The Implication of Significant Number in Geodetic Computations: Geometric Geoid Model of FCT Abuja as a Case Study

Abstract

The position occupied by the geoid in the computation of orthometric height (H) from GNSS observations is crucial and hence requires the geoid model parameters obtained with the application of least squares technique, be approximated to a reasonable number of significant figures in its (geoid) modelling to enable a high-resolution geometric geoid, be determined. As a result, this study presents the implication of significant number in geodetic computations using geometric geoid model of FCT, Abuja as a case study. The number of significant figures of the model parameters was varied, starting from 6 to 22 significant figures to enable the Root Mean Square Errors (RMSEs), as well as the accuracy of the model, be obtained at the varied numbers of significant figures. The obtained results show that the highest accuracy of the model is obtained if the model parameters are approximated to a reasonable number of significant figures.

Keywords: geometric, geoid, height, significant, figure, geodetic, computation, modelling

DOI: 10.7176/JSTR/6-08-09