Analysis of 1993–1995 Borowiec SLR data: Station positioning and range bias computation

Abstract

The Borowiec station takes part in international geodetic and geodynamics research programmes such as IERS, WEGENER, IGS, BSL, EUREF etc. The main purpose of this activity is the establishment of a well-defined reference point within Poland, which may be used to connect local geodetic networks to the global network. This is only possible by virtue of the fact that Borowiec is equipped with modern measurement facilities: a third generation SLR system and a new GPS receiver. This paper briefly describes the computation of four station coordinate solutions, based on SLR data. The solutions 1 and 2 are computed at the Space Research Centre in Warsaw using tracking data from the satellite Lageos-1 only over five periods (August–December 1993, January–February 1994, July–November 1994, January–February 1995 and May–July 1995) produced by 17 “good” stations (given in section 2). The solutions 3 and 4 are computed at Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, using tracking data from both Lageos-1 and Lageos-2 produced by 56 stations covering the period 1993–1995 entirely. The solutions 2 and 4 consider the estimation of range biases simultaneously with the station position for Borowiec only and for all stations, respectively. The solution of the range bias amounts to approximately −30mm on average, which has an effect of about 20mm on the solution for the station position. The position solutions computed in Warsaw and Delft are consistent to about 20mm.