1. Static GNSS
Vince Cronin (Baylor University) & Shelley Olds (UNAVCO)
Revisions by Beth Pratt-Sitaula (UNAVCO) and Benjamin Crosby (ISU)
Version June 8, 2017
2. Motivations for this lecture
1. Distinguish static GNSS techniques from others
2. Distinguish static GNSS products from others
3. Outline societal benefits
(Image: Ben Crosby)
3. • Long-duration occupations over well-monumented
marks
Permanent stations are fixed using deep anchors and run
continuously
Campaign stations are revisited infrequently (~1/year) and
occupied for 8 to 48 hours
• Data is always differentially corrected in post-
processing using data from other nearby GNSS stations
Low Precision: OPUS
High Precision: GAMIT, GLOBK, and TRACK
• Highest quality antennas and receivers
Static GNSS techniques
4. Static GNSS stations
• > 20,000 static stations with more added all the time
• Some data freely available, some not
• GNSS = Global Navigation Satellite System
https://www.unavco.org/science/snapshots/solid-earth/2015/kreemer.html
5. Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO)
PBO involves installation, operation, and maintenance
of >1100 continuously operating high-precision GPS
stations (plus >170 other instruments: strainmeters,
borehole seismometers, and tiltmeters)
http://www.unavco.org/instrumentation/networks/status/pbo
6. What is possible with static
GNSS products?
• Spatial positions within a few millimeters.
Requires intensive, high-precision processing
• Thus . . . can track very small changes
Plate motions
Deformation due to hydrology
Snow or reservoir loading
Groundwater withdraw
Deformation due to volcanic activity
Pre-eruption doming
Caldera collapse
Earthquake motions
Slow slip and coseismic deformation
7. Two PBO stations in
California
• Twenty-nine
Palms,(BEMT)
• Mission Viejo (SBCC)
Where is that chunk of crust
going?
• Example: using GPS velocities to understand
plate motions
9. • From the changing
position, velocity can be
calculated using slope
(rise-over-run)
http://www.unavco.org/instrumentation/netwo
rks/status/pbo/overview/SBCC
GPS time-series data
19 years
510 mm
north
26.8 mm/yr
475 mm
west
25.0 mm/yr
~0.4 mm/yr
~8 mm down
10. 19 years
510 mm
north
26.8 mm/yr
475 mm
west
25.0 mm/yr
~0.4 mm/yr
~8 mm down
PBO also supplies “detrended” data with the average velocity subtracted out to
observe other phenomena. In that case official velocity is given.
Detrended GPS time data
11. What is a site’s 3D speed?
Using the Pythagorean Theorem (high school math...),
Speed = (27.8)2 + (25.7)2 + (1.3)2 = 37.9 mm/yr
12. Using the horizontal components of velocity,
and a bit of high school trigonometry…
What compass direction is
the site moving?
42.8°west of north
or
317.2°azimuth
θ = tan-1(25.7/27.8) = 42.8°
θ
27.8 mm/yr
25.7 mm/yr
North
West
16. Reference Frames
All velocities are
RELATIVE to a given
reference frame
• Velocities
compared to
International
Terrestrial
Reference Frame
2008 (IGS08 is GPS
reference frame
name)
• Hot spot
constellation as
“stable”
17. Reference frames
All velocities are
RELATIVE to a given
reference frame
• Velocities
compared to stable
North America
(called NAM08
reference frame)
• Eastern North
America as “stable”
18. Societal benefits
• Static GNSS data are used in a wide variety of surface
deformation applications.
• Some are directly supporting human needs
Tracking hazardous features such as landslides, faults, or
volcanos
Tracking changes in water resources
• Some are indirectly providing insight into the way the
earth works
Plate motions
Discovering new faults
• Some static, continuous sites are used for corrections
to other GNSS data, aiding industry.
19. Societal value of
GNSS-enabled research
• Most people use it for location and navigation,
but how do earth scientists use GNSS?
Think-Pair-Share discussion
How do earth scientists use GNSS?
List as many applications as you can.
How do these uses benefit society?
Categorize each as a direct or indirect benefit.
– Direct benefits are immediate and improve lives
– Indirect benefits help humans, but are a few steps removed
20. Societal value of
GNSS-enabled research
• Most people use it for location and navigation,
but how do Earth Scientists use GNSS?
How do earth scientists use GNSS?
(type student applications here)
How do these uses benefit society?
Direct
– (type student benefits here)
Indirect
– (type student benefits here)
Editor's Notes
This slideshow goes over the basics of how the global positioning system (GPS) works. GPS is the USA-based component of the GNSS (global navigation satellite system), which includes many more satellites than just the ones in orbit by the USA.
Questions or comments please contact or education AT unavco.org
Images: UNAVCO (http://www.unavco.org/projects/major-projects/pbo/pbo.html) and Crosby.
GNSS refers to the entire global network using this basic type of technology (global navigation satellite system)
Technically, GPS, is the USA system and only refers to the satellites within our country purview, but GNSS is not yet as well recognized a term as GPS.
Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) is a major component of the large geophysics initiative EarthScope. It is run by UNAVCO, a nonprofit university-governed consortium dedicated to providing geodetic support to the research and educational communities. The PBO GPS stations are located throughout the United States, territories, and a few other places around the world, but the highest concentration of stations is in the actively deforming western USA and southern Alaska. PBO is the biggest GPS network in the USA and one of the biggest (if not the biggest) in the world.
All data from PBO (raw and processed) is freely available through a variety of data portals maintained by UNAVCO (http://www.unavco.org/data/data.html, see GPS/GNSS). It is generally the easiest GPS data to get started using, especially with students.
Southern California has numerous PBO stations, but let’s look at just two stations to see what we can learn from different velocities.
Background image from Google Maps.
Labels from UNAVCO http://www.unavco.org/education/resources/data-for-educators/data-for-educators.html
A variety of data products are available for each PBO station (http://www.unavco.org/instrumentation/networks/status/pbo/gps), but the most basic processed data is the station position over time = “time series.” The position is broken into the three orthogonal directions and set to an arbitrary zero datum. The most common reference frame for PBO data is North American 2008 (NAM08) reference grame, which assumes that the eastern North America is not moving and all the motion in western North America is shown relative to this fixed stable east. For more on reference frames: https://www.unavco.org/software/visualization/GPS-Velocity-Viewer/GPS-Velocity-Viewer-frames.html
Vertical data are always much less accurate because of the angle to the satellite (if we could only put satellites below the surface of the Earth, vertical accuracy would improve).
Note that the velocity calculated by PBO from all the data points is quite similar to what we determined here in a back-of-envelope visual calculation.
Background image from Google Maps.
Labels from UNAVCO http://www.unavco.org/education/resources/data-for-educators/data-for-educators.html
Ask your students to think about WHY there might be this great different in velocity between two nearby stations?
The San Andreas Fault lies between these two stations so of course SBCC is moving much more quickly than BEMT
Compared to plate motions, hot spots are much more fixed, so a global reference frame has been defined in comparison to that hot spot constellation.
Image from UNAVCO
More useful for most typical applications is to consider a local reference frame, where movement in a deforming plate boundary is compared to the more stable, less-deforming region.
Image from UNAVCO
For more on reference frames see:
https://www.unavco.org/software/visualization/GPS-Velocity-Viewer/GPS-Velocity-Viewer-frames.html
GPS depends on extremely accurate time-keeping, so the very best clocks must be used.