Geomatics Ruth

Dedicated but Sad

2012-01-28T18:16:00.000Z

I had a spare 30 mins in between family taxi duties today so determined to find my local trig that had eluded me a few years ago. Got it this time - yay!

Nice plug.

And to prove I was there (or at least my eye was)...

Texted this phot to my husband who was at the rugby. His response "dedicated but sad xxx". Suppose that sums me up eh?

Windy Trig

2012-01-22T14:50:00.001Z

A lovely, easy bag today. The easy ones are obviously running out and each trig is going to be more of an expedition from now on. I can cope with that but not sure if my teenagers will be so accommodating. They are currently bribable with coffee post-trig but I think it may require more in the future. It won't be long before iPads are mentioned...

Anyway, I present TP4888, Monklands.

It was a tad breezy.

Roger Makes the World Go Round

2012-01-21T23:08:00.001Z

My husband is quite keen (obsessed?) by Apollo and all things lunarish. For some reason - educational I think (he's a school teacher) - he decided to make a moon on Friday night. But you can't have a moon without an earth for it to orbit; and to put its size in context. So blow me down, it's Friday night and the geo geek in the house is not me for a change.

We had the world by lunchtime today.

And the moon shortly after. The world also inherited a stand on which it spins (albeit tentatively with a lot of tlc from its handler). And for all those at home who want to have a go themselves - I know you're itching to - the link is here.

To put the distance in context, the moon should be 3.1m away from the earth. But then it'd be sitting on top of the cooker and you'd never see it.

Passive and Active

2012-01-03T21:37:00.000Z

Took the girls for a New Year's treat to Exmouth yesterday. They thought we were just going for a stroll and coffee by the sea front but surely they know me better by now? Our first find was a passive station - otherwise called a bolt in pavement. They were terribly unimpressed as can be seen by the second picture in which they are disowning me by walking off. I suppose it does look a bit odd your mother taking photos of the pavement.

The next, again very easy, find was on the old RNLI building. Obviously an active station this time.

The girls had given up and were sat in the car by this stage. I ask you.

Christmas Treats

2011-12-26T10:08:00.000Z

It started well by bagging a trig on Christmas Eve whilst out for a run in Basingstoke.

Not the most attractive of trigs but there you go.

Great excitement yesterday as I unwrapped my presents. There was a bit of a theme - aided and abetted by my Amazon wish list - but it was lovely to open so many map related gifts. Look at these beauties...

I should add that I love doing jigsaws so a double whammy. [Note to John - sorry but can't photograph your jigsaw as girls have already hijacked box]. And my Dad surprised me with this gorgeous book that I hardly put down yesterday.

And if you thought that was all a bit geeky look what Rog, my husband, bought for me.

How absolutely wonderful is this?! I've never owned my own theodolite. For sure, not terribly practical - I have little need to pop out and do a round of angles - but from the sheer fun point of view, what a treat. I am very rusty on all things theodolitey and seem to have lost the vertical clamp (is there one?) but I'm hoping that my mate Ken Hall will swing by one day and explain the finer points to me. I spent the rest of the day, when I occasionally took my nose out of my Dad's book, to mumble "I've got a theodolite" with a big grin on my face. I think I'm truly sad.

Another One Bites the Dust and Educating Cheltenham

2011-12-07T21:56:00.001Z

It was going to be impossible to travel to the RICS Governing Council with Ken Hall and not bag a trig. We detoured off near Chichester and logged a nice easy find.
Finding the trig was the easy bit. Sorting out my belt and the brambles was a tad more problematic.

Gov Co went well. I enjoyed my 5 minutes of fame by providing the Vote of Thanks to Vanessa Lawrence, CE of Ordnance Survey, after her talk. Received some positive comments afterwards but suspect it may have had a lot to do with the brevity of my speech. I was between Vanessa and dinner so knew my place ('stand up, shut up, sit down'). Ok, perhaps I rambled for just a tad longer...

Gov Co info all here.

I was in Cheltenham with some friends on Sat and showed them their first ever Benchmark. "Oh," exclaimed one, "and there I was thinking it was a masonic mark". You live and learn eh?

Just seen that the Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep has been remeasured. Apparently to a greater precision than before. I don't like that phrase - I'm far more nterested in the accuracy of the measurement than precision. It may well be precise but could be 10km wrong!

Got One! And so did Rog.

2011-11-20T22:14:00.001Z

I was out in Honiton today and raced the girls to find the BM on St Peter's church (there just had to be one). And there was! Bagged by my daughter who was very proud of herself. Perhaps her maternal madness is rubbing off.
Even greater excitement when I spotted a flush bracket near by. Roll of eyes by girls and they walk off disowning me as I take a photo of it.

Anyway, I wasn't finished with them yet - which they knew as they'd spotted tell tale signs in the boot of the car.

Off to find a friendly trig pillar. One of the girls joined me initially but got wet feet and retreated to the car where the other one lounged in the warmth. It was an easy find, once I entered the right field (!).

Rog announced this evening, just as I was downloading phots, that he'd bagged a trig the previous week. He and some colleagues were in Snowdonia on a Mountain Leadership training weekend. This is Claire bagging Moel Siabod in style. That's PE teachers for you.

A Few of My Favourite Things

2011-11-14T22:26:00.001Z

I suspect that anyone geeky enough to be remotely interested in this blog will also (perhaps secretly?) have a favourite map projection. Mine is the Winkel Tripel for no other reason than it sounds slightly rude and the teenager in me finds that amusing. And I confess liking long map projection names - 'Mercator' doesn't do much for me, but doesn't 'Snyder Flat Polar Minimum Error' sound fab?

OK, confession time, I have a favourite spheroid too - the Krasvosky one. Again, a lovely one to roll off the tongue.

Now I'm on a roll. My favourite geodetic datum is the Afgooye (Somalia), with the Bukit Rimpah (Indonesia) in a close second.

And grid? The Rectified Skew Orthomorphic Borneo Grid.

And the trigger for all this was a website my husband came across today. Enjoy this.

Military Mapping at the National Archives

2011-10-28T18:28:00.000+01:00

Had a wonderful day off on Tuesday up at The National Archives, Kew. The mapping team were running an exhibition on military mapping. What a fab day. The morning was spent listening to a few presentations from the knowledgeable staff and I was pleased, as I sat at the back, to recognise some familiar heads in the audience. See? I'm not the only addict. As ever I was one of a few females there and 20 years younger than most others: one day I'm not going to be able to say that, sniff.

In the afternoon we pored over a collection of exhibits the curators had found for us.

The earliest one was a chart from 1587 showing anticipated cannon range. Obvious forward planning in case of an attack of Plymouth by the Spanish Armada.

I liked this chart showing the tracks of HMS FISGARD. If you zoom in enough you can see where the ship tacked into the wind.

More recently a beautiful (if you can call anything to do with the Flanders campaign beautiful) WWI painting of a photo montage showing the destruction of Ypres.

And an air chart of the routes to be taken by the Mohne Dam Busters during the WWII.

An aerial photo of Acton, London, taken in May 1939 by the Germans.

A slightly quirky campaign chart based around Operation Transom, May 1944. We think the FGT is a 'Floating Giant Turtle'.

On my way out I lingered over this gorgeous globe. I like mosaics so this is a doubly wonderful find.

And my final treat came as I walked back to the Tube Station.

All my photos can be found at Military Mapping at the National Archives.

One Bagged - Two DNFs

2011-09-29T17:16:00.003+01:00

I am delighted that my annual leave has coincided with some superb summer like weather in the UK. The trigs are just calling out to be bagged.

My first was a nice easy one, Dumpdon Hill. I somehow missed the easy path up and struggled through gorse to find my goal.

Self portraits are always hard when you're alone and there are no convient perches to place the camera for a self-timed shot.

As if I need to prove I've been there eh?

Once at the top I found the stupidly easy path back down which lead straight to the car park. Doh.

I then headed for Lowman's Farm which is a killer to find apparently. It's on a busy, fast road so you can't park easily. And, more importantly, the local golf course has removed the hedges which are my reference points for finding something hidden in brambles. I shall have to go back with the GPS. I feel it's cheating but there you go.

And my second failure was Broad Down. This was a spur of the moment trig which I must stop doing! If I'd read up on this trig I would have known that it has been moved so I was never going to find it. I had a bramble fight for nothing. It was a challenge to get to (or to the spot where I thought it was meant to be) and I had to climb a fence and avoid all plants spiky - which I miserably failed to do. There was also a helicopter overhead. It passed once then came back directly overhead at a lower altitude. I decided that even if it wasn't MI5, I was starting to look a bit suspicious and headed home.

