88, with a new system that is geocentric, time-dependent, and not reliant upon passive control.  Every survey, map or geolocation created today will be incompatible with the new system by as much as 4 meters, depending on where in the United States you are working.  This misalignment could apply to every latitude and/or longitude and/or height in your work.

In order to assist users in understanding and adapting to the new system, two technical reports were released by NGS in 2017, under the title “Blueprint for 2022”, with a third, companion report in the works.  The first two reports provide the scientific and definitional aspects of four new time-dependent terrestrial reference frames and their companion “geopotential datum” (replacing and expanding upon the historic concept of a “vertical datum”).  The third report will focus on the user community and how it can work within this new paradigm of time-dependent geodetic control.

Key Objectives:

  • Transform all of their data from NAD 83 / NAVD 88 into the new NSRS
  • Understand why time-dependent geodetic control is the only realistic way forward
  • Use time-dependent geodetic control

About the presenter:

Dr. Dru Smith was Chief Geodesist of NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey from 2005 until 2015, and now serves as the NSRS Modernization Manager, responsible for overseeing the replacement of NAD 83 and NAVD 88.  He first entered NGS in 1995 after receiving his Ph.D. in geodetic science from The Ohio State University.  He has published over 50 papers on research topics ranging from geodetic surveying to ionosphere determination to geoid modeling.

He is a member of the American Geophysical Union, the International Association of Geodesy and is a Fellow of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (now the National Society of Professional Surveyors) and has previously served on the Board of Directors for the American Association for Geodetic Surveying.  He has received the Bronze, Silver and Gold medals from the Department of Commerce for outstanding federal service.

Register Here to Attend Trimble Dimensions >