Geodetic climate research in the Austrian Alps

Scientific Conference (2022)

The Federal Office of Metrology and Surveying (BEV) in Austria is responsible for the geodetic reference system like gravity and height reference frame. Some of these gravity reference stations are ... [more ▼]

The Federal Office of Metrology and Surveying (BEV) in Austria is responsible for the geodetic reference system like gravity and height reference frame. Some of these gravity reference stations are monitored regularly by different geodetic terrestrial techniques. The gravity data on some stations show variations and/or changes in gravity. In this presentation, the alpine geodetic reference stations Obergurgl and Franz-Josefs- Höhe in the Austrian eastern Alps will be presented. Both stations are investigated with different geodetic terrestrial techniques in a cooperation of the University of Luxemburg with BEV. Global warming and associated climate change during the last century and recent decades are among the main reasons for glacier retreat in the Alps. Absolute gravity measurements have been regularly performed in the Austrian Eastern Alps since 1987 in the Ötztal Valley at Obergurgl. In addition, absolute gravity has been regularly observed at Obergurgl from 1987 to 2009 with the absolute gravimeter JILAg6. From 2010, the absolute gravity measurements were continued with the highest accurate absolute gravimeters FG5 from BEV and FG5x from University of Luxemburg. The newest gravity data show again a small increase of gravity. Additionally, a permanent GNSS station was established in 2019 to record information about the assumed vertical uplift at this station. A second alpine research station was established near the Pasterze Glacier at Großglockner Mountain in 2019. The Pasterze Glacier is one of the largest glaciers in the eastern Alps and is in the vicinity of the highest mountain of Austria, the Großglockner. The station is monitored by repeated absolute gravity measurements and is equipped with a permanent GNSS station. In addition, precise leveling measurements were also tied to this station. In this contribution, initial results of the geodetic research like the gravity results, precise leveling and GNSS measurements will be presented. In the future, gravity data will be quantitively compared to ice mass balance information derived from glacier inventories. A Geodetic Global Navigation Satellite System reflectometry (GNSS-R) antenna will also be installed to study glacier-ice change. A third station at an altitude of 3300 m is planned and will be checked for operating absolute gravity measurements there. The geodynamical processes like vertical uplift and postglacial deformation will be investigated together with glacier retreat on these stations. [less ▲]

SNR-Based GNSS-R for Coastal Sea-Level Altimetry

in Geosciences (2021), 11(9 391),

Geodetic Global Navigation Satellite System reflectometry (GNSS-R) uses ground-based signals of opportunity to retrieve sea levels at an intermediate spatial scale. Geodetic GNSS-R is based on the ... [more ▼]

Geodetic Global Navigation Satellite System reflectometry (GNSS-R) uses ground-based signals of opportunity to retrieve sea levels at an intermediate spatial scale. Geodetic GNSS-R is based on the simultaneous reception of Line-of-Sight (LoS) and its coherent GNSS sea surface reflection (non-LOS) signals. The scope of this paper is to present geodetic GNSS-R applied to sea level altimetry. Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) measurements from a Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) geodetic-quality GNSS station at the Haiti Coast Guard Base in Port-au-Prince is used to retrieve sea levels in the International Terrestrial Reference Frame 2014 (ITRF2014). The GNSS-R sea levels are compared with those of the OTT Radar Level Sensor (RLS) installed vertically below the GNSS antenna. The Root-Mean-Square Error (RMSE) between the geodetic GNSS-R sea levels and OTT RLS records is 3.43 cm, with a correlation of 0.96. In addition, the complex differences between the OTT RLS records and 15-min GNSS-R sea levels using Global Positioning System (GPS) and Globalnaya Navigazionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (or Global Navigation Satellite System; GLONASS) signals for all the eight major tidal constituents are in mm-level agreement. Therefore, geodetic GNSS-R can be used as a complementary approach to the conventional method for sea level studies in a stable terrestrial reference frame. [less ▲]

Tidal analysis of GNSS reflectometry applied for coastal sea level sensing in Antarctica and Greenland

in Remote Sensing of Environment (2020), 248

We retrieve sea levels in polar regions via GNSS reflectometry (GNSS-R), using signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) observations from eight POLENET GNSS stations. Although geodetic-quality antennas are designed to ... [more ▼]

