Your behavior appears to be a little unusual. Please verify that you are not a bot.


Discussing the new North American-Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022 — Part 4

December 6, 2017  - By

My last column focused on the National Geodetic Survey’s (NGS) current plans for estimating North American-Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022 (NAPGD2022) GNSS-derived orthometric heights and incorporating geodetic leveling data into NAPGD2022 to establish orthometric heights consistent with GNSS-derived NAPGD2022 orthometric heights. It emphasized that after NAPGD2022 is established, the primary means for deriving orthometric heights on monuments will be using GNSS observations combined with the geoid model.

Recently, NGS published its second blueprint for the 2022 document titled “Blueprint for 2022, Part 2: Geopotential Coordinates.” The report addresses NAPGD2022 in detail. The intent of the document is to provide to the public the current status of plans by NGS to modernize the geopotential component of the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) in 2022. This particular document covers the definition and determination of orthometric heights, geoid undulations, gravity, deflections of the vertical, dynamic heights, and any other quantity directly related to the geopotential field of the Earth. As mentioned my previous columns, NAPGD2022 will be replacing the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). The executive summary of report NGS 64 is provided in the box titled “Executive Summary, NOAA Technical Report NOS NGS 64, Blueprint for 2022, Part 2: Geopotential Coordinates.” Surveyors and mappers should obtain a basic understanding of the four interrelated products of NAPGD2022. They are GM2022, GEOID2022, DEFLEC2022, and GRAV2022. I’ve highlighted them in executive summary box below.

Executive Summary

 


NOAA Technical Report NOS NGS 64

Blueprint for 2022, Part 2: Geopotential Coordinates
In 2022, the entire National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) will be modernized. This document addresses the geopotential aspects of the NSRS, including every vertical datum, the geoid, gravity, deflections of the vertical, and other quantities related to Earth’s gravity field. Every one of these related, yet semi-independent sources of information will be replaced with an internally consistent geopotential datum called the North American-Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022 (NAPGD2022). Within NAPGD2022 four primary, interrelated time-dependent products will exist:

  • A global model of Earth’s geopotential field (GM2022)
  • Regional gridded geoid undulation models (GEOID2022)
  • Regional gridded deflection of the vertical models (DEFLEC2022)
  • Regional gridded surface gravity models (GRAV2022)

The three regions for the gridded models will be North America (covering CONUS, Alaska, Hawaii, the Caribbean, Canada, Mexico, Central America and Greenland), American Samoa and Guam/Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

NAPGD2022 will be built upon the IGS frame, as only minor (entirely horizontal) differences will exist between the IGS frame and the four new terrestrial reference frames developed as part of the NSRS in 2022 (see NGS, 2017). Since these differences will be relatively small horizontal displacements (mainly due to Euler pole rotations), NAPGD2022 will operate equally well in any of four new frames.
Orthometric heights in NAPGD2022 will be defined through ellipsoid heights and GEOID2022. This means NAPGD2022 orthometric heights will primarily be accessed through Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology. GEOID2022 will be defined in a manner that best fits global mean sea level at the epoch of NAPGD2022. When global sea level changes by a threshold level of 20 centimeters, a new geoid model, and thus geopotential datum, will be released. Until then, updates to any component of NAPGD2022 will result in updating all components of NAPGD2022 using sequential version numbering.

Leveling in NAPGD2022 will retain its current role of providing high-accuracy local differential orthometric heights. The determination of absolute heights, however, which will provide the context of local differential heights, will reside in the GNSS domain (i.e., will be based on IGS ellipsoid heights).

Find this entire report here.

There is a lot of good information in the report and I would encourage everyone to download the report and read it. Some of the report is technical but most of it provides simple and easy to understand explanations of very technical terms. Pages 22 and 23 of NGS 64 provides a good summary of the different components of NAPGD2022 (see box tilted “Excerpt from Section 9 of NGS 64”).

Excerpt from Section 9 of NGS 64

9 The 2022 Geopotential Datum



  1. In 2022, the NSRS will contain one geopotential datum, capable of providing (at a minimum) the geoid undulation, acceleration of gravity, geopotential number, and deflection of the vertical at any given latitude, longitude, ellipsoid height, and time in a global ideal reference frame, such as the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) or International GNSS Service (IGS) frames. The name of this datum will be the North American-Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022 (NAPGD2022).
  2.  

