Carol,
I have been checking your posts weekly as I see you research the topic extensively and most of which I have noted is based on personal observations. Some info I have gleaned from fellow employees and companies involved in our GPS survey software.
In 1997 my wife(common-law if you can find a difference I can't) bought a house in a moderate sized community in Norther ALberta and we both liked the fact that the bedroom(Easterly facing) was well lit in the mornings. I get up every morning at exactly the same time and am well aware of the location of shadows from the sun hitting the window frame. I did however not document these positions. Doh! Every year the sun when I woke up was always in my face until ALWAYS June 21. At that date the window sill blocks the sunlight from hitting my side of the bed. We do seasonally move the bedroom furniture to take advantage of the sunlight but since it is annoying to me June 21 is always welcome. Well months after the Sumatra earthquake struck the sun was still in my face when I woke up on June 21, 2005. You can imagine my consternation both personally and professionally. The blessed shadow returned 2 days later, that doesnt seem like much but it amounts to over a degree of axial tilt which since as of that day I have written down the date of the returning shadow(JUNE 23). I have personally polled coworkers and people in the industry and only 2 of my coworkers not only noticed but have also begun their own examinations.
In our company we have surveyors on staff who survey points for drilling of test wells or sites for environmental testing. The main equipment was purchased and is maintained from Trimble and uses both our GPS and the Russian GNSS GPS sattelites. However there are also instruments from Trimble that are based on the old style Electromic Distance Measuring (EDM) instruments based on angles and distances which are modernised with computers inside and us RF and lasers for distance measuring. The EDM's are periodically re-checked for accuracy doing a "sun-shot" where the onboard software updates and callibrates the intruments position based on the suns position in our sky at certain times and lattitudes. In 2005 Trimble and GNSS released updates to thier GPS and EDM positioning software. Upon querying Trimble Canada for the reasons of this software update the maintenance rep replied that because of the axial shift posiitions had to be updated for the instruments to maintain their millimeter accuracy. Other than my personal observations, nothing had been confirmed semi-officially until then. I had always until that moment had the nagging thought that I had been mistaken about the position of the sun. I felt better knowing I hadnt, but also alarmed. There are hints of this on the web but other than a few who have done their research but are not published nothing official has been released in the news. I cannot understand this, as this potentially affects everyone on the planet from Ethiopian cattle-herders to Arctic researchers.
I will try to put together some more information on the subject that has more facts and not info from a bedside notebook. This week I am at a Project Managers conference in Edmonton and will try to update as possible.
I have been checking your posts weekly as I see you research the topic extensively and most of which I have noted is based on personal observations. Some info I have gleaned from fellow employees and companies involved in our GPS survey software.
In 1997 my wife(common-law if you can find a difference I can't) bought a house in a moderate sized community in Norther ALberta and we both liked the fact that the bedroom(Easterly facing) was well lit in the mornings. I get up every morning at exactly the same time and am well aware of the location of shadows from the sun hitting the window frame. I did however not document these positions. Doh! Every year the sun when I woke up was always in my face until ALWAYS June 21. At that date the window sill blocks the sunlight from hitting my side of the bed. We do seasonally move the bedroom furniture to take advantage of the sunlight but since it is annoying to me June 21 is always welcome. Well months after the Sumatra earthquake struck the sun was still in my face when I woke up on June 21, 2005. You can imagine my consternation both personally and professionally. The blessed shadow returned 2 days later, that doesnt seem like much but it amounts to over a degree of axial tilt which since as of that day I have written down the date of the returning shadow(JUNE 23). I have personally polled coworkers and people in the industry and only 2 of my coworkers not only noticed but have also begun their own examinations.
In our company we have surveyors on staff who survey points for drilling of test wells or sites for environmental testing. The main equipment was purchased and is maintained from Trimble and uses both our GPS and the Russian GNSS GPS sattelites. However there are also instruments from Trimble that are based on the old style Electromic Distance Measuring (EDM) instruments based on angles and distances which are modernised with computers inside and us RF and lasers for distance measuring. The EDM's are periodically re-checked for accuracy doing a "sun-shot" where the onboard software updates and callibrates the intruments position based on the suns position in our sky at certain times and lattitudes. In 2005 Trimble and GNSS released updates to thier GPS and EDM positioning software. Upon querying Trimble Canada for the reasons of this software update the maintenance rep replied that because of the axial shift posiitions had to be updated for the instruments to maintain their millimeter accuracy. Other than my personal observations, nothing had been confirmed semi-officially until then. I had always until that moment had the nagging thought that I had been mistaken about the position of the sun. I felt better knowing I hadnt, but also alarmed. There are hints of this on the web but other than a few who have done their research but are not published nothing official has been released in the news. I cannot understand this, as this potentially affects everyone on the planet from Ethiopian cattle-herders to Arctic researchers.
I will try to put together some more information on the subject that has more facts and not info from a bedside notebook. This week I am at a Project Managers conference in Edmonton and will try to update as possible.