Construction of models of temperature dependent variations in the position of EPN/IGS stations located on buildings and other structures. Case Wettzell, Germany

Abstract In this work, a study of a specific network of five permanently operating GNSS stations was carried out. It based on the previously obtained results of studies of the effect of thermal compression-expansion of buildings as foundations of geodetic stations, conditions for the manifestation of this effect in variations of geodetic stations positions and properties of these variations. The study examined seasonal variations in relative positions of stations in this network. Relative GPS positioning on very short baselines that has very high sensitivity was used for the study. Based on the analysis of the properties of the time series obtained for all possible baselines in this network, it is shown that the seasonal variations observed in these time series reflect the influence of changes in ambient temperature. From point of view of the problem being solved, this network has an important property: all stations are installed along perimeter of the same building – a concrete survey tower. Using this property, models of variations of these stations positions under influence of this effect were constructed without the use of external reference stations. The constructed high-precision models are suitable for practical use – predicting actual positions of these stations in arbitrary observation epochs.