Geodesy

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Geodetic pillar (1855); Ostend, Belgium

Archive with lithography plates for maps of Bavaria in the Landesamt für Vermessung und Geoinformation in Munich

Geodesy (IPA /dʒiˈɑdɪsi/), also called geodetics, is the scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of the earth, its gravitational field, and other geodynamic phenomena, such as crustal motion, oceanic tides, and polar motion.

[edit] Definition

Geodesy is primarily concerned with positioning and the gravity field and geometrical aspects of their temporal variations, although it can also include the study of the Earth's magnetic field. Especially in the German speaking world, geodesy is divided in geomensuration ("Erdmessung" or "höhere Geodäsie"), which is concerned with measuring the earth on a global scale, and surveying ("Ingenieurgeodäsie"), which is concerned with measuring parts of the surface.

The shape of the earth is to a large extent the result of its rotation, which causes its equatorial bulge, and the competition of geologic processes such as the collision of plates and of vulcanism, resisted by the earth's gravity field. This applies to the solid surface (orogeny; few mountains are higher than 10 km, few deep sea trenches deeper than that.) Quite simply, a mountain as tall as, for example, 15 km, would develop so much pressure at its base, due to gravity, that the rock there would become plastic, and the mountain would slump back to a height of roughly 10 km in a geologically insignificant time. (On Mars, whose surface gravity is much less, the largest volcano, Olympus Mons, is 27 km high at its peak, a height that could not be maintained on Earth.) Gravity similarly affects the liquid surface (dynamic sea surface topography) and the earth's atmosphere. For this reason, the study of the Earth's gravity field is seen as a part of geodesy, called physical geodesy.

[edit] Geoid and reference ellipsoid

The geoid is essentially the figure of the Earth abstracted from its topographic features. It is an idealized equilibrium surface of sea water, the mean sea level surface in the absence of currents, air pressure variations etc. and continued under the continental masses. The geoid, unlike the ellipsoid, is irregular and too complicated to serve as the computational surface on which to solve geometrical problems like point positioning. The geometrical separation between it and the reference ellipsoid is called the geoidal undulation. It varies globally between ±110 m.

A reference ellipsoid, customarily chosen to be the same size (volume) as the geoid, is described by its semi-major axis (equatorial radius) a and flattening f. The quantity f = (a−b)/a, where b is the semi-minor axis (polar radius), is a purely geometrical one. The mechanical ellipticity of the earth (dynamical flattening, symbol J₂) is determined to high precision by observation of satellite orbit perturbations. Its relationship with the geometric flattening is indirect. The relationship depends on the internal density distribution, or, in simplest terms, the degree of central concentration of mass.

The 1980 Geodetic Reference System (GRS80) posited a 6,378,137 m semi-major axis and a 1:298.257 flattening. This system was adopted at the XVII General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). It is essentially the basis for geodetic positioning by the Global Positioning System and is thus also in extremely widespread use outside the geodetic community.

The numerous other systems which have been used by diverse countries for their maps and charts are gradually dropping out of use as more and more countries move to global, geocentric reference systems using the GRS80 reference ellipsoid.

[edit] Coordinate systems in space

The locations of points in three-dimensional space are most conveniently described by three cartesian or rectangular coordinates, $X, Y$ and $Z$ . Since the advent of satellite positioning, such coordinate systems are typically geocentric: the $Z$ axis is aligned with the Earth's (conventional or instantaneous) rotation axis.

Before the satellite geodesy era, the coordinate systems associated with geodetic datums attempted to be geocentric, but their origins differed from the geocentre by hundreds of metres, due to regional deviations in the direction of the plumbline (vertical). These regional geodetic datums, such as ED50 (European Datum 1950) or NAD83 (North American Datum 1983) have ellipsoids associated with them that are regional 'best fits' to the geoids within their areas of validity, minimising the deflections of the vertical over these areas.

It is only because GPS satellites orbit about the geocentre, that this point becomes naturally the origin of a coordinate system defined by satellite geodetic means, as the satellite positions in space are themselves computed in such a system.

