For those not only the NGS news mailing list, this announcement received today.
June 30, 2014: The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) Releases new Beta experimental geoid height model “xGEOID14B,” spanning one-quarter of Earth’s surface.
The new model—the first to cover the whole of Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. mainland—incorporates all available satellite, airborne, and surface gravity data and represents a significant step toward defining a new regional vertical datum and contributing to a world height system. This new geoid model will be tested by surveyors, engineers, geographic information specialists, and others interested in defining accurate heights. NGS is collaborating with Canada, Mexico, Central American and Caribbean nations, and Denmark (for Greenland) to provide a unified height model for scientific, engineering, disaster mitigation, and emergency response purposes. For example, this model may improve forecasters’ ability to predict the effects on Florida of storm surge from a hurricane in Haiti.
xGEOID14B is accessible on the NGS Beta site:
http://beta.ngs.noaa.gov/GEOID/xGEOID14/
Thank you for the post Mike - this is pretty exciting news.
Another link for anybody wanting a little more info:
http://beta.ngs.noaa.gov/GEOID/xGEOID14/xGEOID14_supplemental.shtml
And for those who want even more on the evolving World Height System and the presentation made two weeks ago in Malaysia:
http://beta.ngs.noaa.gov/GEOID/xGEOID14/docs/Paper_7303_Roman_Li_final.pdf