On September 17, 2019, NGS released its new ITRF2014 and NAD83(NA2011) Epoch 2010 Multi-Year CORS Solution 2 (MYCS2) coordinates, along with GEOID18. Unfortunately, this release occurred far too late to incorporate the changes into our Fall Adjustment. Now with the Fall Adjustment behind us, activities are underway to move to these new reference frames and realizations in the US to assure consistency between NGS products, the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) and SmartNet North America. In addition to the changes in the US, we will also be take this opportunity to adopt the current NRCAN coordinate solutions for all stations in Canada.
Any updates to broadcast coordinates of stations are taken very seriously by our staff and with in mind we produced a Coordinate Update Webinar series to educate SmartNet users. This webinar series was designed to inform our US user base of our move to the new reference frames / coordinate realization and inform our CAN user base of broadcast coordinate updates to assure we are in compliance with NRCAN published coordinates.
Understanding these changes and their associated impacts is critical for everyone as there will be material and sizable changes to broadcast coordinates on stations throughout our service area. And while this path offers significant challenges, it is the only way to assure we are in alignment with both to the adopted NGS solution and the NRCAN RTK compliance agreement.
The webinar series was conducted in 3 similar sessions on on November 19, December 10 and December 19. On January 6, 2020 at 5 AM ET we will publish the new MYCS2 broadcast coordinates (US), updated NRCAN broadcast coordinates (CAN) and ITRF14 processing coordinates for all stations in SmartNet North America.
If you did not attend one of the previously mentioned webinars, we strongly encourage you to watch the one of the Webinar Sessions to understand the coming changes. Below you will find a link to the webinars, as well as few questions we anticipate will be asked. We understand there will be quite a few questions that need to be addressed not listed below, we would encourage you to review all support content or one of the webinar to get these questions answered prior to reaching out to support.
Webinar Links
November 19, 2019 - Understanding Broadcast Coordinate Updates Webinar - Recording Link
December 10, 2019 - Understanding Broadcast Coordinate Updates Webinar - Recording Link
December 19, 2019 - Understanding Broadcast Coordinate Updates Webinar - Recording Link
Important Dates
January 6, 2020 - MYCS2 / NRCAN / ITRF14 Coordinate Launch - US & Canada
Question #1 - How much will the coordinates of a station change?
As was relayed in the webinars in areas where significant velocity changes were noticed that could have impacts of 5+ centimeters on some station. With this said, other stations could have only a 5 millimeter change in its coordinate. On average the change to coordinates is approximately 1.4 centimeters across all stations in SmartNet.
We will develop content to try to explain the changes and updates, identify the stations with the largest coordinate changes and be as transparent as we possibly can be. Below you will find a link to lists of stations that will have coordinate changes in excess of 30mm.
MYCS2 Broadcast Coordinate Changes >30mm - US Stations
Version 7.1 Broadcast Coordinate Changes >30mm - Canada Stations
Please note, the any extremely large changes for sites continue to be investigated to narrow down if this is truly a shift or if there is an antenna offset issue causing the large variance. We will continue to review coordinates up until the launch on Jan 6, 2020.
Question #2 - How can I continue on the old coordinates?
We will be releasing a new MRF (multi-reference frame) Mountpoint to make the old station coordinates available for all stations in SmartNet. However, these mountpoints will only be in place for a short period of time to allow customers to transition to the new coordinates and they will be deprecated to assure everyone does move. The transition period has yet to be defined, but will be announced during the Webinar series.
Question #3 - What about GEOID2018?
Once the new MYCS2 coordinates have been adopted on US stations, you can begin using GEOID2018. We would not recommend adopting it prior to January 6, 2020.
Question #4 - Why are we going to cause this disruption for our users?
The only way to assure a consistent tie to the NSRS in the US and Canada is to remain in compliance with both NGS and NRCAN coordinates. This is the only 'right' way to do things. But again we will have MRF mountpoints available to reduce the possible disruption
Additionally, this will allow us to introduce processes and begin preparing users for a much more significant coordinate update that will take place once the new North American Terrestrial Reference Frame of 2022 (NATRF2022) is adopted.
Question #5 - Are you crazy?
Yes, yes we are. We know full well what this update could possibly mean to users. In some areas users will see little to no change in the broadcast coordinates of the stations, in others, there could be large changes. As a group we have been and will continue to invest hundreds of man (and woman) hours supporting this adjustment, the QA/QC processes, the content creation, the webinars and other activities required to make this as seamless as possible. This is the commitment we continue to make to assure SmartNet does things the proper way, and we probably should be committed for it.
Thank you,
SmartNet North America
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