Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Annual deformation signals from homogeneously reprocessed VLBI and GPS height time series

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Geodesy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The first part of this paper compares homogeneously reprocessed Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) and Global Positioning System (GPS) long-term height series from 1994 to 2007. The data analysis used fully adapted state-of-the-art models (like VMF1 and a priori zenith delays from ECMWF) for the GPS and VLBI processing. The series are compared in terms of long-term non-linear behaviour, harmonic and mean annual signals (not necessarily of harmonic nature). The similarity between both techniques is very good (especially the mean annual signals), which is assumed to be due to the adapted models and consistent reprocessing of both series. As two almost independent observing techniques see the same annually recurring signals at almost all co-located sites, we expect a good geophysical interpretability as integral vertical deformation. For the second part of this paper, the height time series of 161 suitable GPS sites (of the same solution as before) are used to determine a harmonic and a mean annual signal for each of them. Comparing the annual signals for this big dataset visually to GRACE-determined load deformations described in other publications, we find good agreement. This puts emphasis to the assumption that our height data have a lot of potential to be interpreted as geophysical signals. Out of these 161, 131 are grouped to 55 clusters, if at least two nearby (some thousand kilometres) sites show similar mean annual signals, which are thus confirmed to be real regional deformation, not local or technical artefacts. These 55 signals are presented on a “world map” of regional average mean annual height signals, as easy-to-handle tool to validate geophysical models. The data of these measured regional mean annual signals can be downloaded from a web-page for numerical analysis.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Altamimi Z, Collilieux X, Legrand J, Garayt B, Boucher C (2007) ITRF2005: a new release of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame based on time series of station positions and Earth orientation parameters. J Geophys Res 112: B09401. doi:10.1029/2007JB004949

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Angermann D, Drewes H, Gerstl M, Meisel B, Seitz M, Thaller D (2009) GGOS-D global terrestrial reference frame. Geotechnologien book “Satellite geodesy and Earth system science—observation of the Earth from space”. Springer, Berlin (submitted)

  • Böckmann S, Nothnagel A (2008) The variance component approach in the IVS combination. In: Finkelstein A, Behrend D (eds) IVS 2008 GM proceedings, Russian science series “Nauka”, vol 208, pp 329–334

  • Boehm J, Werl B, Schuh H (2006) Troposphere mapping functions for GPS and Very Long Baseline Interferometry from European centre for medium-range weather forecasts operational analysis data. J Geophys Res 111: B02406. doi:10.1029/2005JB003629

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collilieux X, Altamimi Z, Coulot D, Ray J, Sillard P (2007) Comparison of Very Long Baseline Interferometry, GPS, and Satellite Laser Ranging height residuals from ITRF2005 using spectral and correlation methods. J Geophys Res 112: B12403. doi:10.1029/2007JB004933

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dach R, Hugentobler U, Fridez P, Meindl M (eds) (2007) Bernese GPS Software Version 5.0. Astronomical Institute, University of Bern

  • Davis JL, Elosegui P, Mitrovica JX, Tamisea ME (2004) Climate-driven deformation of the solid Earth from GRACE and GPS. Geophys Res Lett 31: L24605. doi:10.1029/2004GL021435

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ding XL, Zheng DW, Dong DN, Ma C, Chen YQ, Wang GL (2005) Seasonal and secular positional variations at eight co-located GPS and VLBI stations. J Geod 79(1–3): 71–81. doi:10.1007/s00190-005-0444-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dong D, Fang P, Bock Y, Cheng MK, Miyazaki S (2002) Anatomy of apparent seasonal variations from GPS-derived site position time series. J Geophys Res 107(B4): 2075. doi:10.1029/2001JB000573

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dow J, Neilan R, Gendt G (2005) The international GPS service: celebrating the 10th anniversary and looking to the next decade. Adv Space Res 36(3): 320–326. doi:10.1016/j.asr.2005.05.125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feissel-Vernier M, de Viron O, Bail KL (2007) Stability of VLBI, SLR, DORIS, and GPS positioning. Earth Planets Space 59(6): 475– 497

