Datum

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This article describes a concept from surveying and geodesy. Datum is also the singular form of data. Datum was also a city in ancient Macedonia, probably on the site of the modern Kavala.

A datum (plural datums or data) is a reference from which measurements are made. In surveying and geodesy, a datum is a reference point on the earth's surface against which position measurements are made, and an associated model of the shape of the earth for computing positions. Horizontal datums are used for describing a point on the earth's surface, in latitude and longitude or another coordinate system. Vertical datums are used to measure elevations or underwater depths. In engineering and drafting, a datum is a reference point, surface, or axis on an object against which measurements are made.

1 Reference datums
2 Vertical datums
3 Engineering Datums
4 Datum Conversion
5 External links

[edit] Reference datums

A reference datum is a known and constant surface which is used to describe the location of unknown points on the earth. Since reference datums can have different radii and can have different centre points, a specific point on the earth can have substantially different coordinates depending on the datum used to make the measurement. There are hundreds of locally-developed reference datums around the world, usually referenced to some convenient local reference point. Contemporary datums, based on increasingly accurate measurements of the shape of the earth, are intended to cover larger areas. The most common reference Datums in use in the North America are NAD27, NAD83, and WGS84.

The North American Datum of 1927 (NAD 27) is "the horizontal control datum for the United States that (was) defined by a location and azimuth on the Clarke spheroid of 1866, with origin at (the survey station) Meades Ranch (Kansas)." ... The geoidal height at Meades Ranch was assumed to be zero. "Geodetic positions on the North American Datum of 1927 were derived from the (coordinates of and an azimuth at Meades Ranch) through a readjustment of the triangulation of the entire network in which Laplace azimuths were introduced, and the Bowie method was used." (http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/faq.shtml#WhatDatum ) NAD27 is a local referencing system covering North America.

The North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83) is "The horizontal control datum for the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America, based on a geocentric origin and the Geodetic Reference System 1980. "This datum, designated as NAD 83 ...is based on the adjustment of 250,000 points including 600 satellite Doppler stations which constrain the system to a geocentric origin." NAD83 may be considered a local referencing system.

WGS 84 is the World Geodetic System of 1984. It is the reference frame used by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and is defined by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency(NGA) (formerly the National Imagery and Mapping Agency) (formerly the Defense Mapping Agency). WGS 84 is used by DoD for all its mapping, charting, surveying, and navigation needs, including its GPS "broadcast" and "precise" orbits. WGS 84 was defined in January 1987 using Doppler satellite surveying techniques. It was used as the reference frame for broadcast GPS Ephemerides (orbits) beginning January 23, 1987. At 0000 GMT January 2, 1994, WGS 84 was upgraded in accuracy using GPS measurements. The formal name then became WGS 84 (G730), since the upgrade date coincided with the start of GPS Week 730. It became the reference frame for broadcast orbits on June 28, 1994. At 0000 GMT September 30, 1996 (the start of GPS Week 873), WGS 84 was redefined again and was more closely aligned with International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) 94. It is now formally called WGS 84 (G873). WGS 84 (G873) was adopted as the reference frame for broadcast orbits on January 29, 1997. (http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/faq.shtml#WhatDatum )

The WGS84 datum, which is almost identical to the NAD83 datum used in North America, is the only world referencing system in place today. WGS84 is the default standard datum for coordinates stored in recreational and commercial GPS units.

Users of GPS are cautioned that they must always check the datum of the maps they are using. To correctly enter, display, and to store map related map coordinates, the datum of the map must be entered into the GPS map datum field.

See related terms: (shape of the earth, geoid, ellipsoid, reference datum ) For more detail - see http://kartoweb.itc.nl/geometrics/Reference%20surfaces/body.htm

[edit] Vertical datums

A vertical datum is used for measuring the elevations of points on the earth's surface. Vertical datums are either tidal, based on sea levels, or geodetic, based on the same ellipsoid models of the earth used for computing horizontal datums.

In common usage, elevations are often cited in height above sea level; this is a widely used tidal datum. Because ocean tides cause water levels to change constantly, the sea level is generally taken to be some average of the tide heights. Mean lower low water — the average of the lowest points the tide reached on each day during a measuring period of several years — is the datum used on most nautical charts, for example. While the use of sea-level as a datum is useful for geologically recent topographic features, sea level has not stayed constant throughout geological time, so is less useful when measuring very long-term processes. In some situations sea level does not apply at all -- for instance for mapping Mars' surface -- forcing the use of a different "zero elevation", such as mean radius.

A geodetic vertical datum takes some specific zero point, and computes elevations based on the geodetic model being used, without further reference to sea levels. Usually, the starting reference point is a tide gauge, so at that point the geodetic and tidal datums might match, but due to sea level variations, the two scales may not match elsewhere. An example of a gravity-based geodetic datum is NAVD88, used in North America, which is referenced to a point in Quebec, Canada. Ellipsoid-based datums such as WGS84, GRS80 or NAD83 use a theoretical surface that may differ significantly from the geoid.

On nautical charts, depths of water are relative to chart datum which is generally the lowest tide caused by gravity alone.

[edit] Engineering Datums

An engineering datum used in Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing is a feature on an object used to create a reference system for measurement.

[edit] Datum Conversion

A term used to describe the process of converting the coordinates of a point from one datum system to another. Datum Conversion may frequently be accompanied by a change of grid projection.