The Extended Tracking Network and Indications of Baseline Precision and Accuracy in the North Andes

The CASA UNO Global Positioning System (GPS) experiment (January-February 1988) included an extended tracking network which covered three continents in addition to the network of scientific interest in Central and South America. The repeatability of long baselines (400-1000 km) in South America is improved by up to a factor of two in the horizontal vector baseline components by using tracking stations in the Pacific and Europe to supplement stations in North America. In every case but one, the differences between the mean solutions obtained using different tracking networks was equal to or smaller than day-to-day rms repeatabilities for the same baselines. The mean solutions obtained by using tracking stations in North America and the Pacific agreed at the 2-3 millimeter level with those using tracking stations in North America and Europe. The agreement of the extended tracking network solutions suggests that a broad distribution of tracking stations provides better geometric constraints on the satellite orbits and that solutions are not sensitive to changes in tracking network configuration when an extended network is used. A comparison of the results from the North Andes and a baseline in North America suggests that the use of a geometrically strong extended tracking network is most importanwt hen the network of interest is far from North America

LUH-GRACE2018

In this contribution, we present the LUH-GRACE2018 time series of monthly gravity field solutions covering the period January 2003–March 2016. The solutions are obtained from GRACE K-Band Range Rate (KBRR) measurements as main observations. The monthly solutions are computed using the in-house developed GRACE-SIGMA software. The processing is based on dynamic orbit and gravity field determination using variational equations and consists of two main steps. In the first step, 3-hourly orbital arcs of the two satellites and the state transition and sensitivity matrices are dynamically integrated using a modified Gauss-Jackson integrator. In this step, initial state vectors and 3D accelerometer bias parameters are adjusted using GRACE Level-1B reduced-dynamic positions as observations. In the second step, normal equations are accumulated and the normalized spherical harmonic coefficients up to degree and order 80 are estimated along with arc-wise initial states, accelerometer biases and empirical KBRR parameters. Here KBRR measurements are used as main observations and reduced-dynamic positions are introduced to solve for the low frequency coefficients. In terms of error degree standard deviations as well as Equivalent Water Heights (EWH), our gravity field solutions agree well with RL05 solutions of CSR, GFZ and JPL

The Accidental Tide Gauge: A GPS Reflection Case Study from Kachemak Bay, Alaska

For the last decade, it has been known that reflected GPS signals observed with specialized instruments could be used to measure sea level. In this letter, data from an existing geodeticquality GPS site near Kachemak Bay, Alaska, are analyzed for a one-year time period. Daily sea-level variations are more than 7 m. Tidal coefficients have been estimated and compared with coefficients estimated from records from a traditional tide gauge at Seldovia Harbor, approximately 30 km away. The GPS and Seldovia estimates of M(sub 2) and S(sub 2) coefficients agree to better than 2%; much of this residual can be attributed to true differences in the tide over 30 km as it propagates up Kachemak Bay. For daily mean sea levels the agreement is 2.3 cm. Because a standard geodetic GPS receiver/antenna is used, this GPS instrument can measure long-term sea-level changes in a stable terrestrial reference frame

Updated absolute gravity rate of change associated with glacial isostatic adjustment in Southeast Alaska and its utilization for rheological parameter estimation

In Southeast Alaska (SE-AK), rapid ground uplift of up to 3 cm/yr has been observed associated with post-Little Ice Age glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). Geodetic techniques such as global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and absolute gravimetry have been applied to monitor GIA since the last 1990s. Rheological parameters for SE-AK were determined from dense GNSS array data in earlier studies. However, the absolute gravity rate of change observed in SE-AK was inconsistent with the ground uplift rate, mainly because few gravity measurements from 2006 to 2008 resulted in imprecise gravity variation rates. Therefore, we collected absolute gravity data at six gravity points in SE-AK every June in 2012, 2013, and 2015, and updated the gravity variation rate by reprocessing the absolute gravity data collected from 2006 to 2015. We found that the updated gravity variation rate at the six gravity points ranged from −2.05 to −4.40 μGal/yr, and its standard deviation was smaller than that reported in the earlier study by up to 88 %. We also estimated the rheological parameters under the assumption of the incompressible Earth to explain the updated gravity variation rate, and their optimal values were determined to be 55 km and 1.2×10¹⁹ Pa s for lithospheric thickness and upper mantle viscosity, respectively. These optimal values are consistent with those independently obtained from GNSS observations, and this fact indicates that absolute gravimetry can be one of the most effective methods in determining sub-surface structural parameters associated with GIA accurately. Moreover, we utilized the gravity variation rates for estimating the ratio of gravity variation to vertical ground deformation at the six gravity points in SE-AK. The viscous ratio values were obtained as −0.168 and −0.171 μGal/mm from the observed data and the calculated result, respectively. These ratios are greater (in absolute) than those for other GIA regions (−0.15 to −0.16 μGal/mm in Antarctica and Fennoscandia), because glaciers in SE-AK have melted more recently than in other regions

A 15 year slow-slip event on the Sunda megathrust offshore Sumatra

In the Banyak Islands of Sumatra, coral microatoll records reveal a 15 year-long reversal of interseismic vertical displacement from subsidence to uplift between 1966 and 1981. To explain these coral observations, we test four hypotheses, including regional sea level changes and various tectonic mechanisms. Our results show that the coral observations likely reflect a 15 year-long slow-slip event (SSE) on the Sunda megathrust. This long-duration SSE exceeds the duration of previously reported SSEs and demonstrates the importance of multidecade geodetic records in illuminating the full spectrum of megathrust slip behavior at subduction zones

Precise measurements help gauge Pacific Northwest\u27s Earthquake potential

Except for the recent rumblings of a few moderate earthquakes and the eruption of Mt. St. Helen\u27s, all has been relatively quiet on the Pacific Northwestern front. The Cascades region in the Pacific Northwest, a sporadically active earthquake and volcanic zone, still has great seismic potential [Atwater, 1987], as comparisons with other subduction zones around the world have shown [Heaton and Kanamori, 1984]. Recent tsunami propagation models [Satake, 1996] and tree ring studies suggest that the last great Cascadia earthquake occurred in the winter of 1700 A.D. and had a magnitude of −8.9. The North Cascades or Wenatchee earthquake followed in 1872. With an estimated magnitude greater than 7, it was the largest earthquake in the written history of Washington and Oregon