PLOTTING SURVEYING DATA IN GOOGLE EARTH

D M STILLMAN
Abstract
Detail surveys measured with a total station use local coordinate systems. To make
the data obtained from such surveys compatible with Google Earth, a virtual globe
that uses global coordinate system WGS84, a geodetic transformation is required.
The paper discusses the different coordinate systems used within Great Britain and
those used by Google Earth. The paper goes on to describe the computer program
developed to generate KML documents from surveying data, so that it can be
visualised within Google Earth. It also describes accuracy tests carried out to assess
the accuracy of the aerial imagery used within Google Earth as well as the accuracy
of the Helmert transformation used by the program.
Introduction
Google Earth is a free computer program which uses a virtual globe to map the Earth
using superimposed satellite and aerial imagery. Since Google Earth produces
imagery which represents the whole world, it uses global GPS coordinate system
WGS84. There are many tools which currently exist for viewing GPS data within
Google Earth. However, prior to this project there was no way of easily converting
data obtained from land surveying, using local coordinate system OSGB36, for
visualisation within Google Earth. Doing so will allow the surveyor to view their data
in relation to the imagery and terrain and will also enable the surveyor to quickly
check that all necessary data has been captured.

Background
There are four main areas that need to be considered, they are land surveying,
coordinate systems, conversions and geodetic transformations, and Google Earth.
Land Surveying
Total stations measure horizontal angles, vertical angles and distances from a single
set up. Detail Surveys use total stations to measure all of the detail from a control
framework required to produce a plan or map. Once a control framework is set up,
the total station can be set up at a control station and detail can be measured by
setting a prism on a detail point. Once all of the detail has been measured, the raw
data file from the total station can be reformatted into the more readable and
standard form of a field file. This can be done using software such as LISCAD
(2009). The field file can then be edited to insert information about the control
stations the detail points were measured from. This new file is called an edited field
file, and can be used to find the coordinates of all of the detail points.
Coordinate Systems
The coordinate system traditionally used in Great Britain is OSGB36 (Ordnance
Survey Great Britain 1936), a two-dimensional ellipsoidal coordinate system based
on the Airy 1830 ellipsoid. The Airy 1830 ellipsoid is a simplified shape of the Earth
chosen as it fits the Earth particularly well for the region. The Transverse Mercator
Plotting Surveying Data in Google Earth

map projection is commonly used with OSGB36 to give coordinates in Eastings and
Northings instead of latitude and longitude. Heights used in Great Britain are based
on the Ordnance Datum Newlyn (ODN). This is a one-dimensional coordinate
system. The heights are geoid heights heights relative to mean sea level, which is
a tide-gauge in Newlyn.
Google Earth uses GPS coordinate system WGS84 (World Geodetic System 1984)
for latitude and longitude, and Geoid model EGM96 (Earth Gravitational Model 1996)
for heights. WGS84 is a coordinate system based on the GRS80 (Geodetic
Reference System 1980) ellipsoid, an ellipsoid which fits the whole Earth the best.
Coordinate systems can be known as datums or Terrestrial Reference Systems
(TRSs) when they have been fixed to the Earth by a datum definition. Terrestrial
Reference Frames (TRFs) are set up to realise the datums so that they can be used
in the real world. For example, OSGB36 traditionally used trig pillars on hill tops as
points of known coordinates, enabling new points to be derived by measuring from
the pillars.
Conversions and Geodetic Transformations
Coordinate conversions are different to transformations in that they do not involve a
change of datum (Iliffe and Lott, 2008). Examples of conversions are going from
ellipsoidal coordinates to Cartesian coordinates, or to map coordinates using a
projection. The parameter values for the conversion are defined and as such they do
not lose accuracy and are reversible to get the same answer. Transformations on the
other hand are used to transform coordinates between different datum realisations
and will be affected by the surveying imperfections of both coordinate reference
systems.
Two ellipsoidal datums can differ in position of the origin of coordinates, in the
orientation of coordinate axes, and in the ellipsoid size and shape. The ellipsoid size
and shape can be eliminated most simply by converting to three-dimensional
Cartesian coordinates. A Helmert datum transformation can be applied to a TRF to
rotate the Cartesian axes, translate the origin and alter the scale. The Helmert datum
transformation does not take into account regional distortions in the TRFs, and as
such using it to transform between OSGB36 and WGS84 can give errors of up to 4m
(Ordnance Survey, 2007). Local transformation parameters can be used for a more
accurate Helmert transformation. The Ordnance Survey has developed a more
complicated transformation known as OSTN02 which takes into account the variable
localised distortion. The OSTN02 transformation consists of grid translation vectors
which cover the country at a 1km resolution. Bi-linear interpolation is used on the
grid of translation vectors to calculate a shift corresponding to the local distortion.
Google Earth
Google Earth (2009) is a virtual globe, map and geographic information program. It is
a freely available program that superimposes imagery obtained from satellite and
aerial photographs onto a 3D model of the world.
The users geographic data can be represented easily on Google Earth through the
use of Keyhole Markup Language (KML) documents. These documents can be used
to show points, paths, polygons and ground overlays.
Plotting Surveying Data in Google Earth