Geocentric coordinate systems used in geodesy can be divided naturally into two classes:

Inertial reference systems, where the coordinate axes retain their orientation relative to the fixed stars, or equivalently, to the rotation axes of ideal gyroscopes; the $X$ axis points to the vernal equinox
Co-rotating, also ECEF ("Earth Centred, Earth Fixed"), where the axes are attached to the solid body of the Earth. The $X$ axis lies within the Greenwich observatory's meridian plane.

The coordinate transformation between these two systems is described to good approximation by (apparent) sidereal time, which takes into account variations in the Earth's axial rotation (length-of-day variations). A more accurate description also takes polar motion into account, a phenomenon currently closely monitored by geodesists.

[edit] Coordinate systems in the plane

In surveying and mapping, important fields of application of geodesy, two general types of coordinate systems are used in the plane:

Plano-polar, in which points in a plane are defined by a distance $s$ from a specified point along a ray having a specified direction $α$ with respect to a base line or axis;
Rectangular, points are defined by distances from two perpendicular axes called $x$ and $y$ . It is geodetic practice — contrary to the mathematical convention — to let the $x$ axis point to the North and the $y$ axis to the East.

Rectangular coordinates in the plane can be used intuitively with respect to one's current location, in which case the $x$ axis will point to the local North. More formally, such coordinates can be obtained from three-dimensional coordinates using the artifice of a map projection. It is not possible to map the curved surface of the Earth onto a flat map surface without deformation. The compromise most often chosen — called a conformal projection — preserves angles and length ratios, so that small circles are mapped as small circles and small squares as squares.

An example of such a projection is UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator). Within the map plane, we have rectangular coordinates $x$ and $y$ . In this case the North direction used for reference is the map North, not the local North. The difference between the two is called meridian convergence.

It is easy enough to "translate" between polar and rectangular coordinates in the plane: let, as above, direction and distance be $α$ and $s$ respectively, then we have

$\begin{matrix} x &=& s \cos \alpha\\ y &=& s \sin \alpha \end{matrix}$

The reverse translation is slightly more tricky.

[edit] Heights

In geodesy, point or terrain heights are "above sea level", an irregular, physically defined surface. Therefore a height should ideally not be referred to as a coordinate. It is more like a physical quantity, and though it can be tempting to treat height as the vertical coordinate $z$ , in addition to the horizontal coordinates $x$ and $y$ , and though this actually is a good approximation of physical reality in small areas, it becomes quickly invalid in larger areas. ^[specify]

Heights come in the following variants:

Each have their advantages and disadvantages. Both orthometric and normal heights are heights in metres above sea level, whereas geopotential numbers are measures of potential energy (unit: $m 2 s - 2$ ) and not metric. Orthometric and normal heights differ in the precise way in which mean sea level is conceptually continued under the continental masses. The reference surface for orthometric heights is the geoid, an equipotential surface approximating mean sea level.

None of these heights are in any way related to geodetic or ellipsoidial heights, which express the height of a point above the reference ellipsoid. Satellite positioning receivers typically provide ellipsoidal heights, unless they are fitted with special conversion software based on a model of the geoid.

[edit] Geodetic data

Because geodetic point coordinates (and heights) are always obtained in a system that has been constructed itself using real observations, we have to introduce the concept of a geodetic datum: a physical realization of a coordinate system used for describing point locations. The realization is the result of choosing conventional coordinate values for one or more datum points.

In the case of height datums, it suffices to choose one datum point: the reference bench mark, typically a tide gauge at the shore. Thus we have vertical datums like the NAP (Normaal Amsterdams Peil), the North American Vertical Datum 1988 (NAVD88), the Kronstadt datum, the Trieste datum, etc.

In case of plane or spatial coordinates, we typically need several datum points. A regional, ellipsoidal datum like ED50 can be fixed by prescribing the undulation of the geoid and the deflection of the vertical in one datum point, in this case the Helmert Tower in Potsdam. However, an overdetermined ensemble of datum points can also be used.

Changing the coordinates of a point set referring to one datum, to make them refer to another datum, is called a datum transformation. In the case of vertical datums, this consists of simply adding a constant shift to all height values. In the case of plane or spatial coordinates, datum transformation takes the form of a similarity or Helmert transformation, consisting of a rotation and scaling operation in addition to a simple translation. In the plane, a Helmert transformation has four parameters, in space, seven.

