Abstract
Over the years, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have been established in the geosciences as a tool that determines the positions of discrete points (stations) on the Earth’s surface, on global to local spatial scales in a very simple and economical manner. Coordinates obtained by space geodetic measurements ought to be processed, adjusted, and propagated in a given reference frame. As points on the Earth’s surface do not have a fixed position, but rather, are moving with associated velocities, it is inevitable to include those velocities in the coordinate transformation procedure. Station velocities can be obtained from kinematic models of tectonic plate motions. The development and realization of an all-in-one standalone desktop application is presented in this paper. The application unifies coordinate transformation between different realizations (reference frames) of the International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS) and European Terrestrial Reference System 1989 (ETRS89) following European Reference Frame Technical Note (EUREF TN) recommendations with temporal shifts of discrete points on the Earth’s surface caused by plate tectonics by integrating no-net rotation (NNR) kinematic models of the Eurasian tectonic plate.
Highlights
The Earth is an unsteady planet that constantly changes due to the influence of diverse dynamic processes that are happening in the Earth’s interior, at its surface, and in its atmosphere. Triggers for these dynamic processes are major internal and external forces that act upon our planet
An all-in-one solution implies the possibility of temporal coordinate transformations which existing programs and services do not offer
Station velocities are computed with the use of no-net rotation (NNR) kinematic models of the Eurasian tectonic plate, which are already implemented in the transformation model
Summary
The Earth is an unsteady planet that constantly changes due to the influence of diverse dynamic processes that are happening in the Earth’s interior, at its surface, and in its atmosphere. The TranSAB application enables coordinate transformation between different realizations of the International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS) and European Terrestrial Reference System 1989 (ETRS89) published up till What makes this application original is the possibility to compute station velocities due to annual coordinate shifts caused by plate tectonics. Station velocities are obtained from appropriate kinematic models of the Eurasian tectonic plate and original kinematic models of the Adriatic microplate (which is part of the Eurasian plate and deployed by our own research [8,9,10]) In addition to their calculations, the user has the option to transform velocities in an a priori defined reference frame. The “three pillars” of geodesy, as shown, refer to Earth’s time-dependent geometric shape, time-dependent gravitational field, and rotation [15] They represent a conceptual and observational basis for the reference frames essential and inevitable for observation of the Earth. These three pillars are mutually attached and intertwine as they provide divergent observations related to the same Earth processes [3]
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