The vertical aerial photographs used in Google Earth have been georeferenced to
align with the coordinate system. The process of georeferencing involves identifying
ground control points in the image for which accurate coordinates are available. A
transformation is then calculated by computer software which processes the image
so that it aligns to the ground coordinate system (Wolf and Dewitt, 2000). Mosaics
are used to stitch many aerial photographs together. Controlled mosaics use rectified
photos so that all of the photos are vertical and at the same scale. In mosaic
assembly, image positions of common features in adjacent photos are matched as
closely as possible. A plot of control points is used to match and constrain positions,
similar to the technique used in georeferencing. Uncontrolled mosaics simply match
the image details of adjacent photos without using the ground control, which is
quicker but less accurate in terms of the coordinate reference system.
Semicontrolled mosaics have either no ground control or use photos that have not
been rectified.

Computer Programming
The computer program was developed using Java, a modern object-oriented
programming language. Java is portable, meaning programs developed with the
Java programming language can be run on anything that supports the Java platform.
Java is supported by all major PC operating systems, as well as many web
browsers, mobile internet devices and mobile phones (Flanagan, 2005).
The open-source integrated programming environment Eclipse (2009) was used for
the development of the program.
The program, named Google Earth Plotter, was chosen to use an approximate
Helmert datum transformation. The steps required to change a set of land surveying
coordinates (OSGB36 Easting and Northing and ODN height) to Google Earth
coordinates (WGS84 latitude and longitude and EGM96 height) are as follows:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)

Convert grid Eastings and Northings to ellipsoidal latitude and longitude using
map projection formulae;
Convert ellipsoidal latitude, longitude and height to 3D Cartesian coordinates;
Use the Helmert datum transformation to transform between OSGB36 and
WGS84 TRFs;
Convert 3D Cartesian coordinates back to ellipsoidal latitude, longitude and
height;
Discard WGS84 ellipsoid height. Use approximate Geoid height found by
adding the EGM96-ODN height difference (0.8m) to ODN height.

The computer program has three main functions. The first is to plot a single point,
entered directly into the user interface by the user. The second function plots
multiple points from a file, and the third plots an edited field file. All of the functions
use the input data to create a KML file which includes the new WGS84 coordinates
and formatting details. Google Earth uses the KML files to superimpose the data on
top of its aerial imagery.
Figure 1 shows the interface of the program for plotting a point and for plotting field
data. Figure 2 shows field data plotted on Google Earth.
Plotting Surveying Data in Google Earth

Figure 1. The Point and Field Data tabs of Google Earth Plotter

Figure 2. KML representing field data collected during the surveying field course at
Loughbrough University