  3. The foundational component of NAPGD2022 will be a spherical13 harmonic model of Earth’s external gravitational potential, called (for now) the Geopotential Model of 2022 (GM2022).
     
    The GM2022 will be created for the entire Earth and will contain two components:
    1. The first component will be time independent, fixed at some epoch (TBD14) to a at least degree and order of 2160,15 called (for now) the Static Geopotential Model 2022 (SGM2022).
    2. Complementing SGM2022 will be a time-dependent model of Earth’s external gravitational potential, capable of capturing both secular and episodic changes of significance. This time-dependent model will be called (for now) the Dynamic Geopotential Model 2022 (DGM2022).

     

  4. Three derivative products, based upon GM2022, but requiring additional information and providing higher-resolution regional information than is contained in GM2022 will be created:
    1. A gridded geoid model GEOID2022,16 which will contain two components:
      1. The first will be time independent, fixed at some epoch (TBD) called (for now) the Static Geoid model of 2022 (SGEOID2022).
      2. Complementing this will be a time-dependent geoid undulation model, encompassing permanent geoid changes >= 1 millimeter per year, called the Dynamic Geoid model of 2022 (DGEOID2022).
    2. A gridded deflection of the vertical, DoV, model (at the surface of the Earth) DEFLEC2022, which will contain two components:
      1. The first will be time independent, fixed at some epoch (TBD) called (for now) the Static Deflection of the Vertical model of 2022 (SDEFLEC2022).
      2. Complementing this will be a time-dependent DoV model, called the Dynamic Deflection of the Vertical model of 2022 (DDEFLEC2022).
    3. A model for interpolating surface gravity GRAV2022, which will contain at least one, possibly two components:
      1. The first will be time independent, fixed at some epoch (TBD) called (for now) the Static Gravity model of 2022 (SGRAV2022).
      2. As a second, possible component, NGS will investigate the feasibility of a time-dependent surface gravity model.



The three derivative-gridded products (GEOID2022, DEFLEC2022, and GRAV2022) will encompass three non-global areas. These three areas will be (latitude and longitude convention being positive north, positive east):

The boxes titled “Figure 9-1 From NOS NGS 64,” “9-2 from NOS NGS 64,” and “9-3 from NOS NGS 64” depict the regions that GEOID2022, DEFLEC2022 and GRAV2022 will cover.

Figure 9-1 From NOS NGS 64

The North American region for GEOID2022, DEFLEC2022 and GRAV2022

Figure 9-2 From NOS NGS 64

The American Samoa region for GEOID2022, DEFLEC2022 and GRAV2022
Figure 9-3 From NOS NGS 64

The Guam and CNMI region for GEOID2022, DEFLEC2022, and GRAV2022

So, what does this mean to the surveying and mapping community? First, as mentioned in my previous columns, there will be significant differences between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88. Figure 1 depicts the approximate differences between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 in the conterminous United States.

Figure 1 – Approximate Change Between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 Using GPS on BMs Data (units = cm). [Figure 1 is from June 2017 Survey Scene column.]

For those still referring their products to NGVD 29, figure 2 depicts the approximate differences between NAPGD2022 and NGVD 29 in the conterminous United States.

Figure 2 – Approximate Change Between NAPGD2022 and NGVD 29 Using GPS on BMs Data (units = cm). [Figure 2 is from the June 2017 Survey Scene column].

My April 2017 Survey Scene column provided an estimate of the change between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 at bench marks with GNSS-derived ellipsoid heights in Alaska. Figure 3 is a plot of the GPS on BMs residuals computed using xGeoid16b geoid values, IGS08 ellipsoid heights, and NAVD 88 orthometric heights.

Figure 3 – Approximate Change Between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 Using GPS on BMs Data (units = cm). GPS on Bench Mark Residuals Using xGeoid16b in the State of Alaska – Referenced to IGS08 (units = cm) – Green Line Represents the Leveling Lines [Figure 3 is from the April 2017 Survey Scene column.

As outlined in NOS NGS 64 report and previously mentioned in this column, there are four interrelated products of NAPGD2022 – GM2022, GEOID2022, DEFLEC2022, and GRAV2022. What most surveyors will be using is GEOID2022 (SGEOID2022 and DGEOID2022). As explained in my last column, and part of NGS’ frequently asked questions about the new datums, users will access the NSRS using GNSS-derived ellipsoid heights and GEOID2022.

