Integration of Earth rotation, geometry and gravity field using space geodetic observations

• Applicants: Dr.-Ing. Detlef Angermann; Professor Dr. Markus Rothacher
• Subject Area: Geodesy, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics, Cartography
• Term: from 2006 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5471782

The integration of Earth rotation, gravity field and geometry into a unified system is one of the major goals of the ¿Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS)¿ of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG). In the framework of the present project the parameters of Earth rotation (e.g., pole coordinates, length of the day, etc.) of the gravity field (primarily the low-degree spherical harmonic coefficients) and of the Earth¿s geometry (station positions and their temporal variations) will be estimated in a combined adjustment using space geodetic observations. The data to be analyzed is contributed by the ground stations equipped with space geodetic observing instruments (VLBI; SLR/LLR;GPS;DORIS) by altimetry satellites, and by GPS receivers onboard Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites (like, e.g., JASON-1, CHAMP, and GRACE). The rigorous combination of these observations will guarantee, that the results are really consistent, that the complimentary space techniques are fully exploited ant that technique-specific biases may be distinguished from ¿real¿ geophysical signal. The research work envisaged within the present project will primarily contribute to study the interactions between Earth rotation, gravity and geometry and the consistency between them. Finally, the geodetic results will be compared with geophysical data.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 584: Earth Rotation and Global Dynamic Processes
• International Connection: Switzerland
• Participating Person: Professor Dr.-Ing. Hermann Drewes