A Unified Global Reference Frame of Vertical Crustal Movements by Satellite Laser Ranging

The location of the Earth’s principal axes of inertia is a foundation for all the theories and solutions of its rotation, and thus has a broad effect on many fields, including astronomy, geodesy, and satellite-based positioning and navigation systems. That location is determined by the second-degree Stokes coefficients of the geopotential. Accurate solutions for those coefficients were limited to the stationary case for many years, but the situation improved with the accomplishment of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), and nowadays several solutions for the time-varying geopotential have been derived based on gravity and satellite laser ranging data, with time resolutions reaching one month or one week. Although those solutions are already accurate enough to compute the evolution of the Earth’s axes of inertia along more than a decade, such an analysis has never been performed. In this paper, we present the first analysis of this problem, taking advantage of previous analytical derivations to simplify the computations and the estimation of the uncertainty of solutions. The results are rather striking, since the axes of inertia do not move around some mean position fixed to a given terrestrial reference frame in this period, but drift away from their initial location in a slow but clear and not negligible manner.

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Horizontal and vertical crustal movements from three-dimensional very long baseline interferometry kinematic reference frame: Implication for the reversal timescale revision

Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres ◽

10.1029/95jb02845 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 101 (B2) ◽

pp. 3187-3198 ◽

Cited By ~ 66

Author(s):

Kosuke Heki

Keyword(s):

Reference Frame ◽

Very Long Baseline Interferometry ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Crustal Movements ◽

Long Baseline ◽

Vertical Crustal Movements

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Satellite Laser Ranging Biases and Terrestrial Reference Frame Scale Factor

International Association of Geodesy Symposia - Observing our Changing Earth ◽

10.1007/978-3-540-85426-5_5 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 39-46 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

D Coulot ◽

P Berio ◽

P Bonnefond ◽

P Exertier ◽

D Féraudy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Reference Frame ◽

Terrestrial Reference Frame ◽

Scale Factor ◽

Satellite Laser Ranging ◽

Laser Ranging

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Tropospheric and range biases in Satellite Laser Ranging

Journal of Geodesy ◽

10.1007/s00190-021-01554-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 95 (9) ◽

Author(s):

Mateusz Drożdżewski ◽

Krzysztof Sośnica

Keyword(s):

Reference Frame ◽

Measurement Errors ◽

Single Photon ◽

Global Scale ◽

Satellite Laser Ranging ◽

Laser Ranging ◽

Bias Effect ◽

Distance Measurements ◽

Station Coordinates ◽

Geocenter Motion

AbstractThe Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) technique provides very accurate distance measurements to artificial Earth satellites. SLR is employed for the realization of the origin and the scale of the terrestrial reference frame. Despite the high precision, SLR observations can be affected by various systematic errors. So far, range biases were used to account for systematic measurement errors and mismodeling effects in SLR. Range biases are constant for all elevation angles and independent of the measured distance to a satellite. Recently, intensity-dependent biases for single-photon SLR detectors and offsets of barometer readings and meteorological devices were reported for some SLR stations. In this paper, we study the possibility of the direct estimation of tropospheric biases from SLR observations to LAGEOS satellites. We discuss the correlations between the station heights, range biases, tropospheric biases, and their impact on the repeatability of station coordinates, geocenter motion, and the global scale of the reference frame. We found that the solution with the estimation of tropospheric biases provides more stable station coordinates than the solution with the estimation of range biases. From the common estimation of range and tropospheric biases, we found that most of the systematic effects at SLR stations are better absorbed by elevation-dependent tropospheric biases than range biases which overestimate the total bias effect. The estimation of tropospheric biases changes the SLR-derived global scale by 0.3 mm and the geocenter coordinates by 1 mm for the Z component, causing thus an offset in the realization of the reference frame origin. Estimation of range biases introduces an offset in some SLR-derived low-degree spherical harmonics of the Earth’s gravity field. Therefore, considering elevation-dependent tropospheric and intensity biases is essential for deriving high-accuracy geodetic parameters.

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Tidal Parameters as a Tool for the Determination of the Coordinates of the SLR Stations

Artificial Satellites ◽

10.2478/arsa-2019-0010 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 54 (4) ◽

pp. 129-135

Author(s):

Marcin Jagoda ◽

Miłosáawa Rutkowska ◽

Romuald Obuchovski ◽

Czesław Suchocki ◽

Jacek Katzer

Keyword(s):

Reference Frame ◽

Earth Rotation ◽

Reference System ◽

Satellite Geodesy ◽

Satellite Laser Ranging ◽

Laser Ranging ◽

System Service ◽

International Earth Rotation

Abstract One of the primary objectives of satellite geodesy is the determination of coordinates of the satellite laser ranging (SLR) stations. This task is conducted by using laser ranging techniques. The main goal of the current study was to assess the influence of using varied values of the tidal parameters (Love h2 and Shida l2 numbers) on the determination of the positions of chosen SLR stations. The obtained results are presented for coordinates determination conducted for six SLR stations: Mt Stromlo (no. 7825, Australia), Matera (no. 7941, Italy), Grasse (no. 7845, France), McDonald (no. 7080, USA), Arequipa (no. 7403, Peru) and Beijing (no. 7249, China). The analysis covers SLR data for 2 satellites (LAGEOS1 and LAGEOS2), which were observed for 10 consecutive years (from 2008 to 2018). The analysis was performed using the ITRF2014 reference frame in two scenarios of calculations. In scenario 1, the SLR stations coordinates were calculated using the nominal values as per the International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service (IERS) standards recommendation of the Love/Shida numbers: h2 = 0.6078, l2 = 0.0847. In scenario 2, the coordinates were estimated using the harnessing values of the Love/Shida numbers (h2 = 0.6140 and l2 = 0.0876), which were proposed by authors in a previous publication. The effect of the application of different values of the Love/Shida numbers for the determination of SLR stations coordinates was scrutinized.

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