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Georeferencing Information for SAR Responders

General Information

Federal Geographic Data Committee
The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) is an interagency committee that promotes the coordinated development, use, sharing, and dissemination of geospatial data on a national basis.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction , CJCSI 3900.01C, 30Jun07
This instruction establishes policy in the use of position reference procedures for unilateral and joint operations of the US Armed Forces and for multinational operations with the military forces of allied nations.
NSARC Catastrophic Incident SAR Georeferencing Matrix
In 2007, the National SAR Committee's (NSARC) Task Force to rewrite the National SAR Supplement formed another group and created a Georeferencing Matrix to be used by NSARC member agencies during an interagency response to a declared Catastrophic Incident.

Geo-referencing for SAR Responders in Catastrophic Incidents: New!
Presented at: National Association for Search and Rescue Annual Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas
Date: May 2009
Given By: Rick Button, Secretary, National SAR Committee

Catastrophic Incident SAR Addendum 2.0 - Geo-Referencing section

United States National Grid (USNG)

The U.S. National Grid (USNG) System is an alpha-numeric reference system that overlays the UTM coordinate system. It is a Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) standard developed to improve public safety, commerce, as well as aid the casual GPS user.
[Link to USNG information page]

Global Area Reference System (GARS)

GARS is an administrative measure used to rapidly and clearly define geographical locations for battle-space coordination, deconfliction and synchronization as well as for large-area search-and-rescue efforts. GARS is global in scope, providing a common language between the services/combatant commands and simplifying communications.

National Geospacial Intelligence Agency Global Area Reference System (GARS) Brief
GARS Examples (a PowerPoint presentation)
Pathfinder Article: "NGA Introduces Global Area Reference System"

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Last Modified 7/24/2009