Improving VLBI analysis by tropospheric ties in GNSS and VLBI integrated processing

authored by: Jungang Wang, Maorong Ge, Susanne Glaser, Kyriakos Balidakis, Robert Heinkelmann, Harald Schuh
Abstract: Tropospheric delay modeling is challenging in high-precision Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) analysis due to the rapid water vapor variation and imperfect observation geometry, where observations from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) co-locations can enhance the VLBI analysis. We investigate the impact of tropospheric ties in the VLBI and GNSS integrated processing during the CONT05–CONT17 campaigns, and present a method that automatically handles the systematic tropospheric tie biases. Applying tropospheric ties at VLBI–GNSS co-locations enhances the observation geometry and improves the solution reliability. The VLBI network is stabilized, with station coordinate repeatability improved by 12% horizontally and by 28% vertically, and the network scale improved by 32%. The Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP) improve by up to 20%. Both zenith delay and gradient ties contribute to the improvement of EOP, whereas the gradient ties contribute mainly to the improvement of length of day and celestial pole offsets.
External Organisation(s): Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ)
Technische Universität Berlin
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Type: Article
Journal: Journal of geodesy
Volume: 96
ISSN: 0949-7714
Publication date: 26.04.2022
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Computers in Earth Sciences, Geochemistry and Petrology, Geophysics
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-022-01615-y (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{56c9ac9d0aee49debea00557c689a583,
title = "Improving VLBI analysis by tropospheric ties in GNSS and VLBI integrated processing",
abstract = "Tropospheric delay modeling is challenging in high-precision Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) analysis due to the rapid water vapor variation and imperfect observation geometry, where observations from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) co-locations can enhance the VLBI analysis. We investigate the impact of tropospheric ties in the VLBI and GNSS integrated processing during the CONT05–CONT17 campaigns, and present a method that automatically handles the systematic tropospheric tie biases. Applying tropospheric ties at VLBI–GNSS co-locations enhances the observation geometry and improves the solution reliability. The VLBI network is stabilized, with station coordinate repeatability improved by 12% horizontally and by 28% vertically, and the network scale improved by 32%. The Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP) improve by up to 20%. Both zenith delay and gradient ties contribute to the improvement of EOP, whereas the gradient ties contribute mainly to the improvement of length of day and celestial pole offsets.",
keywords = "GNSS, VLBI, Combination on the observation level, Tropospheric tie, Earth orientation parameters",
author = "Jungang Wang and Maorong Ge and Susanne Glaser and Kyriakos Balidakis and Robert Heinkelmann and Harald Schuh",
note = "Funding information: We thank the IGS and IVS for providing the GNSS and VLBI observations, the GNSS satellite orbits and clocks, Vienna University of Technology for the tropospheric product. Jungang Wang is financially supported by the Helmholtz ? OCPC Postdoc Program (grant no. ZD202121). Kyriakos Balidakis is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) ? Project-ID 434617780 ? SFB 1464 (TerraQ). The authors would like to thank the editor J?rgen Kusche, the associate editor Zinovy M. Malkin, and three anonymous referees who kindly reviewed this manuscript and provided valuable suggestions and comments. We thank the IGS and IVS for providing the GNSS and VLBI observations, the GNSS satellite orbits and clocks, Vienna University of Technology for the tropospheric product. Jungang Wang is financially supported by the Helmholtz – OCPC Postdoc Program (grant no. ZD202121). Kyriakos Balidakis is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – Project-ID 434617780 – SFB 1464 (TerraQ). The authors would like to thank the editor J{\"u}rgen Kusche, the associate editor Zinovy M. Malkin, and three anonymous referees who kindly reviewed this manuscript and provided valuable suggestions and comments.",
year = "2022",
month = apr,
day = "26",
doi = "10.1007/s00190-022-01615-y",
language = "English",
volume = "96",
journal = "Journal of geodesy",
issn = "0949-7714",
publisher = "Springer Verlag",
number = "4",
}