Discussing the new North American-Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022 — Part 1

On April 24-25, 2017, the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) hosted the 2017 Geospatial Summit in Silver Spring, Maryland, to discuss its plans for replacing the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83) and the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88) in 2022.

The summit was a day and a half long and provided an opportunity for NGS to share updates and discuss the progress of projects related to National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) Modernization. Stakeholders across the federal, public and private sectors also provided feedback and impacts of New Datums on their products and services.

The absolute differences between the new vertical reference frame, North American-Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022 (NAPGD2022), and NAVD 88 are going to be large but, in most regions of the country, the relative differences over small areal extents will be small.

NGS is developing geodetic routines and tools to transform heights from NAVD 88 to NAPGD2022, and to facilitate the incorporation of geodetic leveling data into NAPGD2022 to establish NAPGD2022 heights. To prepare for the new datums and develop implementation plans, stakeholders should obtain an understanding of the differences between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88.

My previous columns provided figures that demonstrated the approximate differences between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 heights at a national level. (See figure 1.) This column will provide feedback from stakeholders that participated in the Geospatial Summit and, using NGS’ GPS on BMs dataset, a discussion on the differences between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 (and NGVD 29) at a local level.

Figure 1 – Approximate Change Between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 Using GPS on BMs Data (units = cm). (Image: National Geodetic Survey)

Information about the summit and Summit Documents can be downloaded here.

Read an excerpt from website here.

If you check on the tab titled “Summit Documents” you can download the agenda and documents provided to participates. Read excerpts from the summit here.

The first day consisted of presentations by NGS leadership and personnel providing updates and discussing the progress of projects related to the NSRS modernization. The presentations by NGS employees can be downloaded from NGS’ presentations library at this web link. View an excerpt from NGS’ presentations library here.

The afternoon of day 2 were presentations by partners and stakeholders. (See box titled “Excerpt from NGS 2017 Geospatial Summit Agenda – Afternoon of Day 2.”)

Excerpt from NGS 2017 Geospatial Summit Agenda – Afternoon of Day 2
Day 2 Afternoon Agenda from NGS’ 2017 Geospatial Summit
Day 2: Tuesday, April 25, 20171:30 – 3:05 Impacts of New Datums on Programs and Partners (Part 1)
Coastal Mapping Program and VDatum: Mike Aslaksen and Stephen White, NOAA/NGS
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): Kimberly Pettit, FEMA
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS): Kari Craun, USGS
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE): Jim Garster, USACE
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA): Stephen Malys, NGA
3:05 – 3:25 Break
3:25 – 4:55 Impacts of New Datums on Programs and Partners (Part 2)
Geospatial and Remote Sensing Customers: Amar Nayegandhi, Dewberry
Geographic Information System (GIS) Customers: Kevin Kelly, Esri
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Equipment Customers: Hamid Mahmoudabadi, Trimble Kyle Snow, Topcon
State Government Partners: Gary Thompson, N.C. Department of Public Safety
Local Government Partners: Vickie Anglin, Fairfax County Government, Virginia; Patrick Simon, Baltimore County Land Survey, Maryland
4:55 – 5:00 Wrap-up and closing

In order for consistency, NGS provided guidance and a set of template slides for guest presenters to use. Guest presenters were allotted 10 minutes to present and limited to four slides. The presentation by the guest presenters are not on NGS’ Presentations Library but I’ve been told that they will be available on the Summit website later this year. Gary Thompson, Chief of the North Carolina Geodetic Survey (NCGS), provided me a copy of his slides and gave me permission to include them in this column. (See box titled “Power point Slides Presented by Gary Thompson, Chief of NCGS, at the NGS 2017 Geospatial Summit.”) North Carolina has been very proactive in addressing the impacts of the new datums on NC products and services. North Carolina Geodetic Survey has established a North Carolina Geodetic Survey Advisory Committee that reviews NCGS products and services, and they have established the North Carolina 2022 Reference Frame Working Group to prepare for the new datums.

