Category Archives: GNSS/Location Tech
Women in Surveying: An Accidental Surveyor Schools the Field
An unconventional geospatial technician oversees pre-construction and construction work for rehabbing a flood-control dam in VA. Pictured above: Evans inspects a recent concrete pour on the dam’s riser tower. “I’ve been on dozens of job sites and a lot of construction projects, and I have rarely worked with another female on site,” says Evans, a civil...
Controlling the Future with Training
To support user training, one company surpasses the usual by extending and supporting information, content, and new skills. Pictured above: Field training can sometimes be the most efficient way of capturing the attention of busy contractors. The surveying and construction industries are dynamic. The way people work today is clearly much different than 50 years ago,...
Are HARNs on Death Row?
In the late 1980s, the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) launched a program, in cooperation with State partners, to establish a High Accuracy Reference Network (HARN) across the United States. HARN’s History With the rapidly increasing availability and use of GPS equipment, NGS recognized the need to establish a network of high-accuracy, passive survey monuments with...
Night in the Afternoon: A US Solar Eclipse
What you need to know about the 2017 solar eclipse The upcoming solar eclipse will leave a 70-mile-wide trail of darkness across the United States on August 21, 2017 (see the map of the eclipse path on pages 44-45). This will be a once-in-a-lifetime event for many people. While another total solar eclipse will make...
Fire, Ice, and Latitude in Ecuador
A team of U.S. surveyors visited Ecuador to use real-time PPP to pay homage to the 18th-century “Geodesic Mission to the Equator,” one of the most difficult and significant missions in the history of surveying and geodesy. Pictured above: The team of U.S. surveyors on the 2017 Ecuador visit (from back to front): Rich Leu, John...
Geodetic Control over Time and Space in California
Interview with Scott Martin, Chief of Geodetic Control and GNSS Surveys, California DoT Above: UNAVCO/PBO station P655 with Mt. Shasta in the background. Matteo Luccio: Scott, what is your relevant background and what is your current role? Scott Martin: I’m a state employee with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), in the Office of Land...
