Basic concepts: Datums

Mohd. Farooq Azam

farooqazam@iiti.ac.in
Course Lectures:
Module Lectures
I Introduction 1
II Basic concepts 3
III Geographic Information System 4
IV Triangulation and Trilateration 4
V Precise Levelling 2
Mid-Semester Exam
VI Errors in Measurements 2
VII Electronic measurements in 4
surveying
VIII GPS and dGPS 2
IX Field Astronomy 2
Basic concepts of Surveying:
• Surveying is about measurements.
• Surveying requires a reference system for
fixing relative positions or points.
• Example: Development of IIT Indore campus
Basic concepts of Surveying:

Which is the highest Mountain on Earth?

Basic concepts of Surveying:
• L1 Datums: Representation of Earth, Geoid, Ellipsoid,
Horizontal and Vertical datums, World Geodetic System (WGS).

• L2 Projections: Map projection, Mercator Map projection,

Cylindrical projection, Universal Transverse Mercator projection.

• L3 Coordinate Systems: Coordinate systems and

coordinate system classification.
Plane and Geodetic Surveying:
Plane Surveying: Surveying in which earth surface is considered as
plane.
The line joining between two points is considered as straight.
Geodetic Surveying: Surveying in which the curvature of earth is taken
into consideration.
The line joining two points is considered as a curved line.
Plane and Geodetic Surveying:

B C
Plane and Geodetic Surveying:

Curve
A
A Chord
B

If curve = 12 km, then curve – chord = 1 cm

B C
Plane and Geodetic Surveying:

Curve
A
A Chord
B

If curve = 12 km, then curve – chord = 1 cm

B C
180o >180o

Plane Triangle Spherical Triangle

If area of = 195.5 km2,

then >180o – 180o = 1 sec
Plane and Geodetic Surveying:
Plane Surveying: Surveying in which earth surface is considered as
plane.
The line joining between two points is considered as straight.
Geodetic Surveying: Surveying in which the curvature of earth is taken
into consideration.
The line joining two points is considered as a curved line.
Plane Geodetic
For small area (<250 km2) For big area (>250 km2)
Curvature is ignored Curvature is taken in to account
Less accurate More accurate
PWD/Railways/Irrigation depts. GSI/SOI
Uses basic instruments like Uses advanced/precise instruments
measuring tape, theodolite, TS etc. like GPS, satellites etc.
Representation of Earth’s Surface

Actual Earth

A very lumpy object that

has topography,
bathymetry, changing
ocean height, etc.
Representation of Earth’s Surface

Actual Earth Geoid

A very lumpy object that A less lumpy

has topography, mathematical
bathymetry, changing approximation
ocean height, etc. of the earth.
Representation of Earth’s Surface

Actual Earth Geoid Ellipsoid (lat, long)

A very lumpy object that A less lumpy A way of assigning a

has topography, mathematical set of coordinates to
bathymetry, changing approximation locations.
ocean height, etc. of the earth.
Representation of Earth’s Surface

Actual Earth Geoid Ellipsoid (lat, long) Planer Coordinates (ft,km)

A very lumpy object that A less lumpy A way of assigning a A way to give
has topography, mathematical set of coordinates to coordinates real world,
bathymetry, changing approximation locations. liner measurement.
ocean height, etc. of the earth.
Geoid
• Describes unique and irregular shape of the earth through equipotential surface.
• The variation in the density of different rock types and irregularities caused by
mountain ranges and ocean depths affect the gravity of earth.
• Geoid can be perceived as a sea level surface (where dynamic effects such as
tides and waves are excluded) whose irregular shape is attributed to the earth’s
gravity.

