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Acronyms and Abbreviations
ANTEX - Antenna
Exchange Format
ARP – Antenna Reference Point
CORS – Continuously Operating Reference Station(s)
DOP – Dilution of Precision
ECEF – Earth Centered,
Earth Fixed
GPS – Global Positioning System
GPSCOM - A least squares adjustment program
GLN –
Global'naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema / Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System
(GLONASS)
GNSS – Global Navigation Satellite System
IGS – International GNSS Service
ITRF – International Terrestrial Reference Frame
NAVD 88 – North American Vertical Datum of 1988
NGS – National
Geodetic Survey
NGSIDB – National Geodetic Survey Integrated Database
NOAA – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NSRS – National Spatial Reference System
OPUS – Online Positioning Users Service
OPUS-RS - A.K.A. OPUS Rapid Static
OPUS-S – A.K.A. OPUS Static
OPUS-DB – OPUS Database (for shared solutions. Not the NGS IDB)
OP – OPUS Projects
ORGN - Oregon Real Time GNSS Network
NAD 83 – North American Datum of 1983
PAGES – Program for Adjustment of
GPS Ephemerides
RT – Real Time Positioning
RTCM – Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services
RTCM SC-104 – RTCM Special Committee 104 for Differential GNSS Positioning
RTK – Real Time Kinematic
RTN – Real Time GNSS Network(s)
SINEX - Solution Independent Exchange Format
TEQC – Translation, Editing, Quality Checking (Used as a front end to OPUS)
WSRN – Washington State Reference Network
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Understanding NGS key terminology used in this manual
The growing use of online NGS tools has allowed for new situations to occur. For example, some OPUS
users wish to see their work immediately impact the published coordinates on points. Unfortunately
the publication of coordinates by NGS requires time consuming reviews, and comparison of new surveys
against historic ones. In response to user demand for more immediate public access to the results of
their surveys, NGS has offered the ability of users to share their results through OPUS-DB. NGS
encourages this, but such solution-specific
information does not create published coordinates. Nor
should the solution-specific information on a mark be called a
datasheet. The NGS incorrectly labeled
the user function of
sharing these
solutions as
publishing datasheets on the OPUS DB page. That error
has now been corrected). Furthermore, the act of placing such a shared solution on an
NGS-provided
computer and distributed through an NGS web page does not constitute
submitting the data to NGS
(though methods are being investigated to combine the share and submit actions).
This situation of
sharing solution-specific information online has no significant historical context with regard to other
NGS products and services. Note that sharing a solution via OPUS-DB is not a
datasheet but a shared
mark solution. In the future, it may be possible to both
share a solution mark sheet via
OPUS-DB and
submit the same survey to NGS for possible inclusion in the IDB.
As such, NGS will adopt the use of the following definitions:
Share:
The act of a user releasing to NGS the observations (via OPUS or OPUS Projects), metadata and
results of geodetic surveys tied to the NSRS for public dissemination.
Publish:
The action of NGS providing to the public, the official, National Spatial Reference System
(NSRS) time-dependent geodetic coordinates set on a mark.
Submit:
The act of a user releasing to NGS the observations, metadata and results of geodetic surveys
tied to the NSRS for the express purpose of the NGS evaluating the survey and publishing if
appropriate.
Datasheet:
A report containing the published NSRS time dependent coordinates on a mark, as well as
subsidiary information and metadata such as superseded coordinates, descriptions and recovery
history of the mark.