Pole (surveying)

This article is about the surveyor's tool. For the unit of length, see Rod (unit).

In surveying, a pole is bar made of wood or metal and normally held vertical, upon which different instruments can be mounted: a prism, a GPS device, etc.^[1] It may be manufactured with a predetermined length (e.g., 2 meters) or may be graduated for different heights or stages.

Surveying prism pole with instrument attached

Technology advances have introduced tilt-compensation capability into survey poles, that allow the surveyor to measure points above ground or when the pole is off-vertical. ^[2]