We retrieve sea levels in polar regions via GNSS reflectometry (GNSS-R), using signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) observations from eight POLENET GNSS stations. Although geodetic-quality antennas are designed to boost the direct reception from GNSS satellites and to suppress indirect reflections from natural surfaces, the latter can still be used to estimate the sea level in a stable terrestrial reference frame. Here, typical GNSS-R retrieval methodology is improved in two ways, 1) constraining phase-shifts to yield more precise reflector heights and 2) employing an extended dynamic filter to account for the second-order height rate of change (vertical acceleration). We validate retrievals over a 4-year period at Palmer Station (Antarctica), where there is a co-located tide gauge (TG). Because ice contaminates the long-period tidal constituents, we focus on the main tidal species (daily and subdaily), by employing a deseasonalization filter. The difference between sub-hourly GNSS-R retrievals of the ocean surface and TG records has a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 15.4 cm and a correlation of 0.903, while the tidal prediction has a RMSE of 1.9 cm and a correlation of 0.998. There is excellent millimetric agreement between the two sensors for most eight major tidal constituents, with the exception of luni-solar diurnal (K1), principal solar (S2), and luni-solar semidiurnal (K2) components, which are biased in GNSS-R due to the leakage of the GPS orbital period. We also compare the GNSS-R tidal constituents from seven additional POLENET sites, without co-located TG, to global and local ocean tide models. We find that the root-sum-square-error (RSSE) of eight major constituents varies between 26.0 cm and 56.9 cm for different models. Given that the agreement in tidal constituents between the TG and GNSS-R was better at Palmer Station, we conclude that assimilating the GNSS-R retrievals into tidal models would improve their accuracy in Antarctica and Greenland, provided that care is exercised to avoid the orbital period overtones and also sea ice. [less ▲]

Statistical Comparison and Combination of GPS, GLONASS, and Multi-GNSS Multipath Reflectometry Applied to Snow Depth Retrieval

in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (2017), (99),

Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) multipath reflectometry (MR) has emerged as a new technique that uses signals of opportunity broadcast by GNSS satellites and tracked by ground-based receivers to ... [more ▼]

Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) multipath reflectometry (MR) has emerged as a new technique that uses signals of opportunity broadcast by GNSS satellites and tracked by ground-based receivers to retrieve environmental variables such as snow depth. The technique is based on the simultaneous reception of direct or line-of-sight (LOS) transmissions and corresponding coherent surface reflections (non-LOS). Until recently, snow depth retrieval algorithms only used legacy and modernized GPS signals. Using multiple GNSS constellations for reflectometry would improve GNSS-MR applications by providing more observations from more satellites and independent signals (carrier frequencies and code modulations). We assess GPS and GLONASS for combined multi-GNSS-MR using simulations as well as field measurements. Synthetic observations for different signals indicated a lack of detectable interfrequency and intercode biases in GNSS-MR snow depth retrievals. Received signals from a GNSS station continuously operating in France for a two-winter period are used for experimental snow depth retrieval. We perform an internal validation of various GNSS signals against the proven GPS-L2-C signal, which was validated externally against in situ snow depth in previous studies. GLONASS observations required a more complex handling to account for topography because of its particular ground track repeatability. Signal intercomparison show an average correlation of 0.922 between different GPS snow depths and GPS-L2-CL, while GLONASS snow depth retrievals have an average correlation that exceeds 0.981. In terms of precision and accuracy, legacy GPS signals are worse, while GLONASS signals and modernized GPS signals are of comparable quality. Finally, we show how an optimal multi-GNSS combined daily snow depth time series can be formed employing variance factors with a ~59%-90% precision improvement compared to individual signal snow depth retrievals, resulting in snow depth retrieval with uncertainty of 1.3 cm. The developed combination strategy can also be applied for the European Galileo and the Chines BeiDou navigation systems. [less ▲]

Assessment of modernized GPS L5 SNR for ground-based multipath reflectometry applications

in Advances in Space Research (2015), 55(4), 1104-1116