Propagation of the IGb14 Reference Frame on the Territory of Ukraine Based on Results of the Analysis of GNSS Observations for GPS Weeks 2106–2237

Abstract

From May 17, 2020 to November 26, 2022 (GPS weeks 2106–2237) all products of the International GNSS Service (IGS)—precise ephemerides of GPS and GLONASS satellites, coordinates and velocities of permanent GNSS stations, etc.—were based on the IGb14 reference frame, the second IGS realization of the release of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame ITRF2014. Observations of GNSS satellites at permanent stations located in Ukraine and in Eastern Europe for this period were processed in the GNSS Data Analysis Centre of the Main Astronomical Observatory (MAO) NAS of Ukraine. The processing was carried out with the Bernese GNSS Software ver. 5.2 according to the requirements of the EUREF Permanent GNSS Network (EPN), that were relevant at that time. In total, observations on 344 GNSS stations, including 273 Ukrainian stations belonging to the following operators of GNSS networks: MAO NAS of Ukraine, StateGeoCadastre of Ukraine (UPN GNSS), PJSC System Solutions (System.NET), NU Lviv Polytechnic (GeoTerrace), Navigation and Geodetic Center (NGC.net), Kiev Institute of Land Relations (KyivPOS), Coordinate navigation maintenance system of Ukraine (NET.Spacecenter), E.P.S. LLC, UA–EUPOS/ZAKPOS, TNT TPI company (RTKHUB Network), and KMC LLC, were processed. The IGb14 reference frame was set by No-Net-Translation conditions on the coordinates of the EPN Class A stations from the EPN C2130 catalogue. As result, the station coordinates in the IGb14 reference frame and the zenith tropospheric delays for all stations were estimated. The mean repeatabilities for components of station coordinates for all weeks (the characteristics of the precision of the received daily and weekly solutions) are in the following ranges: for north component—from 0.62 to 1.35 mm (the average value is 0.98 mm), for east component—from 0.73 to 1.45 mm (the average value is 1.09 mm) with outliers of 2.39 and 1.81 mm for GPS weeks 2159 and 2168 respectively, for height component—from 2.52  to 6.36 mm (the average value is 3.89 mm).