Annual crustal deformation based on GNSS observations between 1996 and 2016

Abstract

The article examines the quality of reprocessed GNSS data for determination of seasonal effect in a coordinates’ time series. The authors are looking for long-term changes of NEU components on the basis of weekly EPN solutions from the years 1996–2016. This is one of the first such in-depth studies using such a long time period and a large number of stations. Amplitude and its RMS values of fitting function are analysed. The analysis shows that there are significant repeatable coordinate variations: 4.7 mm, 2.9 mm and 8.3 mm for the dN, dE and dU components, respectively. The research also shows a group of coordinates’ time series with very small RMS values below the coordinates’ accuracy (1 mm for horizontal, 3 mm for vertical components), leading to a very good function fitting with relatively small amplitude magnitudes. The authors did not remark any connection with the above described phenomena and geographical location or type of setting up of a base station.