The techniques used to establish the positions of reference points within an area to be mapped are similar to those used in navigation. In surveying, however, greater accuracy is required, and this is attainable because the observer and the instrument are stationary on the ground instead of in a ship or aircraft that is not only moving but also subject to accelerations, which make it impossible to use a spirit level for accurate measurements of star elevations.

The technique of locating oneself by observations of celestial objects is rapidly going out of date. In practicing it, the surveyor uses a theodolite with a spirit level to measure accurately the elevations of the Sun at different times of the day or of several known stars in different directions. Each observation defines a line on the Earth’s surface on which the observer must be located; several such lines give a fix, the accuracy of which is indicated by how closely these lines meet in a point. For longitude it is necessary also to record the Greenwich Mean Time of each observation. This has been obtained since 1884 by using an accurate chronometer that is checked at least once a day against time signals transmitted telegraphically over land lines and submarine cables or broadcast by radio.

A more recent procedure for global positioning relies on satellites, whose locations at any instant are known precisely because they are being continuously observed from a series of stations in all parts of the world. The coordinates of these stations were established by very large scale triangulation based on a combination of radar observations of distances and measurements of the directions of special balloons or flashing satellites, obtained by photographing them at known instants of time against the background of the fixed stars.

The principal method of using satellites for accurate positioning is based on an application of the Doppler effect. A radio signal is transmitted at a steady frequency by the satellite, but a stationary observer detects a higher frequency as the satellite approaches and a lower one as it recedes. The speed of the frequency drop depends on the distance of the observer from the satellite’s track, so a determination of this speed provides a measure of that distance. At the instant of the satellite’s closest approach, the observed frequency is the same as that transmitted, so at that time the observer must be located somewhere along the line at right angles to the satellite’s track. Since this track over the Earth’s surface is accurately known at all times, these data define the observer’s position.

Establishing the framework

Most surveying frameworks are erected by measuring the angles and the lengths of the sides of a chain of triangles connecting the points fixed by global positioning. The locations of ground features are then determined in relation to these triangles by less accurate and therefore cheaper methods. Establishing the framework ensures that detail surveys conducted at different times or by different surveyors fit together without overlaps or gaps.

For centuries the corners of these triangles have been located on hilltops, each visible from at least two others, at which the angles between the lines joining them are measured; this process is called triangulation. The lengths of one or two of these lines, called bases, are measured with great care; all the other lengths are derived by trigonometric calculations from them and the angles. Rapid checks on the accuracy are provided by measuring all three angles of each triangle, which must add up to 180 degrees.

In small flat areas, working at large scales, it may be easier to measure the lengths of all the sides, using a tape or a chain, rather than the angles between them; this procedure, called trilateration, was impractical over large or hilly areas until the invention of electromagnetic distance measurement (EDM) in the mid-20th century. This procedure has made it possible to measure distances as accurately and easily as angles, by electronically timing the passage of radiation over the distance to be measured; microwaves, which penetrate atmospheric haze, are used for long distances and light or infrared radiation for short ones. In the devices used for EDM, the radiation is either light (generated by a laser or an electric lamp) or an ultrahigh-frequency radio beam. The light beam requires a clear line of sight; the radio beam can penetrate fog, haze, heavy rain, dust, sandstorms, and some foliage. Both types have a transmitter-receiver at one survey station. At the remote station the light type contains a set of corner mirrors; the high-frequency type incorporates a retransmitter (requiring an operator) identical to the transmitter-receiver at the original station. A corner mirror has the shape of the inside of a corner of a cube; it returns light toward the source from whatever angle it is received, within reasonable limits. A retransmitter must be aimed at the transmitter-receiver.

In both types of instrument, the distance is determined by the length of time it takes the radio or light beam to travel to the target and back. The elapsed time is determined by the shift in phase of a modulating signal superimposed on the carrier beam. Electronic circuitry detects this phase shift and converts it to units of time; the use of more than one modulating frequency eliminates ambiguities that could arise if only a single frequency had been employed.

EDM has greatly simplified an alternative technique, called traversing, for establishing a framework. In traversing, the surveyor measures a succession of distances and the angles between them, usually along a traveled route or a stream. Before EDM was available, traversing was used only in flat or forested areas where triangulation was impossible. Measuring all the distances by tape or chain was tedious and slow, particularly if great accuracy was required, and no check was obtainable until the traverse closed, either on itself or between two points already fixed by triangulation or by astronomical observations.

In both triangulation and traversing, the slope of each measured line must be allowed for so that the map can be reduced to the horizontal and referred to sea level. A measuring tape may be stretched along the ground or suspended between two tripods; in precise work corrections must be applied for the sag, for tension, and for temperature if these differ from the values at which the tape was standardized. In work of the highest order, known as geodetic, the errors must be kept to one millimetre in a kilometre, that is, one part in 1,000,000.