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2 Geodesy for the Benefit of Society
Pages 27-36

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From page 27...
... Like roads and highways that facilitate interstate commerce, the geodetic infrastructure provides significant benefits to society by enabling an astonishing array of activities and innovations, including autonomous navigation, precision agriculture, civil survey ing, early warning systems for hazards, and improved floodplain mapping. This chapter describes current capabilities made possible by the precise global geodetic infrastructure, highlights areas that could benefit from improvements in the geodetic infrastructure, and explores potential future applications.
From page 28...
... The NGS Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) Network, which enables precise real-time positioning for applications, including precision agriculture, surveying, and even GPS-guided snowplows, makes extensive use of the global geodetic infrastructure.
From page 29...
... When the highest accuracy is required, it is necessary to supplement GNSS/GPS data with information from the global geodetic infrastructure, including the International GNSS Service network and the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF)
From page 30...
... This tremendous advance is due not only to technological improvements and cost reductions but also to the coordination of the scientific community through global geodetic services, including the International GNSS Service, the International VLBI Service, the International Laser Ranging Service, and the International DORIS Service; to geodetic research that led to significant improvements in geodetic data analysis and accuracy; and to coordination between the scientific and civilian communities and government. Recent advances have been spectacular; it is unclear whether the past rate of improvement can be sustained, but the evidence indicates that the future will bring significant advances in geodesy in the areas of temporal resolution, spatial coverage and resolution, and latency.3 The current trend is toward what might be called "geodetic imaging," a description of the Earth's continuous deformation at a high temporal and spatial resolution in near real time (see below, "Future Scientific and Technological Breakthroughs")
From page 31...
... In addition, even a sparse geodetic network delivering data in real-time could help scientists determine whether a large earthquake will generate landslides or a tsunami (see Blewitt et al., 2006) , such as the large tsunami caused by the December 24, 2004, Sumatra earthquake (Plag and Pearlman, 2009)
From page 32...
... Due to the low tolerance for delay in such applications, the highest real-time accuracy is needed, which requires making full use of the global geodetic infrastructure. In addi tion, GNSS/GPS satellite orbits and Earth rotation variations would need to be extrapolated into the near future for accurate data analysis.
From page 33...
... Since GNSS/GPS data are downloaded frequently, it also means the soil moisture data would be available for near-term climate modeling and weather forecasting. Precision Agriculture The use of geodetic technology for operating farm machinery, using the collection of techniques known as precision agriculture, is rapidly growing in the United States.
From page 34...
... Currently, precision agriculture practices are not directly based on the global geodetic infra structure, but on correction systems like the Wide Area Augmentation System, which uses local correction services. These local services are used across the U.S.
From page 35...
... Soil moisture would be monitored by remote sensing and ground-based GNSS/GPS integrated into GIS, providing accurate management of irrigation. Local GNSS/GPS networks would improve local weather forecasts.
From page 36...
... , the demands on the geodetic infrastructure and the importance of universal standards will continue to increase. Many potential future breakthroughs, like fully autonomous transportation systems, are possible only with a highly robust geodetic infrastructure that provides accurate data products in real time in a universally accepted reference system.


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