Seasonal and secular positional variations at eight co-located GPS and VLBI stations

Abstract

Time series of daily position solutions at eight co-located GPS and VLBI stations are used to assess the frequency features in the solutions over various time-scales. This study shows that there are seasonal and inter-annual signals in all three coordinate components of the GPS and VLBI solutions. The power and frequency of the signals vary with time, the station considered and the coordinate components, and between the GPS and VLBI solutions. In general, the magnitudes of the signals in the horizontal coordinate components (latitude and longitude) are weaker than those in the height component. The weighted means of the estimated annual amplitudes from the eight GPS stations are, respectively, 1.0, 0.8 and 3.6 mm for the latitude, longitude and height components, and are, respectively, 1.5, 0.7 and 2.2 mm for the VLBI solutions. The phases of the annual signals estimated from the GPS and VLBI solutions are consistent for most of the co-located stations. The seasonal signals estimated from the VLBI solutions are, in general, more stable than those estimated from the GPS solutions. Fluctuations at inter-annual time-scales are also found in the series. The inter-annual fluctuations are up to ∼5 mm for the latitude and longitude components, and up to ∼10 mm for the height component. The effects of the seasonal and inter-annual variations on the estimated linear rates of movement of the stations are also evaluated.