Peak Hill Sidmouth

2011-09-18T20:31:00.002+01:00

It was a gorgeous day yesterday. Rog and school kids were at Ladram Bay with Duke of Edinburgh training so my parents and I popped out to see them. My parents live in Basingstoke so a visit to the beautiful Devon south coast is a treat. And for me as well - I never tire of this county.

I realised we were only 1km away from High Peak trig so I just had to go and bag it. I dragged my Mum up too. I think she likes these 'interesting' walks I take her on. She seems to remember Dorcester with fondness. "You kept taking me off on walks to discover something surveying related," she recalled.

There is a superb view from the trig - look at this.

Happy days.

Geograph

2011-09-14T19:25:00.003+01:00

A benchmarking friend of mine (see? I do have some) sent me the link to Geograph today. It is an OS-sponsored website which collates photographs of every grid square in the UK - National Grid square to be precise. The term is 'geographing'. It's like a mini version of the Degree Confluence Project. I'm not surprised the OS sponsored this site; it's free (or pretty much free to them) crowd sourcing, but neatly organised into OS-speak. By this I mean, it functions around grid squares which land mappers in the UK are very happy with but for others, such as myself who think in lat/long, it drives me potty.

Can't blog for long, I'm off to play games with Perdita the Geograph hamster. Honestly!

UN GIS Committee

2011-09-01T19:21:00.003+01:00

Read that the UN Economic and Social Council have set up a committee on global geospatial information. It's obviously great that the UN have taken this onboard. I quote the Secretary General who proposed that

"the UN take the lead role and serve as the coordinating entity of the global geospatial information community, hence the decision to create the committee."

There's a little voice inside me though that is saying 'horse - stable - bolt'.

GNSS Guidance and Other Friday Night Musings

2011-08-26T22:19:00.009+01:00

The new Guidelines for GNSS Positioning in the Oil and Gas Industry have recently been published. You can find them at the IMCA website, and also the OGP one. A lovely read; reminds me of the type of documents I used to know insideout. Alas I am just management material now.

There are echoes of the latest RICS guidance here too, "Guidelines for the use of GNSS in surveying and mapping', the latest edition can be found here. Not sure if you have to be member to download this one though - surely not.

Interested to read that the sea ice has melted sufficiently this year to give routes through the Arctic.

I've also been reading the UK Government's open data consultations which were released earlier this month - Making Open Data Real: A Public Consultation and the Public Data Corporatation. These are important documents which need measured responses. However, it being Friday night, I was also quite tickled by the adverts which popped up between the pages of this consultation - ranging from ferry offers to kitchen appliances, xerox adverts and more than the usual smattering of warnings that 'the end time is here'.

French Benchmark and Other Goodies

2011-08-15T10:36:00.005+01:00

Well, you knew I was going to look didn't you? Found one in Thonon-les-Bains but this was in St Jean d'Aulps. Good old IGN.

Other French goodies... Visited the control room of the ATLAS cell of CERN. Spent the whole day here wandering around the exhibitions and having a 2 hour tour. I must confess that our tour guide's enthusiasm was a bit much for me at times (she's an experimental physicist) but I have no doubt that I probably sound as keen/geeky on my specialist passion too. [For those with good eyesight you'll note that the LHC was being maintained at this moment and there are no experiments being conducted].

After a whole day of quarks (I had no idea there were so many), antimatter, string theory, muons and the search for Higgs boson my head was somewhat stuffed.

I was interested to find out why the majority of the LHC is in France. Apparently in Switzerland one owns not only the surface skin on which your property is, but all the land beneath it. You can imagine that building a 27km ring 100m below ground makes for some complicated land law discussions. ATLAS is the only one of the 4 experimentation units on the LHC which is in Switzerland.

Enroute to CERN I realised that our sat nav was displaying our next road name. Isn't this just cool?

Brambles 1 - Ruth 0 (but still got my trig!)

2011-07-23T17:32:00.005+01:00

Sometimes when I'm feeling low I need to get out and find a trig. OK, perhaps not normal but works for me usually.

So today tracked down Rockbeare Hill New trig. A pig of a find as it's on the edge of a quarry and there are a horde of brambles to wade through to get to.

And if I'd planned ahead and wore appropriate clothing I wouldn't have, once again, drawn blood through the cause of duty. But there's something quite heroic about trig pillar hunt injuries don't you think?

My Mate Dave

2011-07-22T21:40:00.005+01:00

Well, to be honest, I haven't seen David Powell (of Anstey's Boundary Disputes fame) for a few years but we used to work closely together when he was Chair of the Geomatics Professional Group of the RICS. Just read this article by him, which reminds me of a debate I listened to perhaps 5+ years ago between David P and a.n.other (it was really that memorable) when David was anti precise cadastre. Pleased to read he's still on his straight and narrow!

So what rocks your boat - general boundaries or precise cadastre?

Holyhead Find

2011-07-21T15:40:00.003+01:00

Not found by me but my uncle and aunt on a recent holiday. And they know I like a good trig.

Always handy to have something to lean against when consulting the map.

Royal Institute of Navigation

2011-07-15T21:02:00.002+01:00

Attended the RIN AGM yesterday in London on behalf of my business. An interesting event - mix of old school and cutting edge technology. The Duke of Edinburgh was there to present the prizes (poor photo but you'd never believe me otherwise).

I enjoyed the talk on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles by the CE of Northrup Grunman - lots of whizzy applications continue to be developed. I didn't, however, enjoy the school boy humour at times directed against women. The RIN claims to be a professional institution, so I don't expect to see sexist derogatory pictures of women at this event. I mentioned it a chap over drinks later "ah, well we're all the same aren't we?" he chuckled. Well, it's put me off even considering joining.

Apart from that met up with some old faces and had a good chinwag with a guy from Collingwood and someone from Abbeywood (is there a wood theme?).

And also bagged a lovely BM.

I Succumb...

2011-07-12T19:46:00.003+01:00

We are having an extension built at the moment and the builders are using our garage to store their tools over night. Imagine my glee when I found one of these

tucked in a corner. It's been there a couple of weeks and last night I could resist no longer and set it up in the garden. My 15 year old was pretty unimpressed when I showed her how to level the bubble and my 13 year old didn't even budge off the sofa she was that underwhelmed.

Well, I think it's cool!

RICS - Technical Routes to Membership and Chinese Delegations

2011-07-01T22:32:00.005+01:00

The RICS has recently launched two new routes to membership for technical surveyors, Assoc RICS (formerly known as TechRICS) with a Land/Engineering route and a Hydrographic Surveying one. It has taken us far too many months of thought, review, re-review, and a good deal of prodding of RICS Education, to get to this stage. But, at last, droggies with a Cat B qualification - spot the typo if you can - can easily join the RICS at a technical level. [Actually, other hydro surveyors can too - but read on]. It has taken many years to get to this stage. When I first took over as Chair of Geomatics I asked what the routes to membership were for Cat A and B surveyors. "You what?" they responded? So there started the education of RICS staff to ensure they understood the relevance of the internationally recognised IHO qualification. We are getting there I'm happy to say.

And, more good news. The RICS is gradually easing its focus off the UK (or, even, London). With over 70% of its membership in the UK, and its HQ in Westminster, it is easy to fall into a London-centric viewpoint. And it suited the RICS for many years. Perhaps it didn't notice its land surveyors scaling mountains in Africa with tellurometers, or its hydrographic surveyors bobbing around in the Gulf of Guinea. Anyway, China visited us last week and, as you can read in the blog, we are certainly outnumbered. In a good way.

This is My Brain

2011-06-15T21:45:00.006+01:00

OK, a starter for ten. My geo brain output.

I need more input!

But bear with me reader. I'm not convinced this is a true reflection. It appears to have split joined pairs.

And there is no mention of shoes. [other blog]

Harry Beck Influences the Rivers

2011-06-15T20:11:00.004+01:00

I thought I'd blogged about Harry Beck the other month but apparently not. Harry Beck was the innovation behind the 1930s revolutionary overhaul of the London Tube Map. Before his cartographic inspiration the map was a chaotic mish-mash (as opposed to 'mash up') of geographically correct lines. But, for this purpose, geographically precise mapping was not needed - clarity was. Anyway, after reading the fascinating (in my geeky eyes) book I was interested to come across an article by Daniel Huffman, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has taken Harry's concepts on board with respect to rivers. I'd best not blog any of his images here as they aren't my copyright, but follow the link to see what I'm talking about.

And on a different, but of course geospatially related, subject, I came across some pod casts from the Pennsylvania State University today about how geographical information is used throughout the world. I was very taken by this one from Kenya. Towards the end of the video you see them mapping rape crime and then posting watch-keepers at the 'hotspots'. Golly, what a difference.