Geoid
Earth surface
Geoid
• Describes unique and irregular shape of the earth through equipotential surface.
• The variation in the density of different rock types and irregularities caused by
mountain ranges and ocean depths affect the gravity of earth.
• Geoid can be perceived as a sea level surface (where dynamic effects such as
tides and waves are excluded) whose irregular shape is attributed to the earth’s
gravity.
• No simple surface such as sphere or ellipsoid (spheroid) can model the sea level
surface completely, so best fit of the ellipsoid (spheroid) to the sea level surface
is performed.
Ellipsoid

Geoid
Earth surface
 Ellipsoid
• An ellipsoid is a mathematical figure
which is defined by semi-major axis (a)
and semi-minor axis (b).
• Flattening is a measure of the compression
of a circle or sphere along a diameter to
form an ellipse or ellipsoid respectively. Examples of ellipsoids with equation
sphere (Top), spheroid (bottom left),
tri-axial ellipsoid (bottom right)

Flattening (f) = (a - b) / a

• Earth is an Oblate spheroid (a>b)

Ellipsoid
An ellipse is defined by:
Focal length =  Z
Distance (F1, P, F2) is
constant for all points
on ellipse
When  = 0, ellipse = circle b
O a X
For the earth: F1   F2
Major axis, a = 6378 km
Minor axis, b = 6357 km
Flattening ratio, f = (a - b) / a
~ 1/300 P
Representation of Geoid Model

• The geoid differs from the shape of ellipsoid by up to ±

100 m and this difference is known as geoid separation or
geoid undulation.
• Ellipsoid surface is taken as a reference to estimate the
separation (negative if geoid surface is below ellipsoid
surface or vice versa)
• Elevations and contour lines depicted on maps are
measured with respect to the geoid.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z41Dt7_R180

Horizontal Earth Datums

• A datum is a reference point or surface

against which measurements are made
using models of the shape of the earth.
• An earth datum is defined by a specific
ellipsoid and an axis of rotation. Geoid Ellipsoid (lat, long)

• There are many ellipsoids one can use to reference locations on

Earth with latitude and longitude, these different Geographic
Coordinate Systems are called Datums. Prolate

• Certain datums fits different parts of the lumpy Earth better than
others, so changing datums can make measurements more
accurate depending on where you are. Oblate

• For nearly all mapping, there are two main datums:

WGS84 (World Geodetic System 1984) and
Sphere
NAD83 (North American Datum 1983).
Types of Horizontal datum
Local geodetic datum: The one which best approximates the
size and shape of a particular part of earth’s sea level surface.
The centre of this ellipsoid doesn’t coincide with centre of mass
of the earth.
Types of Horizontal datum
Global/Geocentric datum: The one that best approximates the
size and shape of the whole earth. The centre of this spheroid
coincides with centre of mass of the earth. The US Global
Positioning System uses geocentric datum.
Vertical Earth Datums
• A vertical datum is a reference surface used to measure elevations
of the point on earth’s surface. It is Tidal (based on mean sea level)
or Geodetic (based on ellipsoid).
• Examples: 1) NGVD29 (National Geodetic Vertical Datum
1929)
2) NAVD88 (North American Vertical Datum 1988)
• The mean sea level height is also known as geoid height or
orthometric height.
• The geodetic vertical datum uses ellipsoid as the reference
surface where surface of ellipsoid is considered at zero altitude,
above and below the ellipsoid, the points represent positive and
negative altitudes, respectively.
• The altitude is also known as ellipsoidal or geodetic height. GPS
devices furnish ellipsoidal heights.
Vertical Earth Datums
Vertical Earth Datums

The relationship between ellipsoidal height (He) and geoid height (Ho) is given
as:
He = Ho + N

where N refers to the geoid-ellipsoid separation.

A Geoid height is positive when it is above the ellipsoid and vice versa.
World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS)
• Responsible Organization : US National Geospatial - Intelligence Agency (NGA)
• Abbreviated Frame Name : WGS84
• Coverage of Frame: Global
• WGS84 is an Earth-centered, Earth-fixed terrestrial reference system and geodetic
datum, and it is designed for positioning anywhere on Earth.
• WGS84 geodetic coordinates are generated by using its reference ellipsoid.
• WGS84 is a standard datum for cartography, geodesy, and satellite navigation
including GPS.
• The latest revision is WGS84 (also known as WGS1984, EPSG:4326), established
in 1984 and last revised in 2004.
• Earlier schemes included WGS72, WGS66, and WGS60.
• It consists of a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system that can either be
described as XYZ Cartesian coordinates or latitude, longitude and ellipsoid height
coordinates.
• EGM2008 (Earth Gravitational Model, 2008) is the latest and more accurate
datum released by U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.