Module Outline: - The shape of the Earth
- The ellipsoid of revolution and its relation to the Geoid
- Datums
- The principles of gravity models and gravity reduction
- Transformation between ellipsoids and/or datums
- Celestial sphere and coordinate systems
- Basics of astronomic positioning
- Impact of geocentric vs. Local geodetic datums
- Essentials of gravimetry
- Vertical reference systems
- Definition of a cartographic system
- Coordinate systems for positioning
- Time: Julian date, civil time, official time, astronomic-, sidereal- and solar time GPS time
- Geodetic, astronomic, orbital and geocentric systems
- The Conventional Terrestrial System and some of its practical realizations such as GRS80, WGS84 etc.
- Plane and geodetic computations. Calculate forward and inverse computations on the ellipsoid using appropriate software
General theory on map projections
Classification (orthogonal vs. Non-orthogonal, etc...)
Main properties of cylindrical, azimutal and conical projections (including development of the analytical projection formulae)
Deformations (conform, equivalent, equidistant, aphylactic)
Calculation of the deformation based on the indicatrix of Tissot
Detailed approach of certain conformal projections (Mercator, Stereographic Azimutal)
UTM (including military and civil grid system)
- Grids and graticules on projections
Reading and understanding of the metadata on maps and use of them regarding the map reading.
Transformation between geographic and grid coordinates, compute convergence, scale factors and arc to chord corrections, using appropriate software