What is a geographic information system?
GIS is a computer system that captures, stores, checks, and displays information related to positions on Earth’s surface.
The ability to link maps digitally to information enables us to visualize and understand patterns and relationships around us. Geographic information systems, or GIS, provides this link. For example, this image uses GIS to show how much the Geiod height varies spatially.
GIS is a computer system that captures, stores, checks, and displays information related to positions on Earth’s surface. It helps analysts and scientists study climate change, land use planning, business, and even our nation’s defense. You might use it to find the closest restaurant or book store using your phone’s GPS. At NOAA, GIS is used to map oil spill trajectories and historic hurricane tracks, view and analyze nautical charts, and understand trends in areas such as sea level change and coastal socioeconomics.
Explore some of the GIS-related products and services NGS provides to:
Improve data and location precision: Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) Surveyors, GIS users, engineers, scientists, and the public that collect GPS data can use CORS data to improve the precision of their positions. The network of 1,800 CORS stations improves coordinates relative to the National Spatial Reference System, both horizontally and vertically.