Work Speak

2011-06-10T21:45:00.003+01:00

You know you work too much when

1. You tell your daughter to look on the J: drive for a photo.
2. You answer your home phone "good afternoon, Ruth Adams"
3. You tell your kids to 'wait one'.
4. You think 'days off' are so you can do RICS business.
5. You write VMT to your brother in an e-mail.
6. Your husband tells you off for talking too fast (it's those Lt Cdrs I work with - it seems to be a prerequisite of joining up that you have to speak rapidly).
7. You know the safe combination better than your pin number.
8. You keep calling the Minerals and Waste group of the RICS Mine Warfare.
9. You write e-mails to your mother with UNCLASSIFIED in the subject matter.

Anyway. Back to the inbox...

Ruth 0 - Trig Pillar 1

2011-06-05T19:11:00.003+01:00

Had a great morning out on Dartmoor on Sat with a surveying friend. Of course I had to bag a trig, not to mention spotting lots of bench marks at which, annoyingly, Glyn is far better than me.

Bel Tor trig is a somewhat unloved Tor and not on the beaten tourist track. This means it is covered in spiky gorse and hidden rocks. And also broken sticks which caught my knee at one stage.

Fantastic views! (although Glyn seems to be distracted by a local cow me thinks).

This is the first time I've drawn blood in the course of duty

Falmouth Maritime Museum

2011-05-31T19:40:00.005+01:00

Have just had a mini break in Falmouth with my daughter. A magnet for me, unsurprisingly, was the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. Bank Holidays are probably not the best time to visit a place like this - I had to restrain myself from elbowing off some enthusiastic button-whacking (but inattentive) kids from various interactive exhibits. Of course, no queue to take photos of the old toys.

I was very excited to find this chart in the Lighthouse exhibit.
I gave the museum permission to use this in my last job. And everyone must read the Lighthouse Steve nsons. Of all the places to try to build...

There were some fun navigation exhibits which encouraged visitors to use charts, met data etc to choose the safest and most efficient passage through an area. I wish I could transport this whole area to the Science Museum.

The polar exploration exhibition "On Thin Ice" was fine. Of course seeing anything re: Shackleton, Scott, Franklin etc is fab but I've read an awful lot around the subject so there was nothing new. I'm not complaining of course but I suspect I need a visit to SPRI next to sate my appetite.

I loved the tower which is built below the water line so you can see the tide come in and out.

I want one of these at home!

Aside from the maritime pull were a few benchmarks which I spotted. I earned brownie points from my daughter for not stopping and embarrassingly photographing them. Also spotted RFA Largs Bay alongside.

Walked up to Pendennis Head and spent a while checking out the iso light at St Anthony and other various navigation marks in the Fal. A spotters holiday eh?

Back to Normality

2011-05-29T19:45:00.002+01:00

Had a bit of ash cloud dodging earlier this as circa 7 us of tried to fly into Edinburgh for an RICS Global Geomatics Professional Group Board (GGPGB for those in the know ). A great meeting on Thurs with international phone ins. Some of the new board members are absolute gems and I pale in the light of their experience and knowledge.

Apart from that my brother has been doing the geo geeking for me. He has just had a weekend in Canterbury and I asked him to find the BM on the cathedral. Alas it was mainly scaffolded up so he found me one on the Dane John mark.

I think he's humouring me...

How Short is a Flight?

2011-05-27T23:13:00.004+01:00

After our runway discussions I happened to fall into a bar with similar surveyors who started discussing how short a flight was. Of course, we all know how short a flight is, with a paper aeroplane etc, but we were out numbered by one of our members who has flown from Kirkwall to Westray. A record 2 mins apparently. In my eyes this is hardly enough time to fasten your seatbelt!

The obvious contender is from Logan Air - Westray to Pape Westray of 2 mins too. Anything shorter readers? It has to be scheduled to count.

How Long is a Platform?

2011-05-20T22:12:00.003+01:00

A surveying friend and myself found ourselves stuck at Taunton Railway Station on Monday. Our London train was cancelled and the subsequent one, 70 mins later, was 10 mins late. So we clocked up 80 mins sitting on Platform 5 of Taunton Railway Station which, I can assure you, was 79 mins too long. Ken, as ever, was witty company but I knew we were both totally bored when he piped up "this is a long platform - how many metres do you think it is?". This caused a chain of events to unfold which involved my train spotting brother.

It didn't take long before we found out that Taunton is a mere teenager in platform length - the Grandad of them all being Folkstone with 791m. Indeed, it is the longest platform in Europe.

My brother then got going and my inbox is now full of facts and figures.

Did you know that the longest platform on the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) was Canary Wharf at 99m but may have been overtaken by Lewisham at 106m if it's had its extension?

And on the London Underground the longest platform is unsurprisingly on the District line? Upney wins with 213.7m (east bound in case you were wondering). The shortest looks to be Bank eastbound on the Waterloo and City Line at a small, but perfectly formed, 78m.

Gloucester is 603m and Colchester 620m. Ken tells me these are cheating as they are actually 2 platforms back to back but who am I to argue?

A quick google shows that Folkstone is the 4th longest platform in the world. First is Kharagpur, West Bengal, India at 1,072 m, then State Street Center subway station, Chicago, Illinois, USA at 1,067 m and Dunedin Railway Station, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand at 1,000 m.

And after all that I still can't recall the length of Taunton platform 5!

3 Trigs and a FBM/Passive Station

2011-05-14T21:54:00.004+01:00

A treat of a day today. A surveying friend visited and, as expected, the lure of some trig pillar bagging was too much. Derek was game as I'd anticipated so we headed west out of Exeter to find a few.

First off was the trig pillar which fooled me a few months back. The trig I thought was a trig appears to be some geodetic control for a reservoir. Anyway, it was an easy find, so Constitutional Hill all bagged now. Fantastic views of Exeter from this ridge (give or take the odd branch/folliage).

Next was a treat - a FBM and passive station. Nicely hidden in nettles but a gem. Neither Derek or I have seen one of these before. Fun eh?

Then it was back to regular lumps of concrete and we picked off Bilsdon Trig. What a view!

The girls (my daughter and a friend) were starting to show the strain of this geeky hunt,

but they were polite enough to show interest in Derek explaining the spider to them.

And finally we visited Waddles Down for our last trig of the day. Derek climbed up to inspect and found a bunker the other side of the hedge.

Not sure if it's a military bunker or something to do with the mast compound next to it (? doubt it).

Anyway, happy happy days.

Kiwi Trig

2011-05-07T18:19:00.002+01:00

Isn't this a beauty? Captured by my Fugro friend, Don, on a recent trip to New Plymouth, New Zealand.

Not quite sure if it's sad or exciting that my friends e-mail me things like this!

Hydrographic Charting

2011-04-29T22:42:00.004+01:00

A few things have cropped up in my inbox recently about charting.

The first one was about the perceived accuracy of electronic charts and the IHO survey which is running. Now accuracy of charts - or, more correctly, the accuracy of the source data - has been one of my career mantras. Metadata is oh, so, unsexy but so, so critical and often gets overlooked. Just because a chart is digital doesn't mean it's any better than a paper version. Indeed, just because a chart is metric doesn't necessarily mean it has any/much more data than the fathoms version. It's all down to fitness for purpose and the user knowing what they have. I've had many conversions with Mariners who have said (after they hit charted feature) "but I didn't know the paper chart wasn't on WGS84 Datum!" "Did you read the chart notes?" I'd enquire? "What chart notes?" was the response. Give me a brick wall and I'll bang my head against it.

The second one was a new book, The Electronic Chart which is now on its 3rd edition. ENC and ECDIS display issues are becoming quite a hot potato and I wonder how much this book covers it. Perhaps I should buy one and read it!

I'm also realising I'm not such a geek as I thought. Or perhaps I just hang out with geeks. On a recent car journey with an RN hydro surveyor he admitted that when shore-side the first person to spot a trig/benchmark had to be bought a beer. So it's not just me that goes around looking at pavements and walls then...

Cardiff Benchmarks - Devon Trigs

2011-04-17T18:22:00.003+01:00

Just enjoyed a very happy few days up in Cardiff with my girls. Met up with a surveying friend who showed us the sights. As you'd expect we managed to stumble across a few geo items...

Cardiff Bay has been extensively regenerated, but I liked the way the old was now part of the new development.

We sat to have lunch and realised we were perched on an Environment Agency benchmark.

Not sure why they didn't just use the benchmark across the road?

The Taff obviously floods here.

And today, in Devon, it's gloriously sunny. I was down to one child so lured her out with lunch at Otterton Mill, a Waitrose shop (!?) then trig pillar bagging. Three in one day is good going and Caitlin had some good map reading experience.

AUV Treasures

2011-04-08T22:52:00.003+01:00

Enjoyed a geeky day at Ocean Business on Wed. I had some business to conduct and valued the opportunity to be out of the office in what I consider to be a rich learning environment. Not only are there lots of gadgets to see, there are contacts both new and old to meet; providing oodles of tit bits into the world of hydrography and the broader marine world.

