Assessment of geocenter motion estimates from the IGS second reprocessing

Abstract

We investigate geocenter motion time series derived from the combined solutions and six individual analysis center (AC) solutions of the International GNSS Service (IGS) second reprocessing campaign using the network shift approach, in terms of noise content, long-term trends, periodic and aperiodic variations. We assess these GNSS geocenter motion estimates by comparison with independent estimates from satellite laser ranging (SLR). The GNSS geocenter time series exhibit correlated noise which is better represented by a white plus power–law noise model in the X and Y directions, and by a white plus first-order autoregressive (or generalized Gauss–Markov) noise model in the Z direction. The GNSS geocenter time series include expected seasonal variations, but also spurious draconitic signals, particularly in the Z direction. GNSS annual geocenter motion estimates are in reasonable agreement with SLR estimates in the X and Y directions. In the Z direction, however, the annual signals derived from the IGS solutions disagree with SLR estimates, except for three particular ACs. This suggests that the different orbit modeling strategies used by these ACs may constitute an improvement over the conventional strategy employed by the other ACs. The background noise in GNSS and SLR geocenter time series finally appears to be correlated, suggesting that it might partly reflect real, aperiodic geocenter motion.