The U.S. Is Getting Shorter, as Mapmakers Race to Keep Up

[GooooMarquette]

Interesting story from the NYTimes about errors that were made in measuring elevations relative to sea level in the past, how the shape of the earth is always changing, and how scientists they are trying to correct it all.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/science/maps-elevation-geodetic-survey.html

The grand recalibration, called "height modernization," is part of a broader effort within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, to establish more accurately where and how the United States physically sits on the planet. This new National Spatial Reference System, encompassing height, latitude, longitude and time, is expected to be rolled out in late 2022 or 2023, Ms. Blackwell said. It will replace reference systems from the 1980s that are slightly askew, having been derived from calculations that were done before the advent of supercomputers or global navigation satellite systems such as GPS.
.....
Once the new height system is in place, people will find unexpected uses for it, Ms. Blackwell of the National Geodetic Survey said. She invoked "The Jetsons," the futuristic animated television sitcom from the 1960s that featured cartoon characters zipping around their cities in tiny spacecraft. The underlying technology — the ability to calculate heights and other positional coordinates swiftly and accurately — was unimaginable at the time. Today, with the proliferation of drones, self-driving cars and remotely operated aerial systems, the ability to navigate accurately in three dimensions is becoming paramount. "I think it's going to get adopted really quickly," she said.



Yeah, you could probably call me a science geek....

[dgies9156]

Guess it must be raining where you are today, too.

[GooooMarquette]

Guess it must be raining where you are today, too.

Ha! Yes it was...but I still read the science section of the NYTimes whenever I have time.