The Southern Louisiana Astrogeodetic Survey: Assessing the Performance of GEOID2022 along the Mississippi River

February 13, 2025  |  2:00-3:00 pm, ET

Presenters: Ryan Hardy, PhD; Geodesist - Geoid Modeler, Geoscience Research Division, NGS

In 2024, NGS collaborated with Louisiana State University, Oregon State University, and Swisstopo to deploy state-of-the-art astronomical cameras to measure geoid slopes along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The goals of the survey were to compare the performance of these instruments and to validate GEOID2022 in this region. This survey aims to replicate the success of NGS’s past Geoid Slope Validation Surveys with fewer resources and in less time. Southern Louisiana was chosen because of the challenges both sparse data and subsiding land present to geoid modeling. This region has a critical need for accurate orthometric heights in a low-lying, vulnerable, and densely populated shipping corridor.