Ability of GPS PPP in 2D deformation analysis with respect to GPS network solution

Abstract

GNSS networks play an important role in monitoring the displacements, movements and deformations of the Earth’s crust and engineering buildings. In this study, we examine how GPS Precise Point Positioning (PPP) is able to determine the horizontal deformations with respect to the GPS network solution. For this purpose, 7 days data of 12 Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) in Turkey (CORS-TR), located in the western part of Turkey, are considered. The Bernese (v5.2)-derived coordinates over 7 days and the ones from four free online PPP services (CSRS, GAPS, APPS, Magic-PPP) are compared using the Bursa-Wolf coordinate transformation model. The errors from these transformations are used to define the RMS values of the PPP solutions in the local coordinate system. These values are relative to the GPS network solution. This fact leads to analysing how the PPP solutions are able to determine the horizontal deformations with respect to the network solution. From many experiments, in which the displacements belonging to the PPP solutions are simulated relative to the network solution, it has been shown that several ppm extensions or contractions may be determined using the free online PPP services. Therefore, we conclude that the online PPP services studied here may be used in 2D deformation studies as an alternative to the GPS network solutions.

Keywords:

• GPS PPP
• Network solution
• Deformation analysis
• Western Part of Turkey

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the editor Dr Peter Collier for his assistance and two anonymous reviewers for their comments which have greatly improved this study. The CORS-TR RINEX files used in our study are supplied by the General Directory of Land Registry and Cadaster (TKGM) and the General Command of Mapping (HGK). Fig. 1 was produced using GMT (Wessel et al. 2013). Yildiz Tech. Univ. Rectorate is acknowledged for supplying academic licence of Matlab 2017a.

ORCID

C. Aydin http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0888-0316

S. Çetin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1900-3725