INDGEOID Version 1.0 is a new mathematical model which was launched by Survey of India (SOI).
What’s the problem in measuring heights?
A place’s height is measured with reference to the surrounding sea.
E.g. Mount Everest is 8,848 metres when measured from the surface of the sea but may have a different value if measured from the ocean floor.
An expedition, in 1999, that measured Mount Everest using a GPS receiver found that it was 10 metres higher.
Similarly several measurements, of dams and skyscrapers are affected depending on whether they are computed by traditional surveying or satellites.
What is an INDGEOID?
The Survey of India developed a system called INDGEOID Version 1 that will automatically correct for the error in GPS and sea-level measurement of structures in India.
A geoid model of the earth tries to account for the all the undulation and assumes an earth ‘surface’ where the oceans were smoothened out and gravity the same everywhere.
Map-making authorities employ a mathematical calculation to ‘correct for the geoid’ and thus, the true height of a structure or landform.
The most immediate and notable beneficiary of this would be Mount Everest.
Mount Everest, it’s been claimed, has lost a few metres due to the Nepal earthquake of 2015 that killed thousands.
To re-ascertain this, the Survey of India will conduct a new GPS-based measurement of the mountain peak.
This will incorporate the new INDGEOID measurement.