[edit] A note on terminology

In the abstract, a coordinate system as used in mathematics and geodesy is, e.g., in ISO terminology, referred to as a coordinate system. International geodetic organizations like the IERS (International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service) speak of a reference system.

When these coordinates are realized by choosing datum points and fixing a geodetic datum, ISO uses the terminology coordinate reference system, while IERS speaks of a reference frame. A datum transformation again is referred to by ISO as a coordinate transformation. (ISO 19111: Spatial referencing by coordinates).

[edit] Point positioning

Point positioning is the determination of the coordinates of a point on land, at sea, or in space with respect to a coordinate system. Point position is solved by computation from measurements linking the known positions of terrestrial or extraterrestrial points with the unknown terrestrial position. This may involve transformations between or among astronomical and terrestrial coordinate systems.

The known points used for point positioning can be triangulation points of a higher order network, or GPS satellites.

Traditionally, a hierarchy of networks has been built to allow point positioning within a country. Highest in the hierarchy were triangulation networks. These were densified into networks of traverses (polygons), into which local mapping surveying measurements, usually with measuring tape, corner prism and the familiar red and white poles, are tied.

Nowadays all but special measurements (e.g., underground or high precision engineering measurements) are performed with GPS. The higher order networks are measured with static GPS, using differential measurement to determine vectors between terrestrial points. These vectors are then adjusted in traditional network fashion. A global polyhedron of permanently operating GPS stations under the auspices of the IERS is used to define a single global, geocentric reference frame which serves as the "zero order" global reference to which national measurements are attached.

For surveying mappings, frequently Real Time Kinematic GPS is employed, tying in the unknown points with known terrestrial points close by in real time.

One purpose of point positioning is the provision of known points for mapping measurements, also known as (horizontal and vertical) control. In every country, thousands of such known points exist in the terrain and are documented by the national mapping agencies. Constructors and surveyors involved in real estate will use these to tie their local measurements to.

[edit] Geodetic problems

In geometric geodesy, two standard problems exist:

[edit] Geodetic principal problem (also: first geodetic problem)

Given a point (in terms of its coordinates) and the direction (azimuth) and distance from that point to a second point, determine (the coordinates of) that second point.

[edit] Geodetic inverse problem (also: second geodetic problem)

Given two points, determine the azimuth and length of the line (straight line, arc or geodesic) that connects them.

In the case of plane geometry (valid for small areas on the Earth's surface) the solutions to both problems reduce to simple trigonometry. On the sphere, the solution is significantly more complex, e.g., in the inverse problem the azimuths will differ between the two end points of the connecting great circle, arc, i.e. the geodesic.

On the ellipsoid of revolution, solutions in closed form do not exist, so rapidly converging series expansions have traditionally been used, such as Vincenty's formulae.

In the general case, the solution is called the geodesic for the surface considered. It may be nonexistent or non-unique. The differential equations for the geodesic can be solved numerically, e.g., in MATLAB.

[edit] Geodetic observational concepts

Here we define some basic observational concepts, like angles and coordinates, defined in geodesy (and astronomy as well), mostly from the viewpoint of the local observer.

The plumbline or vertical is the direction of local gravity, or the line that results by following it. It is slightly curved.

The zenith is the point on the celestial sphere where the direction of the gravity vector in a point, extended upwards, intersects it. More correct is to call it a <direction> rather than a point.

The nadir is the opposite point (or rather, direction), where the direction of gravity extended downward intersects the (invisible) celestial sphere.

The celestial horizon is a plane perpendicular to a point's gravity vector.

Azimuth is the direction angle within the plane of the horizon, typically counted clockwise from the North (in geodesy and astronomy) or South (in France).

Elevation is the angular height of an object above the horizon, Alternatively zenith distance, being equal to 90 degrees minus elevation.

Local topocentric coordinates are azimuth (direction angle within the plane of the horizon) and elevation angle (or zenith angle) and distance.

