Continuously Operating GPS Reference Station Networks: New Algorithms and Applications of Carrier Phase-Based, Medium-Range, Static and Kinematic Positioning

Abstract

Continuously operating GPS networks have been used for many years to address two types of positioning applications. The first, perhaps best known application, is in relation to geodetic objectives such as the determination of crustal motion on a variety of spatial scales — from the measurement of the broad kinematics of tectonic plates to deformation monitoring of local areas undergoing subsidence (e.g. due to fluid extraction and underground mining), surface inflation (e.g. due to magma intrusion under volcano domes), or the complex faulting in seismically active zones. Currently, permanent GPS stations around the world which have been established to address such geodetic applications number well over a thousand. Hundreds of these stations are now formally part of the global network organised under the auspices of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) as the well-known International GPS Service (IGS).