Spent some time talking with colleagues at NOC (National Oceanographic Centre) about their glider programme. I then got the best invitation of the day from a chap which was "do you want to come and see my big toys?" So we went down to one of the NOC labs and he gave me a whistle stop tour of their AUVs, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles. Not to be muddled, of course, with UAVs, Unmanned Aeronautical Vehicles.

They have three AUVs at NOC. Their first could only disappear for 4 days or so before the battery ran out.

The second would last at least twice as long and was rechargeable. It can dive to 6000m.

And their latest and greatest can travel 6000km, dive to 6000m and potentially last 6 months without a battery refresh/recharge. Impressive.

I chatted to CARIS about their oceanographic charting capacity (developing...), Lockhead Martin about their Sippican XBTs and XSVs, Fugro Pelagos about emerging geospatial opportunities,
Ferry Box, Shark, about their underwater technology, OSIL about equipment support etc. You can see the fun I had can't you?

Only a year until the next one now...Oceanology 2012.

Chasing the Tsunamis

2011-03-11T23:08:00.004Z

Following yesterday's horrendous earthquake in Japan yesterday you can follow the tsunami warnings running across the Pacific at the National Data Buoy Center. The flashing diamonds indicate a tsunami warning. I have never seen this website with more flashing diamonds than static until today. Check individual diamonds around Japan and you can see real spikes of data. Each spike is a simple measurement - a simple measurement of amplitude that can wipe out people's livelihoods in a second - a bland statistic that can be a measure of death toll.

Earthquakes, tsunamis - environmental phenoma with serious impacts on people. I suspect Map Action will be in full swing already.

Loch Lomond Map Falls Foul of Locals

2011-03-09T20:59:00.004Z

Oh dear. It's not the first time but it is vital to check local names before publishing a map. Or else you get this. For sure, Ruth Rapids and Adams Abyss would be terribly flattering (sic) but it should only be done if (a) no other name is in use for that feature and (b) it needs labelling at all.

Maybe this would have helped?!

Geo Finds in Banbury and Oxford

2011-02-27T00:21:00.003Z

A trip to see old friends in Banbury and Oxford unearthed a few interesting finds.

First off we stumbled (ahem - I navigated the family to it) a trig. A nice one - at the edge of a field but with a pretty buried BM.

We spent a couple of days in Banbury and whilst there visited the local museum. They had a sensory exhibition on Blind Art and I was very much taken with this picture in string.

Fun eh?

The next day in Oxford more treats awaited. In the Pitt Rivers Museum I stumbled across their marine navigation exhibit. [Some images have more info - click on them to read more].

And the in the Ashmolean more treats awaited in the form of Measuring Man,

some ancient maths,

a historic chart

and an upsidedown world. Purely designed for museum visitors but I loved it. It's not often you see the standard map up the other way. And why not?

Space Alert - My Head is Spinning

2011-02-16T21:34:00.004Z

I spent some time with the British Geological Survey today. They gave a few presentations about all the work in which they are involved. Where do I start?

Apart from the 'standard' things you'd expect a national geological organisation to be involved with, they mentioned a plethora of European marine initiatives to which they contribute. And, yes, I was confused by the end. I'd heard of Seadatanet, One Geology [which I blogged on in Feb 08] and BLAST but not the Ocean Drilling Programme, EDMED (the European Directory of Marine Environmental Data) or MESH - Mapping European Seabed Habitats.

And whilst in Googling mode I also found EU SeaSed for shared European seismic data.

The more I Google European marine initiatives, the more I'm convinced that there are plenty out there and that I don't understand the inter-relationships between them all.

And then I became totally confused tonight when I clicked on the BGS website tonight and up popped a weather forecast for space!

But, back to earth (or substrate). This is one my brother-in-law will love - check out iGeology John!

Easy Trigs

2011-02-12T19:43:00.005Z

Between my daughter and me we have pretty much wiped ourselves out healthwise for many weeks. However today, at long last, we bagged some trigs.

First off, a nice find just up from the road from A La Ronde. A fascinating building famous for its Victorian occupants and their shell loving exploits; but also architecturally beautiful. Any fancy a building survey for this 16 sided house?

TP6111 - Squirrel

Then a short drive across Woodbury Common in the sun (bliss) to bag this one.

TP7036 - Woodbury Common

I'm going to quickly run out of easy catches in Exeter. Hmmm. I suspect I'm going to have to put more effort into ticking the forthcoming trigs off my list.

The Best Made Plans...

2011-01-30T15:47:00.002Z

...don't involve children.

It's not her fault but my daughter isn't well so the planned trig bagging session didn't come off and, indeed, I've been more-or-less house bound for the weekend whilst looking longingly at the beautiful sun outside.

So in a bored moment I uploaded some photos. These relate to the Geomatics PG we had on 09 Dec, the day of the student demonstration/riot. I wrote about it here.

Working hard...

Us on the RICS terrace - before we hung over the edge to get a good look at the riots.

And at dinner afterwards.

I went up to London on 10 Jan for a re-run of Martin Pratt's Michael Barrett Award lecture. A fascinating insight into the world of boundaries - both offshore and onshore. He spoke of the unending connundrums of interpreting old, small scale, datum-free maps and relating them to the modern landscape. Boundaries are easy to draw when you have no knowledge of the geography of a region - but closer inspection of the physical geography, land use, settlements - give a complex picture to unravel. And even if the surveyor knows the optimum solution, trying to explain geodetic concepts to a legal advisor can sometimes be the biggest challenge.

Chit Chat

2011-01-28T22:08:00.005Z

A bit of a miscellany post today.

Sad news on standing astride longitude at Greenwich. It will now cost an adult a tenner. Ah well, at least the majority of 0 degree longitude is free to stand on!

Picked up Modus, the RICS corporate magazine today. It was full, as ever, of property articles, but this U-tube site caught my eye. It's amazing what you can build in 2 days - well shell in 2 days, internal walls completed in 6. That's mighty quick.

And to continue the time lapse theme my Dad sent me this construction of new railway bridges at Reading Station. Fun eh?

Off for a trig hunt with my daughter tomorrow I hope. She doesn't yet know but once the words 'tea and buns' get injected into the conversation I'm sure she'll come around. Still not finding benchmarks easy to espy. I certainly haven't got my eye into those yet.

And to end my miscellany, a measurement quiz for those who haven't picked it up earlier. I suspect you will all beat my paltry 4 out of 9!

Sad but True

2011-01-09T20:41:00.004Z

Went with the family down to the Quayside today. I went armed with a list of benchmarks and map; my husband took a GPS receiver and geocache hunt. We didn't find the geocache - mainly because after 3 clues we realised the cache was up a hill and across a mainroad. We were having too much fun at the Quayside to bother. But we did locate 4 benchmarks. They were all hard to find but perhaps I haven't got my eye in yet.

These rivets are small aren't they?!

Trigs and a Trig Lookalike

2011-01-02T18:12:00.003Z

Decided we needed to bag some trig pillars today. Well, I did and the girls were dragged out on the promise of lunch out if we found 3.

Well we did. And we didn't.

First off is our nearest trig pillar which I'd never hunted before - it's on a railway embankment so we had to view from the bridge.

Then we went to find the trig on Constitutional Hill.

Here it is!

I was surprised there was no evidence of a spider or FB but I assumed this was a cheap and nasty OS version.

On returning I read the details properly and, lo-and-behold, there is the real trig pillar 100m further up the trail. Doh. What I want to know is why are there two trigs 100m apart from each other - one the official one and the other a poor cousin. It's exactly the same shape as an OS trig pillar and fooled me (no comments please). I wonder if the OS installed this one and then changed their minds for a slightly better location? Can anyone enlighten me?

Lastly, a real trig. This one involved a tramp across very gloopy mud but the views were worth it.

I Blame Glyn

2010-12-28T20:17:00.002Z

I met Glyn Hunt a year or so ago (and he's the only person I know to have their own website - not sure what to make of that). It didn't take me long to realise he's as obsessed about benchmarks as I am trig pillars. I tried to ignore the pull. However I have just spent the week in Keswick with the family and realised quite soon on that the trig pillars were too high for us to reach . Sad but sensible when it's below freezing, ice/snow on top and the girls only had enough clothes to keep them warm at the foot of the hills, not 900m above MSL. So what to do except to cut my losses and start hunting for benchmarks? I didn't get too far as (a) the family only allow me out for brief periods and (b) we had no internet connection so I couldn't pre-arm myself with grid references to locate them.

So in the 30 mins I had last week (!) I/we found two.

Keswick Moot Hall and Keswick Post Office.

The beginning of the obsession starts.

