Hi Bruce, Well, I don't agree with you... There is a difference between the accuracy of your measures (that correspond to probabilistic errors within a given estimation), and a systematic error, as the one you would introduce if you don't take into account the variation of declination between two surveys that would have been done 10 years apart... So this error is not included in your measure uncertainty but it adds to it. Moreover, in most survey programs, it is more or less easy to take into account the declination, or even compute it from the date... It is even easy to add this information a posteriori, if you get old survey data, as soon as you have the date. Eric. Bruce Mutton wrote:
Eric wrote
I would add to Martin explanation that while the meridian convergence is fixed (for a given location), the declination varies significantly with time. So if you are managing a cave survey project for say, 10 or 20 years... then the difference in declination will be significant (can be several degrees)
Eric.
Eric I guess we are lucky in NZ, the declination varies by about a degree a decade, and we've only been producing maps for about four decades. The overall accuracy today of most of our surveys is probably no better than this (although we would kid ourselves otherwise). Bruce
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