NCGPSUG

Northern California GPS Users Group

About Us
Text Box: The Northern California GPS User’s Group (NCGPSUG) is an organization of public and private map and land survey professionals that have been meeting quarterly for over 15 years. Every quarter we meet and present some of the most knowledgeable professionals in our industry, who give lectures on specified topics pertaining to Global Positioning (GPS). Typically included are reports of work, standards, projects, and etc. from NGS and Caltrans. We are a voluntary association, having neither dues nor membership requirements beyond a desire to learn more, share more, and network within our areas of expertise. Our next meeting is scheduled for Friday, June 12th 2009 - 9:00am to Noon Our speakers will be Dr. Thomas Loecherbach speaking on the topic of Photogrammetric Sensor Orientation and Steven Martin speaking on the topic of The California Public Resources Code as it relates to GPS control surveying Dr. Thomas Loecherbach Is part of the Geomatics Team at Tetra Tech in their Lafayette, CA office, offering photogrammetric mapping, orthoimage, LiDAR, remote sensing and GIS services. Before joining Tetra Tech at the end of 2008 he had been with HJW Geospatial in Oakland for 13 years where he worked on digital camera technology, aerotriangulation, airborne GPS and IMU and algorithms for orthoimage production. Thomas studied geodesy at Bonn University in Germany where he specialized in photogrammetry early on and where he received a PhD in photogrammetry. Topic: Photogrammetric Sensor Orientation Sensors used in photogrammetric mapping range from the analog film cameras, to digital frame cameras, line scanners and LiDAR instruments. These sensors rely to a different degree on airborne GPS and IMU measurements. The talk looks at how airborne GPS is applied in photogrammatric sensor orientation and how it affects project planning and design. Steve Martin Mr. Martin began his career in GPS control surveying in 1990 while working as a Junior Land Surveyor for the County of San Diego. A four day training class taught by Ellis Veatch at Ashtech in Sunnyvale was included in the County's purchase of 5 Ashtech LD-XII GPS receivers. The early days of GPS control surveying included hiking to mountaintop to observe on the old USC&GS first order control points often at odd hours due to the early Block I GPS constellation. Mr. Martin participated in the preparations for the Statewide HPGN survey in 1990, the observations in April of 1991, and the analysis and adjustment of San Diego County's 34 station, simultaneously observed sub-network of the HPGN. The analysis, adjustment and blue-booking was accomplished in Dr. Yehuda Bock's lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Since that time Mr. Martin has been responsible for establishing dozens of first order GPS networks and hundreds of Project control networks. He has supervised and trained staff processing and working with GPS since 1997 and since 2007 has been the Survey Supervisor for the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Topic:The California Public Resources Code as it relates to GPS control surveying. The Public Resources Code defines the California Coordinate System and regulates its use. Selected highlights from the Public Resources Code will be discussed in this half hour presentation Thanks to the efforts of members Steve Martin and Marti Ikehara, the California Spatial Reference Center has offered financial support to help defray the costs we incur in running the website. This will enable us to remain dues free! Thanks!