The National Geodetic Survey 10 Year Plan Mission, Vision and Strategy 20082018

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The National Geodetic Survey 10 Year
PlanMission, Vision and Strategy 2008-2018
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The NGS 10 year plan2008-2018

• History
• Overview
• Five Technical Improvements
• Summary

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History

• Fall 2006 (NGS Leadership Summit)
• Ten year plan conceptualized
• Feb 2007
• First draft released for public comment
• Jan 2008
• Final version approved by NGS for public release

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The National Geodetic Survey 10 year plan --
Mission, Vision and Strategy 2008-2018

• Official NGS policy as of Jan 9, 2008
• Mission Focused
• Modernized Agency
• Attention to accuracy
• Attention to time-changes
• Improved products and services
• Integration with other fed missions
• www.ngs.noaa.gov/10yearplan
• 2018 Targets
• NAD 83 and NAVD 88 re-defined
• Cm-accuracy access to all coordinates
• Customer-focused agency
• Global scientific leadership

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Overview

• Official Title
• The National Geodetic Survey 10 year plan --
  Mission, Vision and Strategy 2008-2018
• Newly stated Mission
• Vision of the future
• To accomplish the mission
• Five Technical Improvements
• To achieve the vision

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Overview Mission
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The National Spatial Reference System (NSRS)

• The official system of the federal government
  which allows a user to determine (inside the
  USA)
• Geodetic latitude, longitude and height
• Orthometric height, geopotential
• Acceleration of gravity and deflection of the
  vertical
• All in the latest official datums, as defined by
  NGS
• The location of the National Shoreline
• And importantly
• All necessary information to describe how all of
  these quantities change over time

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Components of the NSRS include

• Models, Tools and Infrastructure
• Orientation and scale relative to Intl Ref
  Systems
• Precise orbits of GNSS sats used to define NSRS
• CORS
• Some passive monumentation
• Accurate and time-tracked gravity field
  (including the geoid, orthometric heights,
  dynamic heights)
• Programs for coordinate conversion
• Standards, Specifications and Guidelines
• IT, Outreach

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Mission Geospatial Activities are

• those functions which seek to access the NSRS at
  one or more points at any accuracy, including
  (but not limited to) geodesy, surveying, remote
  sensing, mapping and charting.

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Vision Accuracy and Leadership

• Key visions, related to the Mission
• Define the NSRS
• The NSRS must be more accurate than all
  activities which build upon it, while still being
  practicably achievable.
• Maintain the NSRS
• NGS must track all of the temporal changes to the
  defining points of the NSRS in such a way as to
  always maintain the accuracy in the NSRS
  definition.

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Passive monumentation Today

• Passive marks define (NAVD 88) and provide access
  to (NAVD 88 and NAD 83) the NSRS
• NAD 83 realizations
• CORS96 (active)
• NSRS2007 (passive)
• Shouldve been the same
• Projects are submitted to NGS for
• Checking
• Processing
• Loading into the database
• Coordinate assignment
• Dissemination of coordinates to the public

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Passive Monumentation Future

• Pasive marks will not define the datums of the
  NSRS
• They will provide secondary access to them
• Eventually, OPUS (DB) replaces bluebooking
• Instant results, shared with the public
• Data files stored for future re-adjustments with
  other projects
• 2011(?) Bluebooking for GPS in NAD 83 goes away
• 2015(?) Bluebooking for leveling in NAVD 88
  goes away
• Sending data to NGS for loading into the database
  will no longer be equivalent to my project is
  part of the NSRS
• Tied to the NSRS replaces Part of the NSRS
• Nomenclature implies that NGS has not performed a
  hands-on check of your work

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Passive Monumentation Future

• As CORS and GNSS tools improve, need for passive
  marks may decrease
• But never approach zero
• NSRS perimeter will shrink and will not
  encompass most passive mark surveys submitted to
  NGS.
• Some exceptions
• Absolute Gravity
• Tide gauge and other GGOS sites
• Airport control
• Re-adjustments of OPUS submissions episodically
• Surveyors wishing to share their NSRS coordinates
  on a passive mark may do so, but NGS does not
  consider this a defining point of the NSRS
• Only survey marks.
• No storage of mailbox coordinates on NGS
  computers.