Plotting Surveying Data in Google Earth

To plot field data, the computer program has to convert detail points into coordinates
using the horizontal angles, vertical angles and slope distances in the edited field
file. Then the coordinates are transformed using the steps above. The control
stations are plotted as triangles, with a thick white path joining the stations of the
control framework (Figure 2). The control stations are coloured differently. The detail
points are plotted as circles, with their colour corresponding to the control station
they were measured from. The point IDs can also be shown as labels for the points.
The user can specify the visibility of the labels with the program. They can be shown
always, only when highlighted by the cursor, or not at all. The user also has the
option to join consecutive points. This creates paths between points which have
consecutive point IDs. The paths are coloured according to the control station used
to measure the points. The paths are useful to view the order in which the points
were measured. This can be useful to see what the points represent. For example,
when points are measured along the side of a road, the path will represent the edge
of the road. This gives the KML a more map-like quality.
The user interface (Figure 1) also contains text boxes for the inputs of positional
corrections. These corrections are used to align the KML with the Google Earth
imagery. The corrections, in the form of East, North and vertical corrections, are
simply added to the OSGB36 coordinates before the transformation is calculated.
The user can find out the corrections required to align the KML with the imagery by
measuring uncorrected KML with the Google Earth ruler tool.

Accuracy Tests
The accuracy tests made use of the Ordnance Surveys published coordinates for
the passive stations of the National GPS Network. The coordinates are given in
OSGB36 and WGS84. The stations used were pillars, as they can be located in the
Google Earth imagery. The computer program was used to generate KML from the
OSGB36 coordinates. The true WGS84 coordinates and the coordinates of the
stations in the Google Earth imagery were added to the KML. This allowed the three
different coordinate types to be compared. The Google Earth ruler tool was used to
find the distance between the true (published) coordinates of the stations and the
coordinates from the Helmert transformation and Google Earth imagery. The results
of the accuracy tests are shown in Table 1. The averages are based on a sample of
17 passive stations. Two of the 17 stations were unable to be located in the imagery
due to poor resolution.

Distance Between
Average
Standard Deviation

Published and
Imagery (m)
2.7
1.3

Published and
Helmert (m)
2.1
0.8

Imagery and
Helmert (m)
1.3
1.3

Table 1. Results of accuracy tests

Plotting Surveying Data in Google Earth

Conclusions
The program can quickly and easily plot survey data on Google Earth. The positional
corrections used are only approximate as they do not take into account a rotation or
scale error. But they have been highly effective in aligning the KML with the imagery.
The accuracy tests show that the Helmert transformation used by the program is on
average 1.3m horizontally from the position in the imagery. The true published
values of the passive stations were even further from the imagery. This is an error of
position in the Google Earth imagery. The accuracy of the aerial imagery depends on
how well-aligned it is to the coordinate system used by Googles model of the Earth.
The alignment accuracy depends upon how much time and effort has gone into
georeferencing the vertical photographs, and the preparation of the digital mosaics.
The Helmert transformation was found to be 2.1m from the published values. The
use of OSTN02 would eliminate this error, however, it can be seen that this will not
help the KML align with the imagery.
The program can be used by a surveyor to create a KML document for data that has
been measured in the field. This can be used as a quick check to verify the captured
data, using the imagery to identify any missed areas. The surveyor can also forward
the KML by email to show the client the work that has been undertaken.

Recommendations for Use

The edited field file needs to be formatted in a specific way for best results. There
must not be any blank lines, and IDs of detail points should be numerical only. This
allows the program to plot lines between consecutive detail points.

Download
The program can be downloaded at: http://code.google.com/p/google-earth-plotter/

References
Eclipse, 2009. About the Eclipse Foundation. <http://www.eclipse.org/org/>,
[accessed 23/04/2009].
Flanagan, D., 2005. Java in a Nutshell. 5th ed., Sebastopol: O'Reilly.
Google Earth, 2009. Google Earth. <http://earth.google.com/tour.html>, [accessed
04/05/09].
Liscad,
2009.
LISCAD
Surveying
&
<http://www.liscad.com/liscad/>, [accessed 25/04/2009]

Engineering

Software.

Ordnance Survey, 2007. A guide to coordinate systems in Great Britain,

Southampton: Ordnance Survey of Great Britain.
Available at: http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/
Wolf, P.R. and Dewitt, B.A., 2000. Elements of Photogrammetry: with Applications in
GIS. 3rd ed., Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Plotting Surveying Data in Google Earth