The survey data must be properly formatted as set forth by FGCS and meet the minimum accuracy requirements of:

• First-order horizontal accuracy standards for GPS or conventional horizontal surveys,
• Second-order, Class II vertical accuracy standards for conventional geodetic leveling, and
• Third-order gravity accuracy standards for gravity surveys.
• Surveys of lower order will be accepted only in exceptional cases approved by the Director, NGS.

Monuments must be uniquely identified and conform to prescribed standards. Guidelines for control monuments are given in "NOAA Manual NOS NGS 1 Geodetic bench marks (1978)," "Coast and Geodetic Survey Special Publication 247 (1950)," and in "Geometric Geodetic Accuracy Standards and Specifications for Using GPS Relative Positioning Techniques," appendix H (May 1988). Monument descriptions must be submitted in the automated format specified in the Blue Book.

Original field records (or acceptable copies) should be submitted with the data. NGS will retain these records in cooperation with the National Archives and Records Administration. Where digital records are required, e.g., GPS projects, such records will be submitted in a format NGS specifies at the time of submission. If field records are not submitted, NGS reserves the right to inspect these records upon request and the right to not accept and/or not publish the data. A project report, including sketches, should be submitted with the data, and it should adhere to the form outlined in Annexes K and L of the Blue Book.

Reconnaissance reports describing proposed connections to NSRS, along with the planned instrumentation and field procedures, must be submitted prior to beginning a project. This allows NGS to use information from its data base on the accuracy and condition of these points, and to assure conformance with minimum accuracy standards and criteria. This project review could save the submitting agency the expense of placing data in computer-readable form that would fail accuracy or monumentation criteria.

Submitted projects must be able to compute independent of other projects, and must be connected to points contained in the NGS data base. NGS must receive all data pertaining to a project (observations, descriptions, adjustments, reports, etc.) simultaneously. With verbal concurrence of the submitting organization, NGS will correct a limited number of errors in the data. If the errors exceed approximately 1 percent of the total data records submitted, the project will be returned to the sender.

NGS does not charge organizations submitting data according to the above requirements for quality review, archiving, and distribution. Organizations requesting NGS to provide on-site instruction with respect to data formatting and/or data processing will be charged travel and lodging costs.

Organizations also have the option of sending representatives for training at the offices of the National Geodetic Survey in Silver Spring, Maryland. This instruction may cover content of the Blue Book, creation of Blue Book files, and gfiles, vector processing with NGS software, or adjustment processing, or a combination of the above. Depending on the content and the number of attendees, the workshop can be offered as a 3-to-4-day course, with two NGS instructors, or as a 1-day tutorial with one instructor and one or two students.

For more information on the on-site instruction, contact: Renee L. Shields, NOAA, N/NGS23, 1315 East-West Highway, Station 8734, Silver Spring, MD 20910-3282, Telephone: 301-713-3198, ext. 129; Fax: 301-713-4324; E-mail: Renee Shields