Geodetic Analyses at the National Geographic Institute of Spain

The National Geographic Institute of Spain (IGN Spain) develops, operates, and exploits the Spanish national geodetic networks and their associated infrastructure. This includes the permanent networks of reference GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) receivers, VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) telescopes, and a new SLR (Satellite Laser Ranging) station under construction at the Yebes Observatory. In order to fully exploit the opportunities offered by the availability of these space geodetic techniques, IGN has been operating Analysis Centres of GNSS and VLBI for a number of years, with the recent addition of an Associated Analysis Centre of the International Laser Ranging Service.

IGN Spain is a EUREF Analysis Centre since 2001, contributing with their weekly and daily coordinate solutions to the realisation of the European Terrestrial Reference System. The activities of the AC include projects such as IBERRED, for geodynamic purposes, and the participation in the European E-GVAP programme for meteorological applications. Over the last years, IGN Spain has expanded its contribution to geodetic VLBI analysis, starting in 2019 the operational analysis of VLBI sessions and the submission of the respective solutions (containing consistently estimated Earth Orientation Parameters, station coordinates and source positions) to the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS). Additionally, the reprocessing of the historical VLBI data since 1979 is ongoing, which is the basis for future contributions to the IVS