Evaluation of the NAVD 88 Using Aerogravity and Lidar Data in the Gulf of Mexico


	1)This was a joint NOAA-NRL-NASA effort designed to satisfy a number of institutional needs.
	2) I’d like to thank my co-authors and their support staffs for all their hard work on this.
	3) What I’m covering today represents the results from the first of three studies to be covered in the next few years. This is still a work in progress and will serve as an update on our progress.
	4) It has been funded by the National Ocean Service’s Partnership Proposal program in an effort to refine the gravimetric geoid model in littoral regions and to better understand the nature of the errors associated with the North American Vertical Datum of 1988.
	5) NAVD 88 is the official U.S. vertical datum from which all heights on topographic charts are measured.
	6) Meter-level biases and trends are thought to exist within NAVD 88 – bringing into question its utility for emergency and coastal management.