Estimation of Crustal Motions at the Permanent GPS Station SVEA, Antarctica from 2005 to 2009

Abstract

Estimation of Crustal Motions at the Permanent GPS Station SVEA, Antarctica from 2005 to 2009 In November 2004 the permanent GPS station SVEA (Latitude: 74°34' 34" S, Longitude: 11° 13' 31" W, Height 1261.2 m) was installed in Drottning Maud's Land, Antarctica. The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the collected data for on-going crustal motions. About 40% ("3-days weekly") of the continuous four years GPS data from 2005 to 2009 was processed together with the simultaneous data of five IGS reference stations using Bernese GPS software V 5.0. A linear regression analysis was used to estimate the linear motion of the station, yielding the estimated velocities' components (in mm/year) of 6.6± 0.4 North, -1.4 ± 0.2 East and 4.4 ± 0.6 Up. Although all components appear highly significant, the abnormal development of the E-W component needs further analyses. Post-glacial rebound is estimated to contribute only to 0.2-0.3 mm/yr (James and Ivin, 1998) of the vertical uplift rate, suggesting that the observed vertical motion mainly has another origin, possibly tectonic. The crustal motion results should be regarded as preliminary, and they need both further data and analyses to be confirmed. It is also concluded that the remote continuously running GPS station SVEA works well after more than five years of operation with only annual checks and data retrieval in the harsh environment of Antarctica.