Improving Geodetic Monitoring in the Aeolian Archipelago: Performance Assessment of the Salin@net GNSS Network

The Aeolian Archipelago, located in the southern margin of the Tyrrhenian Sea, is a key area to investigate the interplay between regional active fault systems and volcanic activity, making it a focal point for geodynamic studies. In particular, Salina Island lies at the intersection of two major tectonic structures: the Sisifo-Alicudi fault system in the western sector and the Aeolian-Tindari-Letojanni fault system in the central sector both exert a significant influence on the region's deformation patterns. Detecting these signals requires high-quality GNSS data, yet the performance of newly installed stations in tectonic environments must be rigorously assessed. Between June 2023 and February 2024, a new continuous local GNSS network, which consists of five stations, Salin@Net, was established, on Salina Island. The central scientific objective of this study is to verify whether the new GNSS network achieves the data quality necessary for reliable geodetic monitoring and to evaluate its potential to resolve strain gradients in the area. We performed an extensive performance analysis of Salin@net GNSS stations, analyzing data quality, encompassing assessments of multipath effect, signal-to-noise ratio, observation continuity, and cycle slip occurrences, alongside GNSS position time series. These metrics were compared against the ISAL-RING station and benchmarked International GNSS Service (IGS) standards. Results show that the newly installed stations consistently meet the required standards, delivering robust and reliable measurements that are comparable to those of the RING GNSS continuous network. Positioning time series, processed in the ITRF14, indicate that the precision of the derived velocity estimates is comparable to that of standard continuous stations, although longer time spans are required to better constrain linear velocity estimates. Finally, spherical wavelet analysis demonstrates that the geometry of Salin@net significantly improves the spatial resolution of the strain field across the Aeolian-Tindari-Letojanni fault system and enhances resolution along the Sisifo-Alicudi fault, underscoring the role of dense, small-aperture GNSS networks in tectonic environment.