Coordinate Reference Systems Blog

The new U.S. datums of 2022 will soon be released. This article covers what is coming and how you should prepare your data.

Esri and ICSM support direct transformations between GDA2020 and WGS84

"On our dynamic Earth, continents don’t sit still. They slowly move around the planet, stretching oceans and lifting mountain ranges. [...] Over time, things add up. And it’s beginning to impact the accuracy of geospatial data. "

Read more about how tectonic motion is affecting your map accuracy and impacting real world engineer....

A long time ago when there was still printed documentation, the Understanding Map Projections book had a foldout table in the back. The table listed all the map projections and had information about various properties and characteristics. 

Bojan Šavrič Bojan Savric undertook to update and modernize the table including changing the categories and adding new projections. We hope you like the new style! It will easily fit on a 8.5"x14" or 11"x17" page if you want to print it out. Here's the 11x17 version on my office door:

It's complete through ArcGIS Pro 2.5 and ArcGIS 10.8. We're adding 3 new projections to those releases: Adams square II, Tobler cylindrical I, and Tobler cylindrical II.

Melita

This is a publication by @JimBaumann in ARCUSER.

In 2008, the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) announced in its 10-year plan the replacement of the country’s two national datums: North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83), the geometric datum used mainly for horizontal positions, and the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88), the vertical datum used for determining orthometric heights (elevations).

“We are leaving behind forever the idea of static, unchanging spatial reference systems. This has been well-known in the geodetic community for some time."...read more about this activity below...

https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/arcuser/moving-from-static-spatial-reference-systems-in-2022/

The US National Geodetic Survey (NGS) is implimenting a plan to replace NAD 83 and NAVD 88 through a modernization effort.

NGS’s main page on the subject: https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/datums/newdatums/index.shtml

NGS has been very proactive in publishing information on the planned changes, and has had several summits to directly communicate with stakeholders and invite feedback. This year’s is on May 6-7 in Silver Spring, Maryland.

https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/geospatial-summit/index.shtml

Last year there was a special industry partner summit. We’ve had someone at all of these geospatial summits, and have met many of the NGS personnel who are involved in the effort.

We are also attending or watching the NGS webinars related to this subject to make sure that we’re on top of the situation.

NGS has stated that they will release beta versions of data, transformations, etc. ahead of the 2022 date. So far there hasn’t been anything that Esri can test. We plan to incorporate any new coordinate system definitions (geodetic, projected, and vertical) as they’re released officially. If NGS releases beta versions, we plan to check that we do not see any issues and that they can be used in the software.

We have occasionally pre-empted an official release of transformation grid files or coordinate systems because supposedly the names and other information have been finalized and put the objects into a current software release. Then the names are changed and we end up having to change/delete/add the existing definitions. Because there are a lot of customers using US data, we want to be very careful adding these new coordinate systems and transformations for the 2022 modernization.

Importing data from a spreadsheet

There has been an increase in queries regarding the import of coordinate values from spreadsheets into ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Pro. With that in mind, find a checklist that hopefully will encourage, when dealing with this type of data, the understanding of coordinate values, their implications of how they are managed and the relationship to coordinate reference systems in ArcGIS software.

Check List

1. Check coordinates are in the order you expect (e.g. Lat/Long or Long/Lat or X, Y; Y, X and W, E; -X, -Y etc)
   
   
2. Check there are no NULLs or other errors
   1. Check for NULLS, text not number, unrealistic precision, outliers…
   2. Confirm the coordinates make sense (e.g. if you are working with Arctic DMS coordinates a negative latitude value should be a red flag for you)
      
      
3. Check you know the units 
   1. Latitude and Longitude are angles therefore = Geographic Coordinate System
   2. XY coordinates (e.g. meters) are linear measurements therefore = Projected Coordinate System
   3. Convert the data you have into a workable format (e.g. DMS to DD = D + (m/60) + (s/3600) with additional formulae including the consideration of negation per hemisphere)
4. Check you know the correct coordinate reference system
   1. Find a reference for the data that explicitly says the CRS
   2. If you can't find one then beare in mind the following:
      1. Commonly but not always, global datasets are in WGS84 (possibly because GPS utilises WGS84)
      2. Typically but not always, linear units will be in a UTM projection
      3. If you really do not know the correct CRS
         1. Try not to guess – there’s a lot of CRS out there
         2. Go back to source they might know but didn’t include the relevant information in the data
         3. Based on the coordinate values try to place the data in a region/country and look for the most relevant CRS for that region
         4. If you had to make an educated guess say so in any metadata so no one is fooled and makes an important decision on the information later

Loading data to a map (ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap)

1. Make sure Map Document data frame for ArcMap is blank (in ArcGIS Pro map properties the default is Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere)
2. Assign the correct CRS to Map Document/Map
3. Add data to Map Document/Map
4. Check against base map and data where location is known

This blog has not accounted for additional items like transformations but it should act as a checklist of things to look out for when bringing data in from a spreadsheet.

I discovered this amazing, well I think it is amazing, find recently and though to share how you can create a beautiful star chat using ArcGIS Pro. This StoryMap is made by Heather Smith you can find more information on the map at the bottom of the page.