How will accessing the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) change with the release of the new datums?
The NSRS will be accessed using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology that references Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) and relies on a time-dependent gravimetric geoid model. This method of accessing the NSRS is a paradigm shift from accessing NAD 83 and NAVD 88 through the use of geodetic survey marks.

It will not be necessary to connect to a geodetic monument, i.e., a bench mark, because the NATRF2022 ellipsoid height (hNATRF2022) is determined using the NGS CORS and the geoid model (NGEOID2022) is consistent with NATRF2022. In other words, GNSS ellipsoid heights (e.g., NATRF2022) combined with the geoid model (e.g., GEOID2022) will become the primary means for deriving orthometric heights on marks.

There will be a static geoid model of 2022, denoted as SGEOID2022, which will be fixed at a specific epoch. Since the geoid model changes due to various factors, such as changes in sea level, glacial rebound, and seismic activities, there will be a dynamic aspect of the 2022 geoid model, denoted as DGEOID2022. The permanent changes to the geoid model are small and will take several years to become significant to affect the typical survey and mapping product. Saying that, it is important to understand that there is a static and a dynamic aspect of the National geoid model. NGS will provide a single GEOID2022 value which will apply the appropriate static and dynamic components of the geoid model.

Even though, the primary access to NAPGD2022 will be using GNSS and a geoid model, users will still want to perform precise leveling observations and incorporate the results into NAPGD2022. My last column discussed incorporating leveling data into NAPGD2022. Differential leveling of high precision is used to observe elevation differences which are then used to establish precise heights of vertical control points (bench marks) above or below a reference surface, e.g., the North American Vertical Datum of 88 (NAVD 88) or North American-Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022 (NAPGD2022). Differential leveling, conceptually a simple procedure, in practice lends itself to many types of small errors. To detect, reduce, and control these errors, specific procedures need to be adhered to and corrections must be applied. FGCS has documented the necessary procedures to be used in first-, second- and third-order geodetic leveling projects. Procedures do not always reduce error to tolerable values; therefore, additional corrections are applied by the office processing the data to remove known systematic errors.

The box titled “Excerpt from Special Report Results of the General Adjustment of the North American Vertical Datum of 1988” provides a summary of the corrections applied to the leveling data used in NAVD 88. As you can see, gravity (highlighted in the box) plays an important role in estimating accurate orthometric heights. This is where GRAV2022 is important, it is used during the process of converting observed leveling height differences into orthometric height differences.

Excerpt from Special Report – Results of the General Adjustment of the North American Vertical Datum of 1988

(https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/PUBS_LIB/NAVD88/navd88report.htm)
David B. Zilkoski, John H. Richards, and Gary M. Young
American Congress on Surveying and Mapping Surveying and Land Information Systems, Vol. 52, No. 3, 1992, pp.133-149
Corrections Applied to Leveling Data

The leveling observations used in NAVD 88 were corrected for rod scale and temperature, level collimation, and astronomic, refraction, and magnetic effects (Balazs and Young 1982; Holdahl et al. 1986). All geopotential differences were generated and validated, using interpolated gravity values based on actual gravity data. Geopotential differences were used as observations in the least-squares adjustment, geopotential numbers were solved for as unknowns, and orthometric heights were computed using the well-known Helmert height reduction (Helmert 1890): H = C/(g + 0.0424H), where C is the estimated geopotential number in gpu, g is the gravity value at the benchmark in gals, and H is the orthometric height in kilometers. The weight of an observation was calculated as the inverse of the variance of the observation, where the variance of the observation is the square of the a priori standard error multiplied by the kilometers of leveling divided by the number of runnings.

This column highlighted two components of NAPGD2022 – the geoid undulation model of GEOID2022 and gravity model of GRAV2022. It expressed that these two models will be very important to future surveyors and mappers that are incorporating geodetic data into the North American-Pacific Vertical Datum of 2022 (NAPGD2022). As previously mentioned, I would encourage everyone to download and read NGS recently published second blueprint for 2022 document, titled “Blueprint for 2022, Part 2: Geopotential Coordinates.” This column also emphasized the significant differences between NAPGD2022 and the U.S. National Vertical Datums of NAVD 88 and NGVD 29. My next column will provide the latest details of NGS’ 2018 GPS on BMs campaign which will be used to develop transformation tools for converting products and services from NAVD 88 to NAPGD2022.