The North celestial pole is the extension of the Earth's (precessing and nutating) instantaneous spin axis extended Northward to intersect the celestial sphere. (Similarly for the South celestial pole.)

The celestial equator is the intersection of the (instantaneous) Earth equatorial plane with the celestial sphere.

A meridian plane is any plane perpendicular to the celestial equator and containing the celestial poles.

The local meridian is the plane containing the direction to the zenith and the direction to the celestial pole.

[edit] Geodetic measurements

The level is used for determining height differences and height reference systems, commonly referred to mean sea level. The traditional spirit level produces these practically most useful heights above sea level directly; the more economical use of GPS instruments for height determination requires precise knowledge of the figure of the geoid, as GPS only gives heights above the GRS80 reference ellipsoid. As geoid knowledge accumulates, one may expect use of GPS heighting to spread.

The theodolite is used to measure horizontal and vertical angles to target points. These angles are referred to the local vertical. The tacheometer additionally determines, electronically or electro-optically, the distance to target, and is highly automated in its operations. The method of free station position is widely used.

For local detail surveys, tacheometers are commonly employed although the old-fashioned rectangular technique using angle prism and steel tape is still an inexpensive alternative. More and more, also real time kinematic (RTK) GPS techniques are used. Data collected is tagged and recorded digitally for entry into a Geographic Information System (GIS) data base.

Geodetic GPS receivers produce directly three-dimensional coordinates in a geocentric coordinate frame. Such a frame is, e.g., WGS84, or the frames that are regularly produced and published by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS).

GPS receivers have almost completely replaced terrestrial instruments for large-scale base network surveys. For planet-wide geodetic surveys, previously impossible, we can still mention Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) and Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) and Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) techniques. All these techniques also serve to monitor Earth rotation irregularities as well as plate tectonic motions.

Gravity is measured using gravimeters. There are two basic kinds of gravimeters. Absolute gravimeters, which nowadays can also be used in the field, are based directly on measuring the acceleration of free fall (for example, of a reflecting prism in a vacuum tube). They are used for establishing the vertical geospatial control. Most common relative gravimeters are spring based. They are used in gravity surveys over large areas for establishing the figure of the geoid over these areas. Most accurate relative gravimeters are superconducting gravimeters, and these are sensitive to one thousandth of one billionth of the Earth surface gravity. Twenty-some superconducting gravimeters are used worldwide for studying Earth tides, rotation, interior, and ocean and atmospheric loading, as well as for verifying the Newtonian constant of gravitation.

[edit] Units and measures on the ellipsoid

Geographical latitude and longitude are stated in the units degree, minute of arc, and second of arc. They are angles, not metric measures, and describe the direction of the local normal to the reference ellipsoid of revolution. This is approximately the same as the direction of the plumbline, i.e., local gravity, which is also the normal to the geoid surface. For this reason, astronomical position determination, measuring the direction of the plumbline by astronomical means, works fairly well provided an ellipsoidal model of the figure of the Earth is used.

A geographic mile, defined as one minute of arc on the equator, equals 1,855.32571922 m. A nautical mile is one minute of astronomical latitude. The radius of curvature of the ellipsoid varies with latitude, being the longest at the pole and shortest at the equator as is the nautical mile.

A metre was originally defined as the 40 millionth part of the length of a meridian. This means that a kilometre is equal to (1/40,000) * 360 * 60 meridional minutes of arc, which equals 0.54 nautical miles. Similarly a nautical mile is on average 1/0.54 = 1.85185... km.

[edit] Temporal change

In geodesy, temporal change can be studied by a variety of techniques. Points on the Earth's surface change their location due to a variety of mechanisms:

Continental plate motion, plate tectonics
Episodic motion of tectonic origin, esp. close to fault lines
Periodic effects due to Earth tides
Postglacial land uplift due to isostatic adjustment
Various anthropogenic movements due to, e.g., petroleum or water extraction or reservoir construction.

The science of studying deformations and motions in the Earth's crust and the solid Earth as a whole is called geodynamics. Often, also study of the Earth's irregular rotation is included in its definition.

