GPS data processing of five years of more than 300 permanent station archive with the distributed sessions approach in Italian Peninsula.

Abstract

Abstract: A methodology to process more than 300 permanent Global Positioning System (GPS) station data located in the Italian Peninsula is presented, based on software Gamit/Globk 10.5 developed and maintained by MIT, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Harvard University with support from the National Science Foundation (http://www-gpsg.mit.edu/~simon/gtgk/), and using software tools based on the distributed sessions approach implemented in the package. The GPS data are comprised in the period January 2008 – December 2012, and belongs to several different permanent GPS network in Italy, like: the RING of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), ASI Italian spatial agency, EUREF – European Reference Network, IGS – International GNSS Service for geodynamics, ITALPOS of Leica Geosystems Italy and other institution networks maintained by public and private administration and universities. The data collected daily by different sensors and archived in RINEX compressed Hatanaka format are gathered, divided in several clusters, and routinely processed using Gamit data processor, based on least square method. We combined our solutions with SOPAC (http://garner.ucsd.edu) ones to obtain stable and high quality solutions (h_files) containing coordinates, velocities and covariance of more than 300 GPS sites. A Global Kalman filter based package (Globk) is used to compute position time series and velocities registered in the ITRF2008 reference frame. Indications about the tectonics of Mediterranean regions can be inferred by the resulting high density intra-plate velocity field.