CURRENT TRENDS AND

ENHANCEMENT TO THE NATIONAL

GEOSPATIAL REFERENCE SYSTEM
Gary Johnston and John Dawson

NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play

Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play

 Introduction

• Australia’s National Geospatial Reference

System (NGRS)
• How has it changed
• Global Geodetic Observing System
• AUSCOPE
• eGeodesy
• AusGeoid09
• Looking Forward
• Summary

Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play

 Australia’s National Geospatial
Reference System

•A coordinate framework that is accurate,

reliable and accessible
•Direct linkage to an International
Reference Frame that is accurate and
stable
•Systems and tools to allow connection to
the coordinate reference system and
transformation of legacy data to the current
reference system

Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play

•GDA94 coordinates
and uncertainties
propagated down
through the GPS and
terrestrial networks

•ITRF92 @ 1994.0 positions

determined for AFN and
Australian Fiducial Network
Australian National Network ANN and adopted as GDA94
Datum
Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play
How have our requirements for a datum
changed
Atm
osp
•Accuracies need to improve n Meltin
g of ic
e he
load ric
i ng
c ea ng
generally by an order of O adi
lo
y
log E

Groundw
o l ec
en
hr tro
magnitude every decade Co
r e p ma
gn

Winds
co et i c

a te r
up
lin
Viscous g
•The number of users has
torque

es Ocean
ak
grown significantly art h
qu
currents

lar
E

so
•Australia is a dynamic Plate tectonics

r&

n
na

t io
Lu

rac
continent on a deforming

at t
planet
• GDA94 is no longer serving the precision
positioning applications
Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play
Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play
Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS)

• Provides quantitative measurements of the

dynamic nature of the Earth including
– Plate tectonics / intraplate tectonics
– Anthropogenic Subsidence
– Earthquake induced crustal deformation
– Sea Level Rise
– Atmospheric Modelling
Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play
 What are the attributes of a dynamic
system that we want
1994

2001 2007

Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play

 Time series steps

Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play

 Time series signals

Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play

 Australia’s role in defining the ITRF –
contributing to GGOS

VLBI SLR GPS Gravity

Inter-technique Local Tie Surveys

Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play

 AuScope Geospatial Infrastructure
Program
• 3 new 12m VLBI telescopes;
• A VLBI observation correlation facility;
• 4 new Gravity instruments (1 Microg FG5
absolute gravimeter plus 3 gPhone Earth
Tide Metres) and observation program
around a national network;
• A Laser power upgrade at the Mt Stromlo
Satellite Laser Ranging observatory;
• 100 new GNSS sites

Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play

 AuScope GNSS Network with VLBI and
SLR sites

Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play

Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play
 eGeodesy

• Initially eGeodesy will allow for platform

independent exchange of all geodetic data
• Ultimately this will incorporate business
modelling ie how geodetic activities are
undertaken
• Next step is web services. Machine to
machine exchange of data and metadata
• eGeodesy can than progress to grid / cloud
computing and crowd sourcing of data

Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play

 AUSGeoid09: no longer purely
gravimetric

AHD height

Ellipsoidal
height

0.5 m
0.5 m
Geoid

Gravimetric
AUSGeoid09:
Geoid
AHD toto
Ellipsoid
Ellipsoid
Separation
Separation
Ellipsoid

Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play

AUSGeoid09: Gravimetric + Geometric
The gravimetric component
• Ellipsoid to Geoid
• Based on similar principles to
previous AUSGeoid versions

The geometric component

• Geoid to AHD offset
• Model the ~1 m trend

Two components are combined

into a single national grid of ~2 km
resolution.

The ~100 m variation from SW to

NE Australia is caused by
gravitational variability caused by:
• crust thickness
• crust type
• magma distribution etc.

Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play

 Looking Forward
• Need to incorporate desirable attributes of
ITRF into a national datum
– Continually refined
– Observes Earth dynamics
• Need to remove national boundaries
• Need to develop systems for transforming /
adjusting legacy data sets to the current
coordinate frame (where required)
• Dynamic datum offers these options
• eGeodesy will assist users deal with
dynamics
Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play
 Summary

• GDA94 has served us well but is showing its

age
• GGOS and the IAG services have developed
systems, data and methodologies for dealing
with a dynamic Earth
• AuScope is giving us the tools to follow the
GGOS lead
• A dynamic datum will keep Australia’s
positioning applications accurate and current,
and therefore internationally competitive

Presentation 201120. NT Spatial 2011: The State of Play