Techniques for studying geodynamic phenomena on the global scale include:

satellite positioning by GPS and similar techniques,
very long baseline interferometry (VLBI)
satellite and lunar laser ranging.
Regionally and locally, precise levelling,
precise tacheometers
monitoring gravity change,
Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) using satellite images.

[edit] Famous geodesists

[edit] Math./ Geodesists before ~1900

Sir George Biddell Airy 1801-1892, Cambridge & London
al-Ma'mun, Bagdad
Johann Jacob Baeyer 1794-1885, Berlin
Karl Maximilian von Bauernfeind, Munich (Germany)
Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, Königsberg (Germany/Litvia)
Roger Joseph Boscovich, Rome/ Berlin/ Paris
Pierre Bouguer 1698-1758, France & Peru
Heinrich Bruns 1848-1919, Berlin
Alexis Claude Clairaut 1713-1765, France
Alexander Ross Clarke, London
Loránd Eötvös 1848-1919, Hungary
Eratosthenes, Alexandria (Greece & Egypt)
Sir George Everest 1830-1843, England & India
Hervé Faye 1814-1902, France
Abel Foullon, France
Carl Friedrich Gauß 1777-1855, Göttingen (Germany)
Friedrich Robert Helmert, Potsdam (Germany)
Hipparchos, Nikaia (Greece)
Christiaan Huygens 1629-1695, Netherlands
Muhammad al-Idrisi, Arabia & Sizilia
Jean Henri Lambert 1728-1777, France
Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749-1827, Paris
Adrien Marie Legendre 1752-1833, Paris
Johann Benedikt Listing 1808-1882, Germany
Pierre de Maupertuis 1698-1759, France
Gerhard Mercator 1512-1594, Belgium & Germany
Friedrich H. C. Paschen, Schwerin (Germany)
Henri Poincaré, Paris
J. H. Pratt 1809-1871, London
Posidonius, Alexandria
Ptolemäus, Alexandria
Regiomontanus, Germany/Austria
Georg von Reichenbach 1771-1826, Bavaria (Germany)
Heinrich Christian Schumacher 1780-1850, Germany & Estland
Snellius (Willebrord Snel van Royen, Leiden/Netherlands 1580-1626)
Johann Georg von Soldner 1776-1833, München (Germany)
George Gabriel Stokes, England

[edit] 20th century

Kurt Arnold, Potsdam (Germany)
W. Bowie 1872-1940, USA
C. F. Baeschlin, Zurich (Swiss)
Willem Baarda 1917–2005, Delft (The Netherlands)
Arne Bjerhammar 1917 -, Sweden
Junyong Chen, Wuhan (China)
Yongling Chen, Wuhan China
Eduard Dolezal, Wien (Vienna, Austria)
Demitris Delikaraoglou, Athens (Greece)
David Doyle, USA
Wilhelm Embacher 1911-20.., Innsbruck (Austria)
Richard Finsterwalder, München/Hannover
Sebastian Finsterwalder 1862-1951, Bavaria (Germany)
Irene K. Fischer, USA
Erik Grafarend, Stuttgart (Germany)
Erwin Groten, Germany
John Fillmore Hayford, USA
Weikko A. Heiskanen 1895-1971, Finland
Siegfried Heitz, Bonn (Germany)
Martin Hotine 1898-1968
Friedrich Hopfner, Wien (Austria)
L. Hradilek, Czechoslovakia
W. K. Hristow, Bulgaria
Sir Harold Jeffreys, London
Martin Hotine 1898-1968
W. Jordan, Germany
Ladislav Feil, Croatia
Karl Jung, Germany
Heribert Kahmen, Hannover/Wien (Germany/Austria)
William Mason Kaula 1926-2000, USA
John A. O'Keefe 1916-2000, USA
Max Kneissl, München (Germany)
Karl-Rudolf Koch, Bonn (Germany)
Yoshihide Kozai, Boston, USA
Th. N. Krassowski, Russia
Johann Heinrich Louis Krüger, Berlin
Jean-Jacques Levallois 1911-2001, IGN Paris, France
Antonio Marussi 1908-1984]], Florence (Italy)
Michail Sergejewitsch Molodenski 1909-1991, Russia
Helmut Moritz, Graz (Austria)
Theodor Niethammer, Schweiz
Wolfgang Pillewizer, Dresden/Wien (Germany/Austria)
Karl Ramsayer, Stuttgart
Christoph Reigber, Potsdam
Karl Rinner, Germany and Graz (Austria)
Alwyn R. Robbins 1920-2002, Oxford (Geodetic Astronomy)
Reiner Rummel, München
Fernando Sanso, Milano (Italy)
Hellmut Schmid, Schweiz
Rudolf Sigl 1928-1998, München (Germany)
David G. Smith, USA
L. Tanni, Helsinki
Wolfgang Torge, Hannover (Germany)
Werner Uhink, Potsdam (Germany)
Yrjö Väisälä 1889-1971, Finland (brother in law of W.A. Heiskanen)
Felix Andries Vening-Meinesz 1887-1966 Netherlands
Thaddeus Vincenty, Poland
Alfred Wegener 1880-1930, Germany & Greenland
Helmut Wolf, Bonn (Germany)
Thomas Wunderlich, Wien/Munich (Germany)

