PRECISE GEODETIC INFRASTRUCTURE
National Requirements for a Shared Resource
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Award No. NNX-07AT39G, the National Science Foundation under Award No. EAR-0634914, the Department of Interior–U.S. Geological Survey under Award No. 06HQGR0183, the Department of Defense–National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency under Award No. HM158207P0006, the Department of Defense–United States Naval Observatory under Award No. NNG07HS32P (through NASA), and the Department of Commerce – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Geodetic Survey under Award No. NA08NOS4000319. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations contained in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. Government.
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Cover: Design by Francesca Moghari. Image courtesy of Sean Swenson, The National Center for Atmospheric Research. The image depicts the mean annual amplitude of terrestrial water storage for the period 2002-2010 derived from GRACE time-variable gravity field data.
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR PRECISION GEODETIC INFRASTRUCTURE
J. BERNARD MINSTER (Chair),
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California
ZUHEIR ALTAMIMI,
Institut Géographique National, Paris France
GEOFFREY BLEWITT,
University of Nevada, Reno
WILLIAM E. CARTER,
University of Florida, Gainesville
ANNY CAZENAVE,
Centre National d’Études Spatiales, Toulouse, France
HERB DRAGERT,
Natural Resources Canada, Sidney, British Columbia
THOMAS A. HERRING,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
KRISTINE M. LARSON,
University of Colorado, Boulder
JOHN C. RIES,
University of Texas at Austin
DAVID T. SANDWELL,
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California
JOHN M. WAHR,
University of Colorado, Boulder
Liaison from the Committee on Seismology and Geodynamics
JAMES L. DAVIS,
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, New York
National Research Council Staff
DAVID A. FEARY, Study Director
LEA A. SHANLEY, Postdoctoral Fellow
NICHOLAS D. ROGERS, Financial and Research Associate
COURTNEY R. GIBBS, Program Associate
ERIC J. EDKIN, Senior Program Assistant
COMMITTEE ON SEISMOLOGY AND GEODYNAMICS
MICHAEL E. WYSESSION (Vice Chair),
Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
J. RAMON ARROWSMITH,
Arizona State University, Tempe
EMILY E. BRODSKY,
University of California, Santa Cruz
JAMES L. DAVIS,
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, New York
STUART P. NISHENKO,
Pacific Gas and Electric, San Francisco, California
PETER L. OLSON,
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
NANCY L. ROSS,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
CHARLOTTE A. ROWE,
Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico
DAVID T. SANDWELL,
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California
BRIAN W. STUMP,
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
National Research Council Staff
DAVID A. FEARY, Study Director
NICHOLAS D. ROGERS, Financial and Research Associate
ERIC J. EDKIN, Senior Program Assistant
BOARD ON EARTH SCIENCES AND RESOURCES
CORALE L. BRIERLEY (Chair),
Brierley Consultancy, LLC, Highlands Ranch, Colorado
KEITH C. CLARKE,
University of California, Santa Barbara
DAVID J. COWEN,
University of South Carolina, Columbia
WILLIAM E. DIETRICH,
University of California, Berkeley
ROGER M. DOWNS,
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park
JEFF DOZIER,
University of California, Santa Barbara
KATHERINE H. FREEMAN,
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park
WILLIAM L. GRAF,
University of South Carolina, Columbia
RUSSELL J. HEMLEY,
Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C.
MURRAY W. HITZMAN,
Colorado School of Mines, Golden
EDWARD KAVAZANJIAN, JR.,
Arizona State University, Tempe
ROBERT B. McMASTER,
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
CLAUDIA INÉS MORA,
Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico
BRIJ M. MOUDGIL,
University of Florida, Gainesville
CLAYTON R. NICHOLS,
Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (retired), Ocean Park, Washington
JOAQUIN RUIZ,
University of Arizona, Tucson
PETER M. SHEARER,
University of California, San Diego
REGINAL SPILLER,
Allied Energy, Texas
RUSSELL E. STANDS-OVER-BULL,
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Billings, Montana
TERRY C. WALLACE, JR.,
Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico
HERMAN B. ZIMMERMAN,
National Science Foundation (retired), Portland, Oregon
National Research Council Staff
ANTHONY R. de SOUZA, Director
ELIZABETH A. EIDE, Senior Program Officer
DAVID A. FEARY, Senior Program Officer
ANNE M. LINN, Senior Program Officer
SAMMANTHA L. MAGSINO, Program Officer
MARK D. LANGE, Associate Program Officer
LEA A. SHANLEY, Postdoctoral Fellow
JENNIFER T. ESTEP, Administrative and Financial Associate
NICHOLAS D. ROGERS, Financial and Research Associate
COURTNEY R. GIBBS, Program Associate
JASON R. ORTEGO, Research Associate
ERIC J. EDKIN, Senior Program Assistant
TONYA E. FONG YEE, Senior Program Assistant
Preface
“Ubinam sum?”—where in the world am I?1 This question—albeit a rhetorical one—sums up a central issue dealt with in this report. Since the advent of the space age, we have seen remarkable improvements in positioning, navigation, and timing of approximately one order of magnitude each decade with no indication that this rate of progress is abating. So we now know how to answer that question better than ever. This is the object of precise global geodesy. But the underlying infrastructure is at risk and its fragility a matter of serious concern.