Alvin - Space Shuttle of the Oceans

2010-12-16T21:32:00.001Z

Wow, wouldn't this be a trip and a half? Good luck on the new model Alvin.

A Memorable Meeting

2010-12-11T12:57:00.004Z

We had the RICS Geomatics Professional Group meeting at the RICS HQ, 12 Great George Street, on Thurs. It was Stuart Edward's first full meeting as Chair and our international reps were there. We knew, due to the vote on university fees, that there would be protests in Parliament Square, but no idea of the scale.

At 1350 a whole raft of students arrived from the Whitehall area. Actually I'd realised they were at Trafalgar Square 30 mins earlier as I could see the helicopters buzzing over that area from our 5th floor meeting room.

We went out on to the terrace to watch proceedings. It was increasingly confusing with demonstrators breaking through baracades and police lines moving. The students broke into the grass area of Paliament Square and pretty soon there were fires blazing (incl a bench) and someone had erected a gazebo - which certainly shows some planning ahead.

Poor Stuart had a job on his hands to keep us focused on the business of the day when events outside were far more interesting.

At 1500 we were told the police wanted us out in 20 mins. They were struggling to keep Paliament Square closed and, for our safety, wanted us out of the building. The RICS building is across the road from Treasury. We evacuated in 10 mins and then spent 30 mins walking to our hotel just the other side of Westminster Bridge. Of course we couldn't take a direct route so walked up Marsham Street (giving a wide berth to the Tory HQ in Millbank), across Lambeth Bridge and along the South Bank. We reconvined our meeting in a spare hotel meeting room - which was kind of them. This gave Peter Dare and I had an opportunity for impromptu chair race which I won (ha!).

Martin Pratt, from IBRU, was due to give the evening lecture and receive the Michael Barrett award which, obviously, had to be abandoned. I was really looking forward to it but hey ho. He'd travelled down to London for no more than a meal with us lot before returning the next morning. I was delighted to sit next to him and have a good chinwag about datums in the Gulf ever over dinner, like you do.

Around 2230 our hotel was surrounded by police vans and the entrance closed . We were also hearing rumours of tube stations being closed etc. I now realise that there was a group of protestors kettled on Westminster Bridge. We stood there in the bar, glasses in hand, and watched the proceedings. A very bizarre end to the day.

Let's hope, for Stuart's sake, next time round it's all a lot more normal.

Glonass Hiccup

2010-12-05T21:13:00.001Z

Oh dear oh dear. More here.

Stellar Christmas

2010-11-29T18:52:00.003Z

I was up in London on Sat exploring the lights with my daughter. Trafalgar Square was boring - I suspect they don't put their lights up until 01 Dec - Covent Garden better, Regents Street good but Carnaby Street was by far the best. Check out these stellar Christmas lights!

And Now for Something Completely Different

2010-11-24T19:39:00.005Z

If I ever talk about a military group in my blogs it's the Navy. However it's the Army's turn today. Mind you, it's hardly geo, more just a bit of interest to any army followers I have out there. OK. One. Ken - this blog is for you.

I was invited to join some 'in service' testing on Salisbury Plain today. I know the guy who works on weapons at Abbeywood and since I had no pressing meetings today I was able to take the day off to spend freezing my toes watching the Army (and a couple of Marines I spotted) practising.

We were on a range testing the Javelin and light/heavy machine gun fire. There was a bit of action with Warriors, smoke grenades and small explosions and then machine gun fire (with tracers) onto distant targets. Elsewhere on the Plain we could hear big gun fire going off and clouds of smoke rising on the horizon.

They set up a Javelin so that we spectactors could peer through the view finder.

The great excitement (if you can call it that) was when one of the Javelins misfired. The project engineers there had never seen it happen. Post failure all one could hear were sighs of "oh dear, oh dear, oh dear". Nothing is perfect but reassuringly when it misfired it cartwheeled and lay on the ground. No big 'boom'. No injuries.

I chatted to some of the army guys there but they are in a completely different world to the one I inhabit. Standard scathing of the dark blue forces. "All they do is swan around on ships sunning themselves". "Civil Servants just move paper around all day long" (sounds easy - I should try that some time). I didn't get onto the RAF but I was getting the gist. One poor guy was missing his para mates who were out in Africa and he was stuck on Salisbury Plain running training and exercises. I can imagine that's not what he joined up for. Another one offered me an egg-butty. When I declined he up-ed his offer "free hug with every egg-butty!". Now, there's an offer you don't get every day.

Team Surv and Open Sea Map

2010-11-06T11:38:00.003Z

TeamSurv is 2 year project, which started around the beginning of this year. It's an EU sponsored CoSuDEC project (Coastal Surveying of Depths with EGNOS to enhance charts) investigating the use of crowd sourcing to log position and depth data from seagoing vessels. It then processes the data to enhance the quality of nautical charts, and data sets for GIS systems as used by coastal engineers, for example.

As you can see form Tim Thornton's response the data is not yet suitable for navigational charting, although it is an aspiration.

It reminds me of Open Sea Map which has similar aspirations. Open Sea Map is about collecting the whole gambit of nautical information - although interestingly it can't yet take depth info as it's not 3D. Their market is focused on the leisure market adding additioinal local knowledge. Team Surv is more about collecting raw data to improve knowledge of the sea bed. Similar but different. Perhaps they should combine forces?

Navigating in the Arctic - Challenges

2010-10-31T09:46:00.002Z

An interesting article on the challenges of positioning and navigating in high latitudes. I touched on this earlier this month and I suspect this will be an increasingly discussed subject.

Sightseeing Benchmarks (or rather, BMs rock)

2010-10-25T21:35:00.005+01:00

A story of benchmark love...

A surveying friend of mine is a tad obsessed about benchmarks (nothing abnormal about that). His cousin recently made the mistake of asking him what a benchmark was. He explained and pointed out a few at which stage she was hooked. Good woman.

Anyway, she works for a homeless charity. She returned to work enthused about BMs and soon her team were out at lunchtime looking for them. They even searched the online BM database to find more.

When their CE heard about it he instantly thought it would be a great alternative exercise for them and the people their charity helps. It gets everyone up and out walking, chatting, seeing the sights - well, if you count benchmarks as sights.

Who'd ever have thought the humble benchmark would be helping the homeless?

A Satellite Waltz

2010-10-17T15:46:00.002+01:00

This looks interesting. A satellite dance for a DEM.

CPS 98 - Conscientious Objectors Survey America

2010-10-14T20:47:00.002+01:00

Enjoyed reading this article about CPS 98 the "odd geodetic survey crew". I'd never thought what a nation would 'do' with conscientous objectors. There were 43,000 in the US and, from what I read, the ones who turned to surveying had a good time. Less so those who 'volunteered' to be human guinea pigs in medical experiments. No thanks. Give me a tent and a theodolite everytime.

The History of the World in 100 Objects

2010-10-11T20:42:00.002+01:00

This is an interesting series but I haven't been paying much attention to it. Until now when these latest two episodes were bought to my attention.

Last week we had a North America buckskin map. Transcript is here.

But this week is better, Darwin's chronometer (or, rather, one of the 22 chronometers on HMS BEAGLE). Full transcript is here. I read Longitude with much interest some years ago so this was a good 15 mins of radio listening.

A bit more snooping around has unearthed a Hebrew Astrolabe and a Mexican codex map. It's funny but I didn't find the British Museum at all inspiring when I was there last month - it just goes to show that the story behind the object can make all the difference.

Oceanography Library Goes Digital

2010-10-08T20:54:00.006+01:00

OK, a bit behind the news here but worth reporting albeit a few months late. Reported in Marine Data news in June.

"Approximately 100,000 volumes from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library, the world’s largest oceanography library, have been digitised and are being made publically accessible as part of a partnership between Google, the University of California and the UC San Diego Libraries."

And here we go - the library itself. Wow, you could virtually lose yourself in here...

Navigating Up North

2010-10-07T19:00:00.004+01:00

This article on the Northwest Passage caught my eye in the Guardian the other week. Quite a balanced report. The accuracy of the charting in Canadian waters is coming under increasing scrutiny as more ships sail in the Arctic. It's a national dilema. Hydrographic surveying is very expensive and governments cannot afford to survey every square mile of their territory. They have to focus their efforts on those areas which are most used. Advice from the Canadian Coastguard is here.

Does 24 cruise ships in 7 months count as heavy use? No. But if one of those runs aground and has a fuel spill which causes $millions to clean up who pays? The government (in the first instance). Risk versus cost. The universal dilemma. Should those ships who use these areas pay for the charting? A nice idea but cost prohibitive I suspect.

The Russians are using imagery to advise on clear routes through the ice. Certainly no replacement for navigational charts (of whatever source data vintage) but anything helps. I suspect forward looking radar are the best bet but even that didn't work for HMS ENDURANCE the other year.

