Category Archives: Surveying
Error Ellipses
Part 2: Components and Increasing Probability In the previous article (April 2017) I discuss the correlation of the coordinate values for a station and how an error ellipse is used to determine the direction of the largest error at a station. In this article I review the components of an error ellipse, the process that...
The Elusive Scope: Business Advice for Surveyors
How to prepare for and meet your client’s needs by keeping your eye on the project scope. I wrote many business-advice columns in this magazine’s predecessor, Professional Surveyor Magazine. Now that I’ve adjusted to writing for the entire geomatics world rather than on just surveying issues, I believe I’ve found one topic that affects everyone...
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...
Certifications or Licensing? The Future of Surveying
Part 1 Editor’s note: What will regulation, certification, and licensing of the surveying profession look like in the near and distant future? Surveying is and always has been molded by external influences: markets, technologies, economic conditions, demographics, and competition from outside of the profession. Other professionals, consumers, and prosumers have found that the legacy mysteries...
Trial by Fire: First Party Chief Experience
As we ponder the many challenges presented by the rapid transformation of the land surveying profession, the topic of mentoring often comes up. I have written about that topic a couple of times in past editions of Field Notes. (The image above is Whisky Pass Colorado, 1935. Credit: NOAA National Geodetic Survey.) I attribute much...
Behind the Big Eye of the SX10: Trimble, Danderyd, Sweden
A visit to Trimble’s engineering and production center in Danderyd, Sweden, reveals the story of the SX10’s development. As surveyors, we purchase and use some of the most sophisticated instruments of any field-oriented profession. Such sophistication yields incredible precision, accuracy, reliability, and flexibility, and, as would be expected, can carry hefty price tags. With such...
