Detecting spirit-levelling errors in the AHD: recent findings and issues for any new Australian height datum∗

∗Note that the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping has decreed that the AHD will be retained for the foreseeable future, so our experiments are only to ascertain what can be achieved, rather than foreshadowing any revision to the AHD in the near future.

Abstract

The Australian Height Datum (AHD) forms the vertical geodetic datum for Australia and is thus the framework for all heights, including those used to establish digital elevation models (DEMs). The AHD was established over quite a short time frame, due to the urgent requirement for height control for topographic mapping. This necessitated the use of lower quality spirit-levelling observations over long distances and approximate data reductions. Geoscience Australia has kindly supplied us with height differences for all sections of the basic and supplementary spirit-levelling used to establish the AHD, allowing us to analyse loop closures to detect spirit-levelling (or data entry/transcription) errors in this dataset. In the case-studies presented here, we show that GPS and a precise gravimetric quasigeoid model can be used to identify the sections in a levelling loop that cause misclosure, reflecting the relative quality of modern quasigeoid models over the spirit-levelling originally used to establish the AHD. We also consider and discuss some of the other issues that would have to be considered if Australia is to implement a new vertical geodetic datum from these data to support, for example, improved DEMs in the future.

Key Words:

• AHD
• DEMs
• GPS
• heights
• quasigeoid
• spirit-levelling

Acknowledgements

First, we would like to thank Gary Johnston, Geoff Luton and Jim Steed (ret.) of Geoscience Australia for providing the ANLN and GPS data and Linda Morgan and Graeme Holloway of Landgate for providing the Western Australian GPS data. MSF thanks Curtin University of Technology for an Australian Postgraduate Award and Land Services Group (SA) for assistance during his visit to Netley in February 2008. WEF thanks the Australian Research Council for an Australian Professorial Fellowship through grant DP0663020. MSF and WEF both thank the CRC for Spatial Information for partial funding through project 1.08. We would also like to thank Michael Hutchinson and an anonymous reviewer for their comments on this manuscript. This is The Institute for Geoscience Research (TIGeR) publication number 172.

Notes

∗Note that the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping has decreed that the AHD will be retained for the foreseeable future, so our experiments are only to ascertain what can be achieved, rather than foreshadowing any revision to the AHD in the near future.