Man in White Van...

2010-09-28T22:32:00.000+01:00

...with a GPS set.

Trig Pillar Hugging

2010-09-26T18:38:00.002+01:00

I handed over Chair of the RICS Geomatics Professional Group on Monday 20 Sept and one of my vows was to spend more time with trig pillars (was I meant to say my family?!).

Anyway, after a glorious day out at Saltram with my girls today espied a little something on a hill...

TP2812 , Dorsmouth Rock, a wee hop and a skip across a field gives one some gorgeous Plymouth views.

Meridian Hunting

2010-09-26T18:21:00.003+01:00

I spent last week in London on leave. A bit of RICS, a good dose of catching up with relatives and lots and lots of exploring London.

I liked the nautical theme of the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square, currently Nelson's ship in a bottle.

Spotted some locals - although they weren't using their theodolite, just standing around presumably waiting for their boss (far LHS of photo) to finish his phonecall.

Bumped in the Land Registry HQ

and kept an eye out for benchmarks without seeing any. Honestly, I really am useless at spotting them!

Spent a gorgeously sunny afternoon in Greenwich sitting by the Thames watching the world go by. Popped up to the Observatory but no photos as I'd temporarily lost my camera (don't ask).

On Thursday my aunt and I visited Waltham Abbey for the sole intention of finding the meridian. I hadn't realised how close their house was to the meridian and spent a lot of my time fretting if I was east or west of Greenwich!

The most beautiful meridian line I've ever met.

And the Meridan gate (with aunt).

Happy days.

Do you think in directions?

2010-09-15T22:24:00.002+01:00

I hopped in a taxi today and asked the driver to take me to the north side of the railway station. He looked flumouxed. "Is that the side with the ticket machine?" he asked. I confirmed it was and then asked him what he calls that side of the station, "ah, the up line". I think in maps and whenever I'm travelling anywhere new I feel quite unsettled until I can see a map and place my new-found world in its correct geospatial position. I like to know which way north is. It's a big scary world out there but as long as I know which way is up I'm happy.

National Trust Gems

2010-09-03T21:47:00.005+01:00

Whislt visiting a National Trust property, the Vyne, with my family on Sunday I espyed some geo artefacts.

This map is a 3x enlargement of Simon's engraving of the great seal of the Commonwealth ordered to be made in 1651. On this side seen here it represents, in minature, a map of England (sic) and Ireland, in which the Vyne was named out of compliment to Chaloner Chute who was afterwards Speaker of the House of Commons.

There was another map from 1695, possibly Morden's, but it doesn't look like the Morden's I can find on the internet. Unfortunately the photo didn't come out well as I wasn't allowed to use flash.

In the 'stone room' I came across this lovely piece.

It was crafted by Francis Berry and was obviously used to measure the Vyne estate. I've googled Francis Berry and can't unearth any more about him - perhaps a local Hampshire surveyor?

The Day the Earth Stood Still

2010-08-23T21:09:00.003+01:00

A very interesting concept - what would happen if the earth stood still for a day? Well you get this - dry equatorial regions (including the Atlantic and Pacific oceans) but soggy northern and southern hemispheres of the world. Fascinating that they've worked out that the sea levels would be 1.4km difference.

Charting the Seas in the UK

2010-08-17T21:29:00.002+01:00

An interesting report from the UK Marine Monitoring and Assessment community - Charting Progress 2. The overview is worth a quick read esp if, like me, you're just trying to get the essence. The maps in this overview, also at this link.

Lots in here for my oceanographers at work to absorb.

Hydrography in the Thames

2010-08-13T22:41:00.001+01:00

Port of London Authority on TV. Check out John Dillon-Leech (he's the Irish one) and colleague explain what they've found here.

Black Sea River

2010-08-11T22:31:00.002+01:00

A very interesting story here about a recent discovery of a river under the Black Sea, with 10 times the flow of Europe's largest river the Rhine. Quite incredible.

Une Carte de Paris

2010-08-07T16:08:00.002+01:00

Currently on holiday in France which explains my blogging absence (or I think it does). What with run up to holidays, getting ahead with work, packing and other end-of-term etc activities the blogging took a back seat.

Anyway, the other day we were up the Eiffel Tower. I haven't been up it for a few years and very much liked a small feature on the first floor with astro turf, fountains (fantastically good fun in the wind) and the map of the area about the tower.

One of my holiday books, which I've just started, is Map Addict (what a great website ). I'm only a few chapters in but slightly kicking myself that I haven't yet tracked down the Paris Meridian. It took nearly a month in 1884 to reach the decision that Greenwich would host the prime meridian rather than Paris. The Paris meridian goes through the Observatoire de Paris and, from what I can work out from their website, you can only view it on a 120Euro pre-booked visit. Am I missing something? If so then (a) I'll have to start saving now and (b) I'll have to dramatically improve my French to get value for money from my spend.

M27 - East - West - East - East - West

2010-07-06T20:38:00.004+01:00

Spent a lot of the day on the M27 today. Drove to Whale Island, Portsmouth, for a meeting at NCHQ (Naval Command Head Quarters) then to Southampton Docks to visit Aurora. A massive ship, although not P&O's largest. She can take 2000 guests with a crew of 800. Spent our hour with the navigation team looking at how they use their ECDIS, plan their routes, update their charts etc.

After this, back on the M27 to Fareham to visit HMS COLLINGWOOD and their navigation training team. Had 15 mins in their state-of-the-art simulator which was great and very realistic. Somewhat quease-enducing straight after lunch. . We sailed out of Pearl Harbour complete with 3D google earth graphics, submarines, fires, storms etc. A useful discussion with their WECDIS trainer ensued after this.

Back on the M27 to Portsmouth again, to the Dockyard to visit HMS IRON DUKE, a T23 Frigate. Spent quite a while in the Ops Room until I got dragged out to join every one else on the bridge.

A fascinating whistle-stop tour of various marine establishments in Portsmouth/S'oton finding out how they navigation and use electronic charting. Lots of customer input. Good stuff.

Close Range Newcastle

2010-06-24T23:03:00.005+01:00

I was up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on Monday for a Geomatics Professional Group RICS Board. My last one as Chair which was quite bizarre. I've been Chair for over 2 and a half years which is certainly far longer than the standard 18 months recommended by the RICS. I hand over to Stuart Edwards, Newcastle University, in Sept, at which point I retreat into obscurity.

Having studied at Newcastle University for my degree I have a lot of affection for this place. The arches, in particular, are well known and this is where exam results were posted. Well, not quite for Land Surveying (as it was then) - ours were still posted in the Old Brewery Building; honestly, where else would you put surveyors?

We had a busy meeting but I had time between that and the next event to take the standard stroll down memory lane from the University to Osborne Road, Jesmond. I think about 3 of my blog readers will understand this statement.

In the evening we attended the reception for the ISPRS Commission V Close Range Symposium evening reception at the Civic Centre. The Civic Centre has a bit of a memory jogger for me as I did my finals in this place so it was weird to revisit it 20 years later. Golly, that makes me sound so old. Anyway, met up with lots of heavyweights of photogrammetry/remote sensing including Ian Dowman, who has recently retired from UCL.

Happy World Hydrography Day 2010

2010-06-20T21:39:00.004+01:00

Tomorrow we celebrate World Hydrography Day. This date has been chosen by the IHO, International Hydrographic Organization, to celebrate the anniversary of its creation. It is a day to recognise the contribution that hydrographic surveying makes to the maritime community.

This year's theme is Hydrographic Services - the essential element for maritime trade. Which, indeed, they are. More on the theme can be found at the Hydrographic Society news page or at Hydro International. It is good to see that this is being celebrated so widely.

Nigeria, India, the UKHO (in Singapore), Australia, Canada and the UK Hydrographic Society (in London) and no doubt many others are celebrating this day in one way or another.

I am up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne tomorrow for an RICS meeting and will be bumping into the ISPRS Commission V groupies in the evening. Not sure how close range you need to get with hydro surveying but I'm sure I'll get the conversation swinging that way

Another Beidou Satellite

2010-06-08T22:34:00.001+01:00

4 down (or should I say up) - 31 to go.

Trig with a View

2010-06-02T20:39:00.002+01:00

Have just enjoyed a couple of nights up in the Brecons. Bagged just the one trig (sniff) but cracking views.

And all logged of course.

Dublin Geomatics

2010-05-29T22:01:00.003+01:00

This power point is quite good fun.

IMDIS2010

2010-05-18T21:40:00.005+01:00

A member of my team recently attended the International Conference on Marine Data and Information Systems, IMDIS2010. Lucky chap. I just get to read the website after the event . There were a large number of presentations. I flicked through a couple such as

Rolling Deck to Responsitory
Archive and access of global water level data by NOAA
SeaDataNet talked of the cooperative European nature of their work. I noted the comment that 'the marine community must be more active in OGC'. With any data exchange the devil really is in the detail.
Sextant, the French Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure.
The Chair's summaries are worth reading, esp if you don't have time to trawl through all the session papers. Session 1, 2 and 3 are the most useful summaries.

