Sam Wormley
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 Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 3:10 am Post subject: NOAA Adds CORS, WAAS Tracking Sites |
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NOAA Adds CORS, WAAS Tracking Sites
http://sc.gpsworld.com/gpssc/content/printContentPopup.jsp?id=557772
Oct 9, 2008
GPS World
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration>s (NOAA) National Geodetic Survey has
incorporated 43 new GPS tracking sites into the Continuously Operating Reference Station
(CORS) network, including 13 sites established by the Federal Aviation Administration as
part of their Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS).
Four of the new WAAS sites are located in Alaska, four in Canada, and five in Mexico. WAAS
provides differential GPS correctors for airline navigation across North America. These
correction stations help more precisely determine a position and enable pilots to
determine the three-dimensional location of their aircraft with an accuracy of a few
meters, according to NOAA. The WAAS network now contains 38 GPS tracking sites.
"The CORS network is a critical NOAA product that helps ensure the consistency and
accuracy of the nation>s spatial reference system," said John H. Dunnigan, assistant
administrator of NOAA>s National Ocean Service. "These additional stations are part of a
continuing effort by NOAA to improve the accuracy of the spatial reference system and to
be on the cutting edge of positioning technology."
The addition of the new sites significantly improves both the geographic coverage of the
CORS network as well as the accuracy with which CORS users can position things, including
property boundaries, transportation arteries, buildings and other map-worthy objects, NOAA
said.
The expanded coverage will also reportedly benefit those organizations that apply CORS
data to monitor the distribution of water vapor in the atmosphere and the distribution of
free electrons in the ionosphere. Knowing the distribution of water vapor is critical for
accurately forecasting severe weather such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and thunderstorms; an
overabundance of free electrons in the ionosphere can disrupt those communications
services that involve satellite links, according to NOAA.
The NOAA CORS network now contains more than 1,200 sites spanning the United States, its
territories, and several foreign countries. Surveyors, GIS users, and others can combine
their own GPS data with GPS data from the CORS network to determine three-dimensional
positional coordinates that approach a few centimeters in accuracy. Alternatively, users
can submit their GPS data to the web-based Online Positioning User Service (OPUS) utility
to have NOAA compute such coordinates automatically. |
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