Slide: National Geodetic Survey

Powerpoint slides presented by Gary Thompson, chief of NCGS, at the NGS 2017 Geospatial Summit

All of the presentations by the invited guest speakers were interesting, and everyone followed NGS’ guidance which helped to focus the Summit on the main issues associated with a datum change. As expected, each stakeholder had their own set of issues and concerns about transitioning to a datum. The following are some common themes that I heard from the participants:

(1) There are a lot of products and services that will be effected by a datum change,
(2) An official transformation model between the old and new datum(s) published by NGS is critical for a successful transition to a new datum,
(3) Guidance documents that are “easily” understood by “non-geodesists” is required for a smooth implementation of a new datum, and
(4) More frequent geospatial summits and webinars are needed to provide updates on the status of the projects associated with NSRS modernization and to ensure user involvement in the process.

I contacted a couple of the guest presenters to discuss their feedback on the New Datums. As NAVD 88 Program Manager, I collaborated with many of them during the development and implementation of the NAVD 88. As in the transition from NGVD 29 to NAVD 88, it’s not the conversion of coordinates that’s a problem; a good transformation tool should meet that requirement. Saying that, it was stated that many users rely on commercial and open source software to convert their data, so they would like NGS to collaborate with others to ensure that these software suppliers are using the appropriate algorithms/information in their products. The integration with legacy data referenced to older datums may be complicated for some products and services; therefore, the process of transforming each product and service will need to be addressed individually. If all data are in digital form with the appropriate metadata, then the transformation should be relatively easy to accomplish and maps with new contour lines or new base flood elevations referenced to the new datum could be generated. However, how these new maps are integrated with old maps is a different issue. I will address some of these potential issues in future columns.

To prepare implementation plans, users must obtain a working knowledge of the differences between the old and new datums. As previous mentioned, the absolute differences between the new vertical reference frame, NAPGD2022, and NAVD 88 are going to be large but, in most regions of the country, the relative differences over small areal extents will be small. To evaluate the relative differences at the local level, the differences between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 (and NGVD 29) were computed for bench marks in the NGS’ GPS on BMs dataset. The NAD 83 (2011) latitude, longitude, and ellipsoid height of each station was transformed to the IGS08 reference frame using NGS’ HTDP web tool, and then the GNSS-derived orthometric height was computed using the following formula:

Approximate NAPGD2022 GNSS-Derived Orthometric Height
Equals
IGS08 Ellipsoid Height minus xGeoid16b Geoid Height (referenced to IGS08).

Figure 1 is a plot of the difference between the approximate NAPGD2022 height and the published NAVD 88 height for bench marks that are part of the GPS on BMs dataset and have the published attribute of “Adjusted.” It should be noted that these are only estimated changes because the final NAPGD2022 reference frame will not be exactly the same as the current IGS08 reference frame, but these estimates should serve the purpose of providing approximate changes for users to develop transition plans.

Since some users are still converting NGVD 29 heights to NAVD 88 heights, the approximate change between NAPGD2022 and NGVD 29 is provided in figure 2. VERTCON values were used to convert the NAVD 88 published heights to NGVD 29 heights, and then the difference between the approximate NAPGD2022 orthometric height and the NGVD 29 orthometric height was computed.

Figure 2 – Approximate Change Between NAPGD2022 and NGVD 29 Using GPS on BMs Data (units = cm). (Image: National Geodetic Survey)

As shown in figure 2, the absolute differences between the new vertical reference frame, NAPGD2022, and NGVD 29 are also going to be large but, once again, in most regions of the country, the relative differences over small areal extents will be small.

What does this look like in a local area? Figure 3 is a plot of the approximate change between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 in North Carolina and surrounding states, and figure 4 is plot of the approximate change between NAPGD2022 and NGVD 29 in North Carolina and surrounding states.

