Stories by Subject
The stories behind the instruments and technologies that change what surveyors can see and do, from chains and optical sights to satellites, scanning, drones, software, and AI.
10 articles
Featured Story
By comparing the phase of repeated radar observations, InSAR can reveal earthquake deformation, volcanic inflation, subsidence, and other surface motion across entire regions.
Read ArticleHow Apollo-era retroreflectors let observatories measure the Moon, test gravity, and strengthen lunar reference frames.
An entry-level, field-to-office guide to NATRF2022, NAPGD2022, SPCS2022, epochs, height modernization, and preparing survey workflows for the modernized National Spatial Reference System.
How hydrography, deformation monitoring, as-builts, and modern geospatial control support an operating and expanding canal.
How construction control, structural monitoring, precision alignment, and verification support a rocket before it leaves the pad.
Establishing height has always required a definition of level, a reliable sight line, and a path of observations strong enough to reveal accumulated error.
The history of distance measurement runs from counted metal links and slope corrections to timed electromagnetic waves—but every era has depended on standards, calibration, and field…
From open sights and divided circles to transits, total stations, and robotic tracking, the theodolite’s history is a story of making direction repeatable.
How sextants, chronometers, astronomical tables, and hydrographic surveys made ocean navigation repeatable.
How John Harrison’s marine timekeepers turned reference time into a practical east-west position at sea.
