Length Variations of European Baselines Derived from VLBI and GPS Observations

TL;DR

This study compares baseline length measurements from VLBI and GPS techniques for European stations, analyzing differences, seasonal effects, and drifts to improve understanding of measurement discrepancies.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of baseline length variations using VLBI and GPS data, including an advanced thermal deformation model for antennas.

Findings

Identified systematic differences between VLBI and GPS baseline measurements.

Detected linear drifts and seasonal variations in the data.

Quantified the impact of thermal deformation modeling on baseline length estimates.

Abstract

Results of VLBI and GPS observations were analyzed with goal to investigate differences in observed baseline length derived from both techniques. VLBI coordinates for European stations were obtained from processing of all available observations collected on European and global VLBI network. Advanced model for antenna thermal deformation was applied to account for change of horizontal component of baseline length. GPS data were obtained from re-processing of the weekly EPN (European Permanent GPS Network) solutions. Systematic differences between results obtained with two techniques including linear drift and seasonal effects are determined.