    Google Scholar 

  • Freymueller JT (2009) Seasonal position variations and regional reference frame realization. In: Bosch W, Drewes H (eds) GRF2006 symposium proceedings, International Association of Geodesy symposia, vol 134. Springer, Berlin (in press)

  • Fritsche M, Dietrich R, Knöfel C, Rothacher M, Rülke A, Vey S, Steigenberger P (2005) Impact of higher-order ionospheric terms on GPS-estimates. Geophys Res Lett 32: L23311. doi:10.1029/2005GL024342

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heinkelmann R, Boehm J, Schuh H, Tesmer V (2009) The effect of meteorological input data on the VLBI reference frames. In: Bosch W, Drewes H (eds) GRF2006 symposium proceedings, International Association of Geodesy symposia, vol 134. Springer, Berlin (in press)

  • Horwath M, Rülke A, Fritsche M, Dietrich R (2009) Mass variation signals in GRACE products and in crustal deformations from GPS: a comparison. Geotechnologien book “Satellite geodesy and Earth system science—observation of the Earth from space”. Springer, Berlin (submitted)

  • Jaldehag RTK, Johansson JM, Rönnäng BO, Elósegui P, Davis JL, Shapiro II, Niell AE (1996) Geodesy using the Swedish permanent GPS network: effects of signal scattering on estimates of relative site positions. J Geophys Res 101(8):1601–1604 doi:10.1029/96JB01183

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaniuth K, Huber S (2002) An assessment of radome effects on height estimation in the EUREF network. In: Torres JA, Hornik H (eds) EUREF publication No. 12: report on the symposium of the IAG sub-commission for Europe (EUREF) held in Ponta Delgada, 5–8 June 2002, Mitteilungen des Bundesamtes für Kartographie und Geodäsie Band 29, pp 97–102, Frankfurt am Main

  • Kaniuth K, Stuber K, Vetter S (2005) Sensitivität von GPS-Höhenbestimmungen gegen Akkumulation von Schnee auf der Antenne. AVN 112(8–9): 290–295

    Google Scholar 

  • Kouba J (2009) Testing of Global Pressure/Temperature (GPT) model and Global Mapping Function (GMF) in GPS analyses. J Geod (accepted). doi:10.1007/s00190-008-0229-6

  • MacMillan D, Boy J-P (2004) Mass loading effects on crustal displacements measured by VLBI. In: Vandenberg N, Baver K (eds) IVS 2004 GM proceedings, NASA/CP-2004-212255, pp 476– 480

  • Mangiarotti S, Cazenave A, Soudarin L, Cretaux JF (2001) Annual vertical crustal motions predicted from surface mass redistribution and observed by space geodesy. J Geophys Res 106(B3): 4277–4291. doi:10.1029/2000JB900347

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mendes PJ (2006) Tidal and non-tidal contributions to surface loading processes on station coordinates. PhD-thesis, Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics, Vienna University of Technology, Heft Nr. 76, ISSN 1811-8380

  • Niell AE (1996) Global Mapping functions for the atmosphere delay at radio wavelength. J Geophys Res 101(B2): 3227–3246. doi:10.1029/95JB03048

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Niell AE (2001) Preliminary evaluation of atmospheric mapping functions based on numerical weather models. Phys Chem Earth 26(6–8): 475–480. doi:10.1016/S1464-1895(01)00087-4

    Google Scholar 

  • Nothnagel A (2008) Short note: conventions on thermal expansion modelling of radio telescopes for geodetic and astrometric VLBI. J Geod. doi:10.1007/s00190-008-0284-z

  • Nothnagel A, Rothacher M, Angermann D, Artz T, Böckmann S, Bosch W, Drewes H, Gerstl M, Kelm R, Krügel M, König D, König R, Meisel B, Müller H, Richter B, Panafidina N, Rudenko S, Schwegmann W, Steigenberger P, Tesmer V, Thaller D (2008) GGOS-D: a German project on the integration of space geodetic techniques. In: Capitaine N (ed) “Journées 2007 systèmes de référence Spatio-Temporels” Proceedings, Observatoire de Paris, ISBN 978-2-901057-59-8, pp 167–168

