ƒ??In the Newsƒ? NGS items of note

I usually keep track of the NGS web site: https://geodesy.noaa.gov and found two items of potential interest to members of this board.

The most recent item in the “In the News” block on lower right corner of their home page pertains to a Federal Register Notice the title of which is shown here:

 Within the text is the news (to me at least) that the OPUS Projects tool is to be expanded to allow submissions of RTK and RTN observations. The “new tool” is expected during calendar year 2020. 

Full text of the notice is here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/07/24/2020-16084/consideration-of-potential-age-limiting-observations-to-be-used-to-compute-202000-reference-epoch

Another item of interest, this related to geoid modeling efforts, is an plan to implement deflection of the vertical observations using the Leica TS60 total station. This TS has some impressive specifications and includes a 10fps color CCD camera. 

In correspondence with the NGS POC, I verified that the NGS approach is along the lines of those of the ETH Zurich described here:

https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/doc/1375756/1375756.pdf

Like their system, the NGS plan is overcome the limitations of DCZS systems like DIADEM (used in the NGS geoid slope validation surveys). These systems, while more accurate are, difficult to use in challenging terrain. As the TS60 includes a built-in camera system it does not require the external camera and Menicus lens shown in the link above.

Hope this is of interest,

DMM 

 **** corrected the model number of the total station and added note regarding the difference between the NGS and ETH Zurich systems. ***