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18 Jun 2020 - Technology - GIM Suite, Company & Industry News

GIM Suite supports latest datum in Australia

acQuire’s geological data management software, GIM Suite, now supports the most up-to-date datum in Australia – the Geocentric Datum of Australia (GDA2020).

The new datum is the result of the Australian Government committing to providing 10cm (or better) accurate positioning in Australia. This is a big improvement from the previous 5-10m of accuracy achieved using GPS enabled devices.

GDA2020 is a static datum, like the previous GDA94 adopted in 2000. This means the coordinates of major features like roads, buildings and property boundaries don’t change with time. The GDA2020 upgrade ensures spatial data is more closely aligned to positions observed using GPS.

There are two main reasons behind the Australian’s government upgrade to GDA2020:

1)  Australia’s tectonic plate, which is also the Earth’s fastest moving continental plate, has shifted, and

2) positioning technology has evolved considerably with precise satellite positioning now at our fingertips.

This year Australia will have moved 1.8 metres northeast of where it once was in 1994 and we’ll start to notice discrepancies with GDA-94 mapped features. The updates allow people to enjoy the benefits of 21st century positioning technology.

acQuire’s Australian customers, who have upgraded to the latest patch release, GIM Suite 4.2.1, can now transform their old GDA94 datum coordinates to GDA2020 and store them in their geological database. This means customers know they are using the most up-to-date datum and can be reassured they are reporting mining activities and coordinates accurately to regulatory bodies.

acQuire’s latest software release is available to download now.

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