Simultaneous determination of Earth orientation parameters and station coordinates from combination of results of different observation techniques

Abstract

Described is a method for non-regular combination of different techniques, where the normal equations matrix cannot be restored, to obtain a representative set of Earth orientation parameters and station coordinates. The method is based on combining station position vectors transformed to the celestial reference frame, where they are functions of both the EOP and the station coordinates. Three types of constraints are applied to stabilize the system, separate celestial pole offset from polar motion and, to tie the EOP between individual epochs. VLBI, GPS, SLR and Doris data as collected for the ‘IERS SINEX Combination Campaign’ was used to check the method. After combination, dispersion of station coordinates decreased from 0.040 to 0.031 m. The effect of the combination on EOP is of the order of 0.2 mas and it can be seen in Figs. 3 and 4 as a difference of the final and a priori values.