Short note: Traverse computation on the ellipsoid instead of on the map plane

Abstract

This short note describes an approach to compute coordinates from a survey traverse (properly reduced to the ellipsoid) without the need for tedious iterative computations via the map grid. A numerical example of a -160 km traverse is used to illustrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed approach. This shows a 67 % improvement in efficiency for the user, and the final coordinates agree to within 2 mm in easting and 3 mm in northing with those computed using the map-grid-based approach.