The list of abstracts has not only abstracts of the presentations but also posters - both 'normal' and electronic (that's a new one on me - what's an electronic poster?).

Lots to learn. Quality, compatibility and access to data are the standard reoccuring themes.

Happy 50th Tomorrow

2010-05-15T23:22:00.003+01:00

Lasers are celebrating their half century. May 16th sees the 50th anniversary of the invention of the laser (not to be confused with the maser which was developed earlier). It has been involved with at least 6 Nobel Prizes. Check out this website for lots of info on the laser. Our lives would be so much the poorer without it. It's not just surveying (which as you'd expect I have a vested interest in) but everything included CDs, barcode scanners, fibre optics and the lot.

Mind you, now I've mentioned laser and surveying, check out the Nottingham Caves.

Ocean Warming

2010-05-09T00:06:00.002+01:00

My team alerted me to this. Apparently the RN records they have used came from them. Ah, fame at last .

Actually the more I learn about my job the more I realise I don't know. I'm a surveyor. I measure things. But the oceans are far more volatile than I ever cared to realise - with salinity, sound velocity, temperature, turbidity etc. It's not just about depth. It's about all the environmental factors that impact you - that' s what counts.

I figure that I'll perhaps know what I'm talking about when I'm 80. But I wouldn't put money on it.

Go Glider Go

2010-05-06T21:35:00.002+01:00

An endurance record has been set. A seaglider 144 has covered over 5500km in 292 days. I don't know much about marine gliders but it looks pretty good going in my eyes. Their tag line is "half a knot on half a watt".

Not so good going is the slick in the Mexican Gulf. The GeoEye-1 satellite shows the oil streaks very clearly on this image.

More from Jerry Brotton

2010-05-03T22:41:00.002+01:00

Am enjoying the BBC4s Maps programme. Jerry Brotton is easy to listen to and the programmes, although not terribly pacey, are informative. This BBC article gives you an essence of the series.

And if I had lots of spare time I could also pick up another BBC4 series; this one on the Beauty of Maps. However I think I've missed some of this on iPlayer so I'll wait for it to come around again.

Too Much Choice - But It's a Good Thing

2010-04-30T22:44:00.004+01:00

I'm not going to London as often as I used to and when there rarely get any spare time. So I'd ear-marked my next few hours spare in London, on 12 May, to visit the Magnificent Maps exhibition at the British Library.

But lo and behold London springs another mapping exhibition. The Creative Compass is being held at the Royal Geographic Society. However this finishes on 02 July so perhaps I should do this one first since the British Library one doesn't end until Sept? And then there is this fascinating sympoisum on 02 June which would be fab to attend if I hadn't already promised my husband a 2 day walk in the Brecons in Wales [trig pillar bagging I hope ]. Mind you, on reading a more detailed synopsis of the day - click 'more' on the link earlier - I realise I can probably live without 'counter-cartographies', connectedness and repositioning. The wind in my hair (and the rain in my eyes?) sounds a better deal.

It seems there are also mapping quilts at the V&A quilt exhibition but that may be a step too far.

I'm also enjoying the programme on BBC4, Maps - Power, Plunder and Possession. Juicy stuff.

I'm encouraged that the BBC website is picking up some of these themes. However I'm not sure I relate to the statement by Stockwell in this article that 'mapping is a very male language'. What on earth does that mean

Volcanoes and Guides

2010-04-21T22:34:00.005+01:00

I don't know what's happening to my blogging at the moment. I've been tired keeping up with the day job. As ever there are loads of geo-related news stories whizzing past my desk but I simply haven't had time to stop and blog them.

The volcano has obviously occupied everyone's thoughts this week. Well, not everyone's, as some of our global customers didn't seem to realise there was a problem with air freight and hadn't heard of the seemingly international crisis. Ah, the bliss for them. I had a member of staff stranded in Germany but he's a resourceful chap and has jsut arrived in the UK after an adventure on Germany and Belgium railways, Eurostar, tube etc. Not dissimilar to many others I'm sure.

The FIG conference in Sydney has concluded. Teo CheHai was elected president which is great news - the first non-western FIG president for a very long time - perhaps ever?

And me? Well my daughter has broken her arm and needed some help sewing Girl Guides badges onto her blanket. Guess my favourite...

I Am Very Behind with Blogging

2010-04-08T21:58:00.003+01:00

As mentioned in my last post, the OS response was due out on 31 March. I think it snuck on before midnight? Anyway, the government response is here. Read it at your leisure. There is a rash of comments on the 'free our data blog' but nothing since the end of March post-government annoucement, however it's always worth a read to see how many diverse opinions there are re: Ordnance Survey and government mapping. And of course, here is where you can get the data. Or at least some of it.

I must confess, not being welded to the UK mapping industry I haven't yet worked out what it means for Ms Jo Bloggs but no doubt I'll work it out in the fullness of time.

OS Where Art Thou?

2010-03-31T21:58:00.002+01:00

The Ordnance Survey's new business model rolls out on 01 Apr 10. It was debated in the House of Lords on 24 March, 1510 onwards, and we've been eagerly awaiting the new look OS since then. Not long now. Only 2 hours to go... Nothing on the OS website. Have I missed something?

Oceanology International 2010

2010-03-23T21:36:00.005Z

A somewhat belated post on my fun geeky conference the other week. I attended OI10 earlier in the month primarily to help out on the RICS stand. As it turned out I'd just moved into a Defence related post at work so spent quite a bit of time on a steep learning curve learning all about mine hunting, oceanographic datasets, environmental data providers and ROVs.

I spent a happy 90 mins on HMS CATTISTOCK learning about mine countermeasures, how the SeaFox works and, of course, the vital cup of coffee with Ops!

On the non-MOD front spent an hour or so on Gardline's vessel, MV Confidante chatting about mulitbeam (I now understand what a dual multibeam system is) and other hydro survey things which I should know but embarrassingly don't.

In between the RICS stand, the vessels, the oceanographic lessons on XBTs, CTDs and ADCPs it was lovely to bump into many old friends. It took forever to walk from one end of the exhibition to the other as there were so many familiar faces to stop and chat to.

And only 23.5 months until the next one...

Dorchester Trig and Survey Marks

2010-03-17T21:01:00.005Z

I'm a bit behind myself here. Had a fab time at OI10 but haven't yet received the photos to do justice to a decent blog. Therefore I will fast forward to my last weekend which saw me in Dorchester with my Mum.

My Mum is pretty tolerant of her family and I blame a lot of my geo passion on her and my Dad, but I still don't think she can quite get over my trig pillar passion. She graciously let me visit one on a stroll around Abbotsbury, Dorset. TP0768

It got worse. After lunch in Abbotsbury we decided to visit St Catherine's Chapel.

We were doing well until we walked inside and I saw the survey marks. I presume it's an English Heritage laser scanning conservation project (click on photo to see marks).

Great excitement from a Ruth. Major rolling of eyes from my mother!

The Earth Moved

2010-03-05T22:38:00.007Z

A rather tardy post on the Chile Earthquake. You can see evidence of the quake in the buoy measurements off the coast of Chile. The National Data Buoy Center shows water depth every 15 seconds and at 0645 on 27 Feb there are water variations of +/- 0.5m. This in over 4000m depth on a buoy which has usual 15 variation of 0.01m. The red lines show major movement.

Further north, just over 17 hours later, another buoy measured the effects of the earthquake.

These two places are approx 6000km apart which means that the waves moved at around 350km an hour. You don't get much warning when one of these takes off do you?

The NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning system was in full swing. At 0645 the first messages started coming through

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

ORIGIN TIME - 0634Z 27 FEB 2010
COORDINATES - 36.1 SOUTH 72.6 WEST
DEPTH - 55 KM
LOCATION - NEAR COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE
MAGNITUDE - 8.5

EVALUATION

IT IS NOT KNOWN THAT A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED. THIS WARNING IS
BASED ONLY ON THE EARTHQUAKE EVALUATION. AN EARTHQUAKE OF THIS
SIZE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE A DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI THAT CAN
STRIKE COASTLINES NEAR THE EPICENTER WITHIN MINUTES AND MORE
DISTANT COASTLINES WITHIN HOURS. AUTHORITIES SHOULD TAKE
APPROPRIATE ACTION IN RESPONSE TO THIS POSSIBILITY. THIS CENTER
WILL MONITOR SEA LEVEL DATA FROM GAUGES NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE TO
DETERMINE IF A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED AND ESTIMATE THE SEVERITY OF
THE THREAT.

and they escalated from there to

A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR

CHILE / PERU / ECUADOR / COLOMBIA / ANTARCTICA / PANAMA /
COSTA RICA / NICARAGUA / PITCAIRN / HONDURAS / EL SALVADOR /
GUATEMALA / FR. POLYNESIA / MEXICO / COOK ISLANDS / KIRIBATI /
KERMADEC IS / NIUE / NEW ZEALAND / TONGA / AMERICAN SAMOA /
SAMOA / JARVIS IS. / WALLIS-FUTUNA / TOKELAU / FIJI /
AUSTRALIA / HAWAII / PALMYRA IS. / TUVALU / VANUATU /
HOWLAND-BAKER / NEW CALEDONIA / JOHNSTON IS. / SOLOMON IS. /
NAURU / MARSHALL IS. / MIDWAY IS. / KOSRAE / PAPUA NEW GUINEA /
POHNPEI / WAKE IS. / CHUUK / RUSSIA / MARCUS IS. / INDONESIA /
N. MARIANAS / GUAM / YAP / BELAU / JAPAN / PHILIPPINES /
CHINESE TAIPEI

and included evidence from the buoys which were obviousy being closely monitored.

MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY

GAUGE LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL PER
------------------- ----- ------ ----- --------------- -----
IQUIQUE CL 20.2S 70.1W 0906Z 0.27M / 0.9FT 72MIN
ANTOFAGASTA CL 23.2S 70.4W 0941Z 0.49M / 1.6FT 52MIN
ARICA CL 18.5S 70.3W 1007Z 0.94M / 3.1FT 44MIN
DART LIMA 32412 18.0S 86.4W 0941Z 0.24M / 0.8FT 36MIN
CALDERA CL 27.1S 70.8W 0843Z 0.45M / 1.5FT 20MIN
TALCAHUANO CL 36.7S 73.4W 0653Z 2.34M / 7.7FT 88MIN
COQUIMBO CL 30.0S 71.3W 0852Z 1.32M / 4.3FT 30MIN
CORRAL CL 39.9S 73.4W 0739Z 0.90M / 2.9FT 16MIN
SAN FELIX CL 26.3S 80.1W 0815Z 0.53M / 1.7FT 08MIN
VALPARAISO CL 33.0S 71.6W 0708Z 1.29M / 4.2FT 20MIN

The sad reality is that the earth moves. However with these monitoring networks you at least know they kick in very quickly and give everyone as much notice as possible to be on alert. That's the best you can ask for at times.

And It's Off...

2010-02-26T21:21:00.003Z

A survey in support of the Marine Electronic Highway (MEH) in the Malacca Straits, has kicked off.

A MEH combines an Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS), an Automated Identification System (AIS), shore-based marine information databases and advanced ship-to-shore communications. You can read more about it here. As part of the development of the MEH in this region additional surveys are being carried out to improve the source data for the charts. One Fathom Bank is being surveyed this month.

It is vital that these critical shipping lanes, which are some of the busiest in the world, are well surveyed. You can have the best ECDIS, AIS and comms in the world but with poor source data, eminating from old surveys, you can only rely on the chart so far. Better surveys = better source data = better navigation information for the Mariner. Job done.

Marine SDI - IHO Guidance

2010-02-22T21:19:00.003Z

I've only just come across this guidance for Hydrographic Offices on Marine SDI. It's not a bad read. Quite gentle on the spatial data infrastructure topic but without dumbing down.

Nautical Finds at Gibalfaro

2010-02-21T10:49:00.003Z

On a recent family holiday in Spain we were in Malaga's Castle, Gibalfaro, and came across some interesting navigation and surveying pieces.

I enjoyed the maps of Malaga

and even spied some soundings

But the most interesting exhibit, in my humble opinion, was this blackboard.

The noble art of navigation indeed.

iPhone Apps Galore

2010-02-07T13:43:00.004Z

Now this is an interesting iPhone app. Of course, not at all suitable for accurate surveying but what a fabulous reccie tool!

And I also came across iChart recently. This is equally good fun. Sure, not to be used for navigation all, but it was bound to happen at some stage. You can see the yachtsmen (and yachtsmen women hopefully) chat about it on Yachting and Boating World.

Eye on Earth

2010-02-05T21:42:00.005Z

My standard Friday night googling on the PC has bought up this link on environmental observations (reported by the BBC here). Another mash up of sorts. It seems to be quite embryonic hence the minimal reviews on it from 'the people' but I do so love the way that geospatial data is becoming the norm as a backdrop/tool for anything like this. Good stuff.

Haiti Mapping Relief Online

2010-02-03T19:50:00.003Z

Online mapping helps Haiti relief effort - read the report at The World.

I have to thank a surveying friend in the US for this - ta Derek .

In fact I'm getting remiss. My blog yesterday was also triggered by an e-mail from another surveying friend in the US - Don this time. If this carries on I won't have to do any thinking myself!

Now You See It - Now You Don't?

2010-02-01T21:15:00.002Z

The headline is not as bad as it seems as it's 4 lighthouses out of many. However it seems to be setting a dangerous precedent. I'm sure that mariners use these lighthouses more than some think, if only for reassurance rather than anything. I wonder what the outcome of the consultation will be. At the end of the day it comes down to money and risk. Yes, switching them off will save money, but will it increase the dangers to mariners significantly? If the answer to that is 'yes' then they will stay but time will tell.

They Caught Up

2010-01-26T22:19:00.003Z

OK, the Free Our Data has caught up (cf this post). Bizarrely their post on Free Our Data talks about 'yesterday's announcement' - which it wasn't - it was on Thurs. I expect their post was written on Friday but posted only yesterday.

Despite exciting intentions of reading the paper on GPS Vertical Control (etc) over lunch today, my lunch was instead spent cramming up on the OS Consultation in advance of a meeting about how to respond to it.

I'm meeting up with Vanessa Lawrence, DG of Ordnance Survey, on Thurs as she's delivering the annual UK Geoforum Lecture. We've dinner afterwards (oh hark - not just me!) so it'll be interesting to catch up.

International Hydrographic Review On-Line

2010-01-25T22:16:00.004Z

I'm a slow learner at times and only found out today that the International Hydrographic Reivew has been on-line for a year now. There are some good articles if you're into this sort of thing. I liked the one on Chart Datum Transfer using a GPS Tide Buoy but it was frustrating it didn't give as definite conclusions as I'd have liked. It would have benefited from a section on earth tidal loading too. I also have GPS Vertical Control Unaided by a Shore Station lined up for lunchtime reading tomorrow and perhaps a long overdue refresh on S100 developments. Yes, I really am as geeky as I look.

UK Government Data for Free?

2010-01-21T19:37:00.003Z

The government portal for accessing free data was launched today. It proclaims itself to be unlocking innovation for us all but I'm not so sure. Yet. The BBC feature has some interesting debate from readers (scroll down). And I have to agree with the comment that it doesn't seem to be much 'new' data, but just data accessible from a single site. It'll be interesting to see where this goes, particuarly with the outcome of the OS consultation. As someone says, when Tim Berners-Lee moves on, and a general election comes and goes, will this still have the same impetus? Let's watch this space.

And I'm quite bemused as to why the Free Our Data campaign hasn't run this as a story. It seems to be a tad off the boil at the moment.

One Very Excited TV Presenter!

2010-01-19T21:21:00.003Z

Today's hydrographic offering comes from the BBC. Put one Fugro ship/surveying team, the MCA, the UKHO and and an incredibly enthusiastic TV presenter together and what do you get? This. Enjoy - the fun starts 20 mins in!

All Eyes on Haiti

2010-01-18T22:36:00.002Z

BBC Spaceman reports on how space-eyes are being used to help in the relief efforts in Haiti. He details the international charter on space and major disasters which I'd never come across but, thinking about it, of course it must have existed. As expected Map Action have been involved. Without knowing which bridges are still standing, which roads are blocked, where the people are gathering etc aid will take longer to get to those who need it.

Haiti Moves

2010-01-16T21:53:00.004Z

Nobody can have failed to miss what happened around Haiti on 12 Jan. You can easily see how the earth moved from this buoy . Ok 'only' a 15 cm wobble but a wobble of that size on a buoy is still pretty big on the land. And it's not a wave aberration - this is a true depth change. Big time stuff. I've been in an earthquake and it wasn't fun. But I was OK and walked on the next day. Some aren't that fortunate.

Pesky Definitions - Geomatics Anyone?

2010-01-14T21:16:00.000Z

Last one for me tonight (I'm on a roll). Came across this article today on the definition of the geomatics market. Piece of cake huh?

Ashtech is Back

2010-01-14T21:10:00.001Z

Ring a bell anyone? I remember Ashtech the first time round!