Global Positioning Systems Committee

William Stone, Chair

The NMGIC Global Positioning Systems Committee is Chaired by William Stone, National Geodetic Survey Liaison to the State of New Mexico. Mr. Stone represents and informs NMGIC on many issues concerning GPS, geodesy, Height Modernization, OPUS, and the establishment and development of Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) within New Mexico.

Height Modernization is the name of a series of state-by-state programs recently begun by the United States' National Geodetic Survey, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The goal of each state program is to place GPS base stations at various locations within each participating state to measure topographic changes in the directions of latitude and longitude caused by subsidence or earthquakes, as well as to measure changes in height (elevation).

The National Geodetic Survey (NGS), an office of NOAA's National Ocean Service, coordinates a network of continuously operating reference stations (CORS). Each CORS site provides Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS - GPS and GLONASS) carrier phase and code range measurements in support of 3-dimensional positioning activities throughout the United States and its territories.

The National Geodetic Survey operates the Online Positioning User Service (OPUS) as a means to provide GPS users easier access to the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS). OPUS allows users to submit their GPS data files to NGS, where the data will be processed to determine a position using NGS computers and software. Each data file that is submitted will be processed with respect to 3 CORS sites. The sites selected may not be the nearest to your site but are selected by distance, # of obs, site stability, etc. The position for your data will be reported back to you via email in both ITRF and NAD83 coordinates as well as UTM, USNG and State Plane Coordinates (SPC) northing and easting. OPUS is completely automatic and requires only a minimal amount of information from the user.

For more information, please Contact:

    William Stone, Chair
    Global Positioning Systems Committee
    National Geodetic Survey
    MSC01 1110
    202 Bandelier West
    1 University of New Mexico
    Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
    Phone: 505-277-3622 x252
    Fax: 505-277-3614
    Email: william.stone@noaa.gov