The MOBLAS-6 Satellite Laser Ranging station at Hartebeesthoek, South Africa; Technology and data applications

Abstract

The MOBLAS-6 Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) station located at HartRAO has been operational since 2000. Data from this station is stored at a global data centre (Crustal Dynamics Data Information System, CDDIS) and are used with data from the global SLR network to determine Earth Orientation Parameters (EOPs), provide tracking data for precise satellite orbit determination and to provide highly accurate station coordinates in the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). SLR data can also be used for a multitude of other applications such as evaluation of parameterized post-Newtonian parameters in order to test General Relativity. The positional information is used in a collocation sense to constrain the global ITRF solutions. Projects such as the African Geodetic Reference Frame (AFREF) which has as objective an unified reference frame for Africa, are supported as firstly the collocated space geodetic techniques provide a fundamental station for Africa and secondly MOBLAS-6 participates in the tracking of the new Galileo satellites which will aid the densification of the ITRF throughout Africa as densification is done via the establishment of core GNSS stations. Several upgrades during the last 8 years have ensured that MOBLAS-6 remains functional and its data accurate and useful to the international community.