Results from the Third QDaedalus Astrogeodetic System Observation Campaign in the Mountainous Terrain of the Surses Region in Switzerland

Abstract

This study presents the results of an astrogeodetic survey campaign conducted in the mountainous terrain of the Surses region in Switzerland. In our third astrogeodetic campaign using the QDaedalus system, we observed new deflections of the vertical (DoV) using three astrogeodetic systems. These observations were used to validate DoV data derived from the Global Gravity Model GGMplus and the Swiss Geoid model CHGeo2004. Astrogeodetic observations were conducted at 15 benchmarks (BMs) along the astrogeodetic profile over five nights in June 2021 at elevations ranging from 1,185 to 1,800 m and a station spacing of about 1 km. This is the first time two TS60 total station-based QDaedalus systems and one zenith telescope-based COmpact DIgital Astrometric Camera (CODIAC) system were used together for an astrogeodetic observation campaign. The standard deviations (SDs) of the QDaedalus system data for each session were 0.04″–0.22″ and 0.01″–0.20″ for the N–S and E–W components, respectively, while the SDs of the CODIAC system for each session were 0.02″ for both components. These high quality data were compared to DoV data derived from GGMplus and CHGeo2004. The N–S components from GGMplus exhibited large residuals ranging from −2.31″ to 1.75″, while the E–W component residuals are from −0.27″ to 1.80″. The residuals from CHGeo2004 range from −0.60 to 1.21 for the N–S components and −1.01 to 0.32 for the E–W components. These results show that the derived DoV data from CHGeo2004 are closer to the observed DoV and more accurate than the global GGMplus model that does not incorporate local gravity field data. The first and second astrogeodetic observation campaigns were conducted in the coastal terrain of Istanbul, Turkey and in the flat terrain in the Munich region, Germany, respectively. In this study, we provide an overall comparison of these previous results to the GGMplus residuals. Our latest results show that the GGMplus model is of higher quality in the Surses mountainous terrain than in the coastal terrain of Istanbul, while it is of lower quality than in the flat terrain of the Munich region.