Polar drift
2013-05-15 17:41:50.122778+02 by Dan Lyke 0 comments
Nature: Polar wander linked to climate change:
Between 1982 and 2005, the pole drifted southeast towards northern Labrador, Canada, at a rate of about 2 milliarcseconds — or roughly 6 centimetres — per year. But in 2005, the pole changed course and began galloping east towards Greenland at a rate of more than 7 milliarcseconds per year.
Two things I think are interesting here: The first is that GPS is now becoming the reference system by which earth's rotational axis is measured. The second: 6 centimeters. That's gonna get tossed in the face of the next person who claims to me that somehow more accurate location systems are the enabling technology for autonomous vehicles or local mapping.