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Geospatial Modeling Grant

The Geospatial Modeling Grant is a competitive NOAA Grant administered by NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS). The FY 2023 Competition solicited projects that modernize and improve the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) and advance the science of geodesy in the United States. The program priorities under the FY2023 competition include:

  1. Research and develop new methodologies for defining and applications for working with the NSRS;
  2. Develop and evaluate tools, models, and guidelines to access, analyze, and manipulate geodetic data;
  3. Enhance infrastructure of geodetic control, coastal remote sensing data, survey measurements, and other physical datasets that comprise the NSRS;
  4. Support education, capacity building, and technology transfer for the future of geodesy;
  5. Coordinate through partnerships with local, state, and regional users.

The primary objective of the FY 2023 Competition was to modernize and improve the NSRS and address emerging research problems in the field of geodesy.

The secondary objective of the FY 2023 Competition was to support a Geodesy Community of Practice in collaboration with federal and nonfederal stakeholders to address the nationwide deficiency of geodesists and improve the coordination and use of geospatial data.

These objectives also align with the current common challenges identified within the Geodesy Community of Practice The current federal agencies members in the Geodesy Community of Practice include: NOAA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Geo-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and the US Geological Survey (USGS).


FY 2023 - FY2028 Funding Cycle

For the FY2023 - FY2028 funding cycle, 22 applications were submitted from which the following four proposals were awarded:

Oregon State University

Project proposal title: “NSRS Modernization and Geodetic Workforce Development”

Principal Investigator: Chris Parrish

Project Activities:

Research - The three key research tasks include:

  1. Develop and test novel approaches to integration of precise point positioning (PPP) and real time networks (RTNs) into the NSRS, including developing an RTN alignment service.
  2. Create standard operating procedures (SOPs) to ensure proper implementation of and transition to the new 2022 datums for geospatial applications such as topographic mapping, photogrammetric surveys, and asset inventories.
  3. Assist in the development and testing of OPUS-Projects and M-PAGES.

Education - Undergraduate Geodesy Degree Program by developing and training the next generation of geodesists, surveyors and geospatial professionals and broadening participation in these fields.

Outreach - Focus on Alaska native communities by improving the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission’s, and the Yurok Tribe’s hydrodynamic models of the Columbia and Klamath Rivers through use of the modernized NSRS.

Subrecipients:
  • University of Alaska, Anchorage
  • Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
  • Yurok Tribe

Michigan State University

Project proposal title: “Software Tools and Education for Enhancing Geodetic Infrastructure”

Principal Investigator: Jeff Freymueller

Project Activities:

Research - The key task will be to develop a Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) Dashboard that will support a continuous process of monitoring and validation of the CORS network.

Education - Creating a formal geodesy program in support of the nationwide deficiency of geodesists. This will be a graduate Geodesy Degree Program.

Subrecipients:

  • University of Alaska, Fairbanks
  • Michigan Technological

Scripps Institution of Oceanography / UC San Diego

Project proposal title: “NSRS Intra-Frame Deformation Model and New SIO Geodesy Program”

Principal Investigator: Yehuda Bock

Project Activities:

Research - The two key research tasks include:

  1. Develop and implement an Intra-Frame Deformation Model (IFDM) at the centimeter level for users in regions of significant ground motions. Facilitate technology transfer and infusion of the IFDM to NGS.
  2. Investigate a unified vertical reference frame, including a marine geoid optimized to be consistent with the full spectrum of observations from modern gravimetric geoids (e.g., GRAV-D, ICGEM), remotely-sensed observations (e.g., SWOT, ICESat-2), in situ ocean observations and assimilating ocean models, and the TRF.

Education - Creating a formal Geodesy Program and expanded curriculum at SIO. This will be a graduate Geodesy Degree Program. Through this effort, an additional five graduate students will be supported in order to enhance the nation’s pool of geodetic scientists.

The Ohio State University

Project proposal title: “Developing a Fully Kinematic, Backwards-Compatible Reference Frame for the Continental United States of America and Canada”

Principal Investigator: Demián Gomez

Project Activities:

Research - The four key research tasks include:

  1. Develop a ‘sandbox’ frame that can implement any International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) in a manner that is completely transparent to the geospatial stakeholders.
  2. Implement a full kinematic reference frame (KRF) and associated models to operate continuously and without interruptions or coordinate artifacts (such as jumps, jitters, etc) during the implementation of a new ITRF realization.
  3. Develop a “parallelization wrapper” for M-PAGES, Parallel.PAGES, that will link the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) processing software to a powerful relational database.
  4. Develop software to merge GNSS, Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), and other geodetic imaging techniques using AI to create intraframe models.

Education - Expanding the existing Graduate Geodesy Degree Program.