ITRF Densification in Cyprus

Abstract

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to present the results from the GNSS-based densification of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) in the region of Cyprus. The regional network used for this task consists of nine permanent GNSS Cypriot stations (eight stations of the existing CYPOS network plus the NICO station which belongs to the global IGS network) and 34 additional stations of the EUREF Permanent GNSS Network (EPN) which are mostly located in the continental part of Europe. The data used in this densification project include daily GNSS observations at the above stations within a period of 62 months (30/11/2011–28/01/2017). The present study was carried out using the resources of the CyCLOPS strategic research infrastructure unit. A robust procedure was designed for the daily data processing using the Bernese GNSS software v5.2 installed in the CyCLOPS operating center. The multi-year solution is computed by combining the constraint-free daily solutions using the normal equations stacking strategy. The reference frame of the multi-year solution is IGb08 and it was enforced through a no-net-translation condition on the positions and velocities of 24 EPN (Class A) stations. The quality of the computed solution is verified by comparing the estimated velocities with their official EPN_A_IGb08_C1934 values, and reveals minimal differences (<1 mm/year) in all EPN stations for both horizontal and up components.