[Qgis-user] Re: off topic, wgs 84 datum

[Gerry Creager]

mtnbiketrail at zzz.com wrote:
> this wiki entry says wgs 84 is to become obsolete??
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGS84#cite_note-0

At the risk of humor, datums are ephemeral. However, NAD83, and for that 
matter, NAD27 and Pulkovo 1942, are still with us. Periodic adjustments 
may, or may not, result in renaming the datum in some way. For instance, 
NAD83 was updated and adjusted once every 4 years until computational 
and data management systems allowed it to be updated much more 
frequently and less painfully. Now, the adjustment is annual, by 
unnoticed by most users. Similarly, WGS84 has been adjusted annually. At 
some point a new objective survey of control will be called for and a 
new datum will be created. I don't anticipate a big change in our usage, 
though.

-- 
Gerry Creager -- gerry.creager at tamu.edu
Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University
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