SmartNet Canada Coordinate Update - May 9, 2015

Why are we doing this coordinate update?

SmartNet North America has had an agreement in principle since we launched with NRCAN to assure a high quality, standard set of coordinates were available to our customers.  Late in 2014, we entered into a formal agreement with NRCAN as part of the NRCAN RTK Service Provider Compliance program.  

As part of this program, we are required to adopt the NAD83(CSRS v6) Epoch 2010.00 broadcast coordinates that are calculated and provided by NRCAN to assure our customer base is operating on the appropriate National Spatial Reference System in Canada.  While we have been operating with NRCAN provided coordinates since December 2012, a new realization and solution was computed in January 2015 which requires us to adopt the newer, improved solution.  

Because this is simply an updated solution the overall effects on the network are very small, 90% of the station in the network experience an average "shift" of only 4 mm, the remaining stations (~ 20 stations) do however experience shifts that could material impact measurements in the field.  

What does this adjustment mean to me?

In very simple terms it means the broadcast position of the base is going to move approx. 4 mm (a resultant vector calculated for the total shift in the Cartesian XYZ space) for 90% of the network, which should not materially impact your existing projects.  For areas around stations where the differences are greater than this, it will require additional steps to be taken by you in the field to accommodate this shift.

What reference frame and epoch are we moving to?

We will still be in the NAD83(CSRS v6) reference frame and still on Epoch 2010.00, this is simply a new realization and solution (Solution 2014) that offers a more homogeneous solution based on the size of the data set used to calculate the station coordinates.

How can I get back to my old coordinates?

You can also perform your own local transformation, localization or calibration.  For more information about using this technique, please click here - LINK.

Why are you not providing a transformation that is similar to what was provided when the coordinate updates happened in December 2012?

The adjustment and coordinate update in 2012 was a completely new Datum and Epoch migration.  This allowed us to compute a transformation to allow a customer to migrate between the older 1997 epoch and 2010 epoch.  If a large scale transformation was provided for the May 9th update we would simply be spreading error from stations with large coordinate changes to surrounding stations that may have experienced minimal coordinate changes.

In our eyes, this is not the right approach.  We don't want to induce area in other areas where there is none, we simply want to update to the current coordinate realization in line with our commitment to NRCAN and our user base.  Local site based transformation a more robust and logical solution to address the shifts on a site by site basis.

 How do I see the current coordinates and superseded coordinates?

All current and superseded coordinates are available on the SmartNet User Portal.  You can find a station's information by using the "Site Information Search" tool, then you can see the current broadcast and processing coordinate, as well as find a button that will allow you to view all the superseded positions as well.

Once the new adjustment is published on May 10, we will also update the site database with the new NAD83(CSRS v6) Epoch 2010.00 Solution 2014 coordinates.

For more information on using the "Site Information Search" tool, we encourage you to watch this short video - LINK.

How do I get support to better understand what this adjustment means?