Scientific value of real-time global positioning system data

Abstract

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is an example of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) that provides an essential complement to other geophysical networks because of its high precision, sensitivity to the longest-period bands, ease of deployment, and ability to measure displacement and atmospheric properties over local to global scales. Recent and ongoing technical advances, combined with decreasing equipment and data acquisition costs, portend rapid increases in accessibility of data from expanding global geodetic networks. Scientists and the public are beginning to have access to these high-rate, continuous data streams and event-specific information within seconds to minutes rather than days to months. These data provide the opportunity to observe Earth system processes with greater accuracy and detail, as they occur.