A GEOCENTRIC REFERENCE SYSTEM IN TAIWAN

Abstract

One of the fundamental goals of geodesy is to precisely define positions of points on the surface of the Earth, so it is necessary to establish a well-defined geodetic datum for geodetic measurements and positioning computations. Recently, a set of the coordinates established using GPS and referred to an international terrestrial reference frame could be used as a three-dimensional geocentric reference system for a country. Such a geocentric reference system, based on this modern concept, was carried out in Taiwan in 1997 and realised in 1998. Besides the advantages of using GPS to effectively establish this new national reference system, the coordinate qualities of these well-distributed and well-defined GPS control stations will also benefit from the convenient implementation of the maintenance of the coordinate system.