  • Nothnagel A, Artz T, Böckmann S, Panafidina N, Rothacher M, Seitz M, Steigenberger P, Tesmer V, Thaller D (2009) GGOS-D consistent and combined time series of geodetic/geophysical parameters. Geotechnologien book “Satellite geodesy and Earth system science—observation of the Earth from space”. Springer, Berlin (submitted)

  • Pearlman MR, Degnan JJ, Bosworth JM (2002) The International Laser Ranging Service. Adv Space Res 30(2): 125–143. doi:10.1016/S0273-1177(02)00277-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petrov L, Boy J-P (2004) Study of the atmospheric pressure loading signals in Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations. J Geophys Res 109: B03405. doi:10.1029/2003JB002500

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petrov L, Ma C (2003) Study of harmonic site position variations determined by VLBI. J Geophys Res 108(B4): 2190. doi:10.1029/2002JB001801

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poutanen M, Jokela J, Ollikainen M, Koivula H, Bilker M, Virtanen H (2005) Scale variations of GPS time series. In: Sanso F (eds) A window on the future of geodesy, International Association of Geodesy symposia, vol 128. Springer, Berlin, pp 15–20, doi:10.1007/3-540-27432-4_3

  • Ray J, Altamimi Z, Collilieux X, van Dam T (2007) Anomalous harmonics in the spectra of GPS position estimates. GPS Solut 12(1): 55–64. doi:10.1007/s10291-007-0067-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rothacher M, Drewes H, Nothnagel A, Richter B, König D, König R, Panafidina N, Steigenberger P, Thaller D, Angermann D, Kelm R, Seitz M, Meisel B, Müller H, Tesmer V, Artz T, Böckmann S, Schwegmann W (2009) GGOS-D: homogeneous reprocessing and rigorous combination of space geodetic techniques. J Geophys Res (in preparation)

  • Rülke A, Dietrich R, Fritsche M, Rothacher M, Steigenberger P (2008) Realization of the terrestrial reference system by a reprocessed global GPS network. J Geophys Res 113: B08403. doi:10.1029/2007JB005231

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlüter W, Behrend D (2007) The international VLBI service for geodesy and astrometry (IVS): current capabilities and future prospects. J Geod 81(6–8): 379–384. doi:10.1007/s00190-006-0131-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmid R, Steigenberger P, Gendt G, Ge M, Rothacher M (2007) Generation of a consistent absolute phase center correction model for GPS receiver and satellite antennas. J Geod 81(12): 781–798. doi:10.1007/s00190-007-0148-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seitz F, Krügel M (2009) Modelling vertical site displacements due to surface loads in consideration of crustal inhomogeneities. In: Bosch W, Drewes H (eds) GRF2006 symposium proceedings, International Association of Geodesy symposia, vol 134. Springer, Berlin (in press)

  • Simmons AJ, Gibson JK (eds) (2000) The ERA-40 Project Plan. ERA-40 Project Report Series No. 1. http://www.ecmwf.int

  • Steigenberger P, Rothacher M, Dietrich R, Fritsche M, Rülke A, Vey S (2006) Reprocessing of a global GPS network. J Geophys Res 111: B05402. doi:10.1029/2005JB003747

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steigenberger P, Boehm J, Tesmer V (2009a) Comparison of GMF/GPT with VMF1/ECMWF and implications for atmospheric loading. J Geod. doi:10.1007/s00190-009-0311-8

  • Steigenberger P, Artz T, Böckmann S, Kelm R, König R, Meisel B, Müller H, Nothnagel A, Rudenko S, Tesmer V, Thaller D (2009b) GGOS-D consistent, high-accuracy technique-specific solutions. Geotechnologien book “Satellite geodesy and Earth system science—observation of the Earth from space”. Springer, Berlin (submitted)

