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October 2004

September 2004
  • Sizing Up Kentucky:  According to Ross MacKay, Kentucky's Geodetic Advisor, "Most of us are not familiar with geodesy, and don't give topography a second thought until we have a steep hill to climb. Accurate elevations are a fundamental tool in mapping and planning. From floodplain management to precision agriculture, Height Mod will provide us with the numbers we need - better, faster and cheaper. It's a solid investment."
June 2004
  • On June 7, NOAA's National Geodetic Survey celebrated the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Puerto Rico to begin a comprehensive leveling project on the island. This understanding will allow Puerto Rico to move forward on the project, which will cover 900 kilometers and cost approximately three million dollars. The new leveling data will give surveyors and cartographers in Puerto Rico access to accurate heights for the first time. Alan Neuschatz represented NOAA at the ceremony.

    For more information, please contact Ed Allen.
April 2004
  • NOAA's National Geodetic Survey (NGS) won an award for an entry submitted to the 2003 Blue Pencil Awards, a contest sponsored by the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC). The entry, a handout promoting NOAA's connection to the Lewis and Clark bicentennial celebration, will be ranked at an awards banquet in May. NAGC is a national non-for-profit network of federal, state, and local government employees who disseminate information within and outside government.

    PDF of the award winning Lewis and Clark Handout.
    Links to high-resolution JPEG scans of the handout: Page 1 | 2 | 3

  • The March-April 2004 American Surveyor Magazine features two articles by NGS employees: The NGS Datasheet Website by Craig Larrimore and Geodetic Connections: Databases by Dan Martin. Craig is an IT specialist at NGS headquarters and Dan is the Vermont State Advisor.
March 2004
  • Directions Magazine, a GIS News source, has an article about Products and Services of the National Geodetic Survey.

  • POB Magazine's online site has an article by Mark E. Meade about the need for Height Modernization.
February 2004
  • NOAA's National Geodetic Survey (NGS) is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the North Carolina Geodetic Survey to update all of the flood plain maps of North Carolina. NGS is determining the current elevations of each North Carolina county with Height Modernization, a program geared at obtaining up-to-date elevation levels with Global Positioning System surveying and remote sensing technologies, rather than with traditional surveying practices. FEMA will use these elevation data as the base control for NC flood plain maps. While NGS has been contracting these surveys out as a part of regular operations, NGS will be transferring contracting responsibilities to the state level, increasing efficiency and sustaining the state Height Modernziation program. For more information, please contact Gary Thompson.

  • NOAA's National Geodetic Survey and Geomatics Canada, the U.S. and Canadian agencies responsible for providing a consistent North American spatial reference system, will soon share their automated positioning services with each other. This partnership means that both U.S. and Canadian citizens will be able to use the Online Positioning Service (OPUS), developed by NGS, and the Precise Point Positioning (PPP) service, developed by Geomatics Canada.

    OPUS and PPP are web-based utilities that allow users to submit a file of GPS data to NGS and Geomatics Canada, respectively. The agencies will automatically compute precise 3D coordinates for the location requested and email these positional coordinates to the user, usually within minutes. For more information, please contact Richard Snay.

January 2004
  • From January 18 - 30, NOAA's National Geodetic Survey (NGS) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will lead an assessment team that will evaluate Ethopia's geodetic, land surveying, and cartographic infrastructure. NGS and USGS will meet with Ethiopian government ministers, program managers, and technical specialists to assess current land management programs. Based on recommendations from the team, NGS will develop a plan for the modernization of the country's geodetic surveying programs. This project is part of the U.S. Agency for International Development's effort to enhance the economy and political stability of developing countries. For more information, please contact Dave Doyle.

  • From January 22 - 31, a team from NOAA's National Geodetic Survey and the International Program will travel to South Korea and give several presentations on LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) to the Ministry of Maritime Affaris and Fisheries (MOMAF), a Korean government agency. This collaboration stems from a joint agreement between NOAA and MOMAF, which focuses on sharing new technology. Two Korean scientists will come to the United States for hands-on LIDAR training later this year. For more information, please contact
    Brian Taggart.

 

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Last updated by NGS.webmaster on October 14, 2004