The committee was asked to describe and assess the range of benefits to the nation that are dependent on high-precision geodetic networks, review high-priority scientific objectives that are dependent on geodetic networks, describe the infrastructure requirements for achieving these objectives and benefits, assess the opportunities for technological innovation that will arise from renewed investment in geodetic infrastructure, and recommend a national plan for the implementation of a precision geodetic infrastructure.
The committee gathered information from the scientific literature, numerous and extensive briefings by federal, academic, non-profit, and industry researchers, in addition to previous studies and reports. What seemed to us at the beginning to be a rather straightforward task was revealed to be a surprisingly complex one. This is because there seems to be no end to the list of scientific problems, technical endeavors, and societal activities that depend directly or indirectly on the global precise geodetic infrastructure. It was especially difficult to avoid duplicating the discussion of the Global Geodetic Observing System in the very complete volume edited by Plag and Pearlman (2009). We have restricted our focus to what we define in the report as “precise geodesy,” that is, measuring the position of any point on the Earth with millimeter accuracy, variations in the length of the day to a few millionths of a second, the orientation of Earth’s rotation axis in space to few billionths of a degree, and changes in the Earth’s gravity to a few parts per billion.
Our recommendations aim at maintaining and improving this capability, mitigating the risk of infrastructure degradation, and supporting a long-term sustainable national infrastructure capable of serving the full range of existing and future users.
The committee thanks the following individuals for making presentations and providing background material, figures, and other input: Greg Anderson, Yoaz Bar-Sever, Terry C. Bills, Yehuda Bock, Rich Brancato, Elbert “Joe” Friday, Tim Fuller-Rowell, Paul Gunderson, Philippe Hensel, Ken Johnston, Russ Kelz, Nancy King, John LaBrecque, Deborah Lawrence, William Leith, Chopo Ma, Zsolt Nagy, Steve Nerem, Ericos Pavlis, Nikolaos Pavlis, Jim Ray, Chris Rocken, Anthony Russo, Jim Slater, Dru Smith, Lucia Tsasoussi, Shimon Wdowinski, Neil Weston, Jim Whitcomb, and Bobby Williams.
The committee also thanks the staff of the National Research Council for their patient support of this project. In particular Courtney Gibbs and Nicholas Rogers provided essential logistics and computer help throughout. As study director, David Feary brought together the funding, secured the critical participation of agency representatives to the four meetings of the committee, and helped the committee assemble most of the raw material for this report. The committee is particularly grateful to NRC Post-doctoral Fellow Lea Shanley for her skillful and enthusiastic coordination of final efforts to bring this study to a successful conclusion.
J. Bernard Minster
Chair
Acknowledgments
This report was greatly enhanced by input from the many participants at the public committee meetings as well as from other contributors—Greg Anderson, Yoaz Bar-Sever, Yehuda Bock, Rich Brancato, Elbert “Joe” Friday, Tim Fuller-Rowell, Paul Gunderson, Philippe Hensel, Ken Johnston, Russ Kelz, Nancy King, John LaBrecque, Deborah Lawrence, William Leith, Chopo Ma, Steve Nerem, Ericos Pavlis, Nikolaos Pavlis, Jim Ray, Chris Rocken, Anthony Russo, Jim Slater, Dru Smith, Lucia Tsasoussi, Shimon Wdowinski, Neil Weston, Jim Whitcomb, and Bobby Williams. The presentations and the ensuing discussions helped set the stage for the committee’s fruitful discussions in the sessions that followed.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the NRC’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their participation in the review of this report:
Véronique Dehant, Royal Observatory Belgium, Brussels
Timothy Dixon, University of Miami, Florida
Goran Ekstrom, Columbia University, New York
Gary Johnston, Geoscience Australia, Canberra
Rowena Lohman, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
D. David Moyer, University of Wisconsin-Madison
R. Steven Nerem, University of Colorado, Boulder
Michael Pearlman, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Michael Sideris, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
David Szymanski, Bentley University, Waltham, Massachusetts
Paul Tregoning, Australian National University, Canberra
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Michael Goodchild, University of California, Santa Barbara. Appointed by the NRC, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.