  • Tapley BD, Bettadpur S, Watkins M, Reigber C (2004) The gravity recovery and climate experiment: mission overview and early results. Geophys Res Lett 31: L09607. doi:10.1029/2004GL019920

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tesmer V, Kutterer H, Drewes H (2004) Simultaneous estimation of a TRF, the EOP and a CRF. In: Vandenberg N, Baver K (eds) IVS 2004 GM proceedings, NASA/CP-2004-212255, pp 311–314

  • Tesmer V, Boehm J, Heinkelmann R, Schuh H (2006a) Impact of analysis options on the TRF, CRF and position time series estimated from VLBI. In: Behrend D, Baver K (eds) IVS 2006 GM proceedings, NASA/CP-2006-214140, pp 243–251

  • Tesmer V, Boehm J, Heinkelmann R, Schuh H (2006b) Effect of different tropospheric mapping functions on the TRF, CRF and position time series estimated from VLBI. In: Schuh H, Nothnagel A, Ma C (eds) J Geod 81(6–8):409–421. doi:10.1007/s00190-006-0126-9

  • Tesmer V, Boehm J, Meisel B, Rothacher M, Steigenberger P (2008) Atmospheric loading coefficients determined from homogeneously reprocessed GPS and VLBI height time series. In: Finkelstein A, Behrend D (eds) IVS 2008 GM proceedings, Russian science series “Nauka”, vol 208, pp 307–313

  • Titov O, Tesmer V, Boehm J (2004) OCCAM v.6.0 software for VLBI data analysis. In: Vandenberg N, Baver K (eds) IVS 2004 GM proceedings, NASA/CP-2004-212255, pp 267–271

  • Tregoning P, Herring TA (2006) Impact of a priori zenith hydrostatic delay errors on GPS estimates of station heights and zenith total delays. Geophys Res Lett 33: L23303. doi:10.1029/2006GL027706

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tregoning P, Morgan P, Coleman R (2004) The effect of receiver firmware upgrades on GPS vertical timeseries. Cahiers du Centre Europeen du Geodynamique et de Seismologie 23: 37–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Dam T, Wahr J, MillyP C D, Shmakin A B, Blewitt G, Lavallee D, Larson K M (2001) Crustal displacements due to continental water loading. Geophys Res Lett 28(4): 651–654. doi:10.1029/2000GL012120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Dam T, Wahr J, Lavallee D (2007) A comparison of annual vertical crustal displacements from GPS and gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) over Europe. J Geophys Res 112: B03404. doi:10.1029/2006JB004335

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vey S, Dietrich R, Fritsche M, Rülke A, Rothacher M, Steigenberger P (2006) Influence of mapping function parameters on global GPS network analyses: comparisons between NMF and IMF. Geophys Res Lett 33: L01814. doi:10.1029/2005GL024361

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. Volker Tesmer

    Present address: OHB-System AG, Universitätsallee 27-29, 28359, Bremen, Germany

  2. Markus Rothacher

    Present address: Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, ETH Zurich, HPV G52 Schafmattstr. 34, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deutsches Geodätisches Forschungsinstitut (DGFI), Alfons-Goppel-Str. 11, 80539, Munich, Germany

    Volker Tesmer & Barbara Meisel

  2. Institut für Astronomische und Physikalische Geodäsie, Technische Universität München, Arcisstr. 21, 80333, Munich, Germany

    Peter Steigenberger

  3. Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ), Telegrafenberg A 17, 14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Markus Rothacher

  4. Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics (IGG), TU Vienna, Gußhausstr. 27-29, 1040, Vienna, Austria

    Johannes Boehm

Authors
  1. Volker Tesmer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Peter Steigenberger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Markus Rothacher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Johannes Boehm
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Barbara Meisel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Volker Tesmer.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tesmer, V., Steigenberger, P., Rothacher, M. et al. Annual deformation signals from homogeneously reprocessed VLBI and GPS height time series. J Geod 83, 973–988 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-009-0316-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-009-0316-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation