Smartnet BROADCAST coordinates updates

SmartNet Broadcast Coordinate Updates – January 6, 2020

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 are announcing a Coordinate Update Webinar series to educate SmartNet users.  This webinar series is 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 will start on November 19, with additional webinars being conducted on December 10 and December 19. We will be in contact with users on November 27 and January 3, 2020 to supply a reminder of the broadcast coordinate updates in an attempt to reach every possible user of the pending changes. Finally 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 are a SmartNet user, we strongly encourage you to attend at least one of the coming webinars.  Below you will find a list of important dates, 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 attend one of the webinar to get these questions answered prior to reaching out to support. 

Important Dates

November 19, 2019 – Understanding Broadcast Coordinate Updates Webinar – Recording Link

December 10, 2019 – Understanding Broadcast Coordinate Updates Webinar – Registration Link

December 19, 2019 – Understanding Broadcast Coordinate Updates Webinar – Registration Link

January 6, 2020 – MYCS2 / NRCAN / ITRF14 Coordinate Launch – US & Canada

Question #1 – How much will the coordinates of a station change?

This is a difficult question to answer at this time, very little or a whole lot. The actual adjustment is just now beginning and we most likely will not have final coordinates until early December. However, during the QA/QC process of the Fall Adjustment 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.

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

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