I will let Heather introduce the map herself (extracted from the StoryMap):

Haven't you always wanted to make a star chart? You've seen so many beautiful maps of the night sky, and if you're anything like me, you look at them and think "I wish I made that."

But how? You know how to map things on the earth, but what about things in the sky? The good news is that with just a little tweaking, you can use GIS to map the stars.

In this blog you'll learn a little bit about celestial mapping and also some cartography skills in ArcGIS Pro. We will cover projection, symbology, labeling, annotation, masking, and layout.

>>> See the StoryMap now <<<

Map and tutorial by Heather Smith, Esri

Zoomable version of the map can be viewed here:  http://www.heathergabrielsmith.ca/maps/html/starchart.html

Data provided by Peter Girard

Let’s say the latest version of ArcMap includes the definition of your country’s latest coordinate system and you would like to use it in your version of ArcMap. For that you need to export the new definition and import the coordinate system to your software. In this post, I demonstrate how you can perform this operation using the example of GDA2020 VicGrid (EPSG::7899) coordinate system used in Australia.

To export the GDA2020 VicGrid definition from the latest ArcMap, go to “Data Frame Properties” and select the “Coordinate System” tab. Browse or search for the definition you would like to export. Right click on the definition and select the “Save As…” option. Save the .prj file to a desired location. The .prj file stores a well-known text (WKT) string definition of the coordinate system. You can view it in any text editor.

In your older version of ArcMap, return to “Data Frame Properties” window and “Coordinate System” tab. There select the “Add Coordinate System” button, and select the “Import…” option. Browse to the location where you stored the exported .prj file and add it to the system.

Once you do this, the system will add the definition into your “Favorites” folder and will stay there until you remove it. If this does not happen, you can add the coordinate system to Favorites yourself by right-clicking on the coordinate system and selecting the “Add To Favorites” option.

In our particular example, GDA2020 VicGrid definition also includes the definition of a new geographic coordinate system, GDA2020 (EPSG::7844). Because this geographic coordinate system is not defined in the older version of ArcMap, there is no available transformation that would allow you to transform your data from any coordinate system to GDA2020. Without an available transformation, you will not be able to line up your data properly. Therefore you need to create a custom geographic transformation.

The WKT of GDA2020_Vicgrid is shown below. The GDA2020 definition is embedded and shown in bold text.

PROJCS["GDA2020_Vicgrid",

   GEOGCS["GDA2020",

      DATUM["GDA2020",

         SPHEROID["GRS_1980",6378137.0,298.257222101]],

      PRIMEM["Greenwich",0.0],

      UNIT["Degree",0.0174532925199433]],

   PROJECTION["Lambert_Conformal_Conic"],

   PARAMETER["False_Easting",2500000.0],

   PARAMETER["False_Northing",2500000.0],

   PARAMETER["Central_Meridian",145.0],

   PARAMETER["Standard_Parallel_1",-36.0],

   PARAMETER["Standard_Parallel_2",-38.0],

   PARAMETER["Latitude_Of_Origin",-37.0],

   UNIT["Meter",1.0],

   AUTHORITY["EPSG",7899]]

EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset (epsg-registry.org) is a structured dataset of coordinate reference systems and coordinate transformations. There we can look for transformations that we can use to connect the GDA2020 coordinate reference system with other existing coordinate system in the software. For lists of the available transformations, methods, and areas of use in the latest ArcMap, see this geographic_transformations.pdf file. Let’s use an example of GDA94 to GDA2020 (1) transformation identified with the EPSG:: 8048 code.

(Source: EPSG)

First, we add the geographic coordinate system GDA2020 to the older version of ArcMap using the same workflow introduced above. Next, we browse to a tool for creating a custom geographic transformation. It is available in ArcToolbox, under “Data Management Tools” and “Projections and Transformations.”

In the tool’s interface, you type the name of your custom geographic transformation. For “Input Geographic Coordinate System” you browse to Geocentric Datum of Australia 1994 (EPSG::4283) already available in your software and you select GDA2020 from your “Favorites” folder for the “Output Geographic Coordinate System.” Next, you specify the method and all required transformation parameters. Note that parameter values differ from the ones provided by EPSG. The reason for this are different units required for the parameters. EPSG-provided parameters are in millimeters, milliarc-seconds and parts per billion, while the “Create Custom Geographic Transformation” tool takes meters, arc-seconds and parts per million (ppm).

Once you add the new coordinate system definitions and create a custom transformation, you will be able to perform the same coordinate operations as you would normally do. Your new custom transformation will be used together with other existing transformations.

This workflow has been tested using ArcGIS 10.1 and 10.6.1. Similar workflow can be performed in ArcGIS Pro. To learn more about coordinate systems and transformations, see the latest DevSummit session Introducing Coordinate Systems and Transformations - YouTube. 

Happy projecting! 

Galileo is Europe’s Global Satellite Navigation System (GNSS), providing users with improved positioning and timing information.

The project has been running since the launch of the first operational Galileo satellites GSAT0101 and GSAT0102 in October 2011. The latest Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellites were launch in December 2017 and there are currently 22 satellites in orbit.

See the full list of satellites here.

So as Galileo is up and running find out what devices are Galileo-enabled are you using a device that incorporates position information from a Galileo Satellite?

UseGalileo - Find a galileo-enabled device to use today