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Vision Accuracy and Leadership (2)

• Provide Access to the NSRS
• Update Guidelines
• For various accuracies
• Coordinates and velocities
• Including orthometric heights, shoreline,
  gravity, geoid, deflection of the vertical, etc.
• This isnt just about f, l and h

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Achieving the Vision Five Technical
Improvements

• In order to achieve the vision, these areas of
  emphasis must drive all future NGS activities
• Modernize the Geometric Datum
• Modernize the Geopotential Datum
• Migrate the Coastal Mapping Program toward IOCM
• Evolve Core Capabilities
• Increase Agency Visibility

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Modernize the Geometric Datum(Step 1 Build
Tools and Capacity)

• Define the required CORS needed to accomplish the
  NGS mission (in a minimally acceptable way)
• Spacing, Monumentation, Signals, Constellations
• Call this Foundation CORS
• NGS to own or operate all foundation CORS sites
• Monitored coordinates and velocities
• Co-located with other geodetic observing systems
  (VLBI, SLR, LLR, Tide and Water gages)
• Contributing to GGOS, as part of GEOSS
• Strict responsibility for all other CORS sites
  will be on the site operators
• Provide contact information for site operator
• Minimal NGS resources by developing
• Automated data collection and QC
• Automated suspension from CORS for data or
  metadata problems
• OPUS-GNSS

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Modernize the Geometric Datum(Step 2 Re-define
the datum)

• By 2018, a replacement for NAD 83
• Not horizontal but geometric
• New name (call your state legislators now)
• Geocentric!!!
• Defined and monitored exclusively at CORS sites
• Connection to stable North American plate being
  resolved.
• Will go hand in hand with a new geopotential
  datum

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2) Modernize the Geopotential Datum(Step 1
Build Tools and Capacity)

• Develop better theory
• Proof that perfect data can actually yield a lt1
  cm accurate gravimetric geoid
• Collect and clean data data
• Consistent, up-to-date, and gapless gravity data
  set
• Only possible through GRAV-D
• This will be the largest project to hit NGS since
  NAVD 88
• Epoch-tags and velocities
• Absolute Gravity sites re-visited episodically to
  directly observe velocity of gravity
• Spot Gravity velocities modeled from absolute and
  satellite gravity missions
• Clear Direction
• Defining the North American vertical datum
  through GNSS and a gravimetric geoid by 2018

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GRAV-DGravity for the Redefinition of the
American Vertical Datum

• Official NGS policy as of Nov 14, 2007
• Airborne gravity survey (10 years)
• Gravity monitoring into the future
• Coastal areas surveyed first
• All USA states and territories
• www.ngs.noaa.gov/GRAV-D
• 2017 Targets
• Orthometric heights good to 2 cm anywhere,
  anytime from GNSS technology
• Height changes easily monitored using new
  vertical datum

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3) Migrate Coastal Mapping toward IOCM

• Improve Efficiency
• Adoption of new tools
• LIDAR, Thermal Imagers, Digital Cameras
• Reduction of human subjectivity
• Improves automation
• Complete VDatum
• Integral for consistent tide-coordinated
  shoreline
• Migrate toward IOCM
• Fully integrate NGS shoreline activities with
  other NOAA coastal mapping

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4) Evolve Core Capabilities

• Retrain and retool NGS workforce
• Training
• Succession Planning
• Visiting Scientists / Sabbaticals
• Product oversight
• Strong Products and Services Committee
• Always asking Is this part of the NGS
  mission?
• Modernize tools
• Transition to automated, web based tools
• Improve or retire aging products and services
• Where is a simple, clean, up to date,
  all-purpose, all-datum transformation tool?

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4) Evolve Core Capabilities (cont.)

• Outreach Get Critical messages out now
• New Datums by 2018
• Height Modernization means CORS, gravimetric
  geoid or local vertical studies.
• Installation of new passive marks only as part of
  the whole, not as the perpetual solution to a
  deteriorating vertical datum

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5) Increase Agency Visibility

• Focus on what we do best
• Datums, Tools, Surveys, Guidelines, Coastline
• Do a few things best rather than a lot of things
  so so
• Increased outreach
• More interagency cooperation
• Broader publication record

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10 year plan - Summary

• Strong Mission statement acting as a beacon
• Vision of the future based on improved leadership
  and deliverable accuracy
• Five technical improvements to move us forward

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Status

• Jan 9, 2008
• Final text approved
• Sent for layout and editing
• Feb 13, 2008
• Final edited version made available on the NGS
  web page
• Hard copies expected at ACSM in March

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Questions/Comments?

• Dr. Dru Smith
• Chief Geodesist, National Geodetic Survey
• Dru.Smith_at_noaa.gov
• 301-713-3222 x 144