Figure 3 – Approximate Change Between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 in North Carolina and Surrounding States Using GPS on BMs Data (units = cm). (Image: National Geodetic Survey)

Figure 4 – Approximate Change Between NAPGD2022 and NGVD 29 in North Carolina and Surrounding States Using GPS on BMs Data (units = cm). (Image: National Geodetic Survey)

Figure 5 provides a more detailed depiction of the change between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 along the North Carolina Atlantic Coast. The differences appear to vary by several centimeters but some of these differences are due to errors in published heights (both ellipsoid and orthometric). These differences can be used to develop a transformation model but the user will need to know the accuracy of the model, globally and locally.

Figure 5 – Approximate Change Between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 along North Carolina Atlantic Coast Using GPS on BMs Data (units = cm). (Image: National Geodetic Survey)

Figure 6 is a detailed depiction of the change between NAPGD2022 and NGVD 29 in the same area as shown in figure 5. Comparing figures 5 and 6, the reader should notice that the differences between NAPGD2022 and NGVD 29 are about 30 cm larger (more negative) than the differences between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88.

Figure 6 – Approximate Change Between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 29 along North Carolina Atlantic Coast Using GPS on BMs Data (units = cm). (Image: National Geodetic Survey)

Figure 7 is the difference between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 in western North Carolina. The local difference in the NC mountains is around -35 cm which is about 10 cm different from the NC Atlantic Coast. Questions that users need to address include: What is the accuracy of the transformation model? And What is the accuracy of the product or service being transformed? The transformation model will not replace the original survey results but may be useful for transforming some products and services.

Figure 7 – Approximate Change Between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 in the Western North Carolina Using GPS on BMs Data (units = cm). (Image: National Geodetic Survey)

Table 1 provides the average difference between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 (and NGVD 29) by State using the GPS on BMs dataset. This table shows that there are large differences between NAPGD2022 and both NGVD 29 and NAVD 88. No matter which datum the product or service is referenced to, it will probably need to be transformed to NAPGD2022.

Table 1 – Average Difference Between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 (and NGVD 29) by State Using GPS on BMs Dataset (units = cm). Click to enlarge. (Date: National Geodetic Survey)

Average Difference Between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 by State Using GPS on BMs Dataset (units = cm). Click to enlarge. (Date: National Geodetic Survey)

Table 2 provides the standard deviation of the average difference between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 by State. For example, North Carolina has a sample size of 1600 stations and its average difference is -28 cm with a standard deviation of 4.8 cm. Looking at figures 5 and 7, there appears to be a difference of 10 cm across the State. The States in the northwestern region of the United States have a larger difference between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 as well as a larger standard deviation. Oregon has a sample size of 195 stations and its average difference is -100.7 cm with a standard deviation of 13.0 cm, and Washington has a sample size of 266 stations and its average difference is -108.8 cm with a standard deviation of 9.0 cm. Figure 8 is a plot of the approximate change between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 in the northwest region of the United States.

As mentioned previously, these differences will vary from station to station because of a bias and trend between the two datums and due to remaining errors in published heights (both ellipsoid and orthometric). As I have noted in previous columns, many of the large relative differences between stations in a local area could be due to an invalid NAVD 88 published height because the bench mark moved since the last time the height of the bench mark was adjusted and published, and/or an undetected error in an ellipsoid height due to a weak GNSS project design. Either way, in my opinion, most of these stations with large relative differences don’t accurately represent the current NAVD 88. NGS’ modernization of the NSRS will provide a more accurate and consistent reference frame, and improve the user’s ability to obtain a current and accurate orthometric height.

Figure 8 – Approximate Change Between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 in the Northwest Region of the United States Using GPS on BMs Data (units = cm). (Image: National Geodetic Survey)

This column highlighted some of the feedback provided by guest presenters at the NGS’ 2017 Geospatial Summit held on April 24-25, 2017, in Silver Spring, Maryland. The column also provided a discussion on the approximate differences between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88 (and NGVD 29) at a national and local level. To prepare for the new datums and develop implementation plans, users should obtain an understanding of the differences between NAPGD2022 and NAVD 88. This column is the first in a new series of columns addressing topics associated with transitioning to the new North American -Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022 (NAPGD2022).