Boundaries & Land Rights
Andrew Ellicott: Drawing America’s Southern Line
From Washington’s future streets to the border of Spanish Florida, Andrew Ellicott turned national ambitions into lines on the…
Featured Story
Introducing the Lost Surveyor Map Archive
A digital map archive is taking shape at Lost Surveyor, with Florida at its center, carefully attributed sources and tools for looking closely at the history on each sheet.
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Boundaries & Land Rights
Cooley’s Essay: Why Better Measurements Don’t Automatically Move Boundaries
Thomas Cooley’s enduring essay asks surveyors to recover established boundaries, investigate the evidence, and recognize the limits of a…
Tools & Technology
GPS Modernization Is More Than a Satellite: What GAO’s New Audit Uncovered
A new GAO audit follows GPS from orbit to ground control to the equipment using its signals, revealing why…
Measuring the World
Clocks as Surveying Instruments: Relativistic Geodesy and the Shape of Earth
Optical atomic clocks can sense differences in gravitational potential, opening a path toward measuring physical height through the rate…
Measuring the World
When Coordinates Expire: Surveying on a Moving Continent
Precise coordinates are tied to both a reference frame and a date because tectonic plates, earthquakes, subsidence, and other…
Measuring the World
Why Elevation Follows Gravity: The Geoid Beneath Every Height
GNSS measures height above a mathematical ellipsoid, but practical elevation depends on gravity, the geoid, and a physical definition…
Maps & Mapping
Surveying Beneath Ice: Mapping Continents Hidden From View
Airborne radar, satellite altimetry, GNSS, gravity, and decades of field surveys reveal the mountains, canyons, lakes, and basins concealed…
Nature & Landscapes
Reading Motion in Radar Fringes: How InSAR Maps a Changing Ground
By comparing the phase of repeated radar observations, InSAR can reveal earthquake deformation, volcanic inflation, subsidence, and other surface…
Measuring the World
Surveying a Moving Seafloor: How GNSS-Acoustic Geodesy Tracks Tectonic Plates
Satellites cannot reach through seawater, so marine geodesists combine GNSS at the surface with acoustic ranging below to measure…