Robust geometric estimation of the plate-fixed velocities from PPP solutions

Abstract Conventionally, plate velocities relative to each other can be effectively obtained by using solutions based on the relative point positioning (RPP) technique. Today, in addition to the RPP technique, the Precise Point Positioning (PPP) technique based on single point positioning plays an important role in GNSS applications. Although the RPP technique is generally used for determination of displacements and station velocities, the usability of the PPP technique has also been shown for the determination of displacements, dynamic deformation analysis, and processing high-rate GNSS data in the literature. However, the RPP technique is widely preferred to obtain station plate-fixed velocities. In this study, a new approach that enables calculation of the station plate-fixed velocities from solutions obtained with the PPP technique is presented. Since velocities are estimated using station time series, and some stations may move independently of the plate, which may affect the accuracy of velocity estimation, the robust M-estimation method was applied during the estimation step. The results show that the new approach can be used to estimate plate-fixed velocities.