[edit] International organizations

[edit] University institutes

Some university institutes engaged in geodesy include:

The Institut für Erdmessung in Hannover, Germany - which specialises in astro-geodetic zenith cameras and geoid computations for many European countries
Division of Geodesy - Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Stockholm, Sweden
The Institut für Theoretische Geodäsie in Bonn (Geodesy, Radio astronomy and GPS)
The Institut für Astronomische und Physikalische Geodäsie in Munich, southern Germany.
The Austrian Institute for Geodesy and Geophysics at the TU Vienna (astro-geological geoid, IGS and VLBI)
The Swiss Geodetic Institute at the ETH Zürich (geophysical geodesy, GPS etc.)
Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography (MIIGAiK)
Geodesy at Ohio State University, Columbus OH, USA
Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Canada
Faculty of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering,K.N.Toosi University of Technology, Tehran,Iran
Department of Geodesy and Geomatics, Zanjan University, Zanjan, Iran
Department of Surveying Engineering, University Of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Department of Surveying and Geomatics Engineering at the University of Tehran,Tehran,Iran
Department of Surveying at Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland
Geomatics Engineering at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping (WTUSM), Wuhan, China
Department of Spatial Sciences, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia
Faculty of Geodesy and Geoinformatics, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Department of Geodesy and Geoinformatics, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
Faculty of Geoinformation Science & Engineering, Malaysian University of Technology, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Department of Geomatic Engineering, University Of Melbourne, Australia
Escuela de Ingenieria Geodesica de La Universidad del Zulia (LUZ-INGENIERIA GEODESICA) at Maracaibo, Venezuela
Geodesy division, Middle East Technical University Ankara, Turkey
Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, LSGI, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong, SAR, China
Faculty Of Geomatics,Sabaragamuwa University Of Sri Lanka,Belihulloya Department of Surveying and Geodesy, Department of Photogrammetry,Cartography,Remotesensing and GIS
Faculty of Geoinformatics, The University of West Hungary Székesfehérvár, Hungary
Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

[edit] Governmental agencies

National Geodetic Survey (NGS) in Silver Spring MD, USA
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) in Bethesda MD, USA (Previously National Imagery and Mapping Agency NIMA, previously Defense Mapping Agency DMA)
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Reston VA, USA
Institut Géographique National (IGN) in Saint-Mandé, France
Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie (BKG) In Frankfurt a.M., Germany (Previously Institut für Angewandte Geodäsie, IfAG)
Central Research Institute for Geodesy, Remote Sensing and Cartography (CNIIGAIK), Moscow, Russia
Geodetic Survey Division, Natural Resources Canada
Geoscience Australia, Australian Federal Agency
Finnish Geodetic Institute (FGI) at Masala, Finland
Portuguese Geographic Institute (IGEO) at Lisbon, Portugal
National Cartographic Center of Iran (NCC) Tehran, Iran
National Geographic Organization of Iran (NGO) Tehran, Iran
[1] Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics - IBGE
Spanish National Geographic Institute. IGN Madrid, Spain

Note: This list is still largely incomplete.

[edit] See also

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Geodesy

[edit] External links

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