Determination of tectonic movements in the swiss Alps using GNSS and levelling

Abstract

The Federal Office of Topography swisstopo is responsible for the maintenance of the coordinate reference frames in Switzerland. Beside the static reference frames, used for national surveying, the development of a kinematic model, mainly used for scientific investigations, is under development since many years. For the determination of vertical movements the analysis of more than 100 years of levelling observations showed a significant alpine uplift of maximally 1.5 mm/year relative to an arbitrarily chosen bench mark in Aarburg (at the south of the Jura mountains). For the determination of horizontal movements the various GPS-campaigns, measured since 1988, are the basis. With the Automated GNSS Network of Switzerland (AGNES), which operates permanently since 1998, valuable information can be extracted for 30 sites. The paper shows that the time series of AGNES nowadays allow statements concerning possible vertical movements. The potential of additional information sources, such as local tie surveys, are discussed. Comparisons of the results of the two independent measuring techniques GNSS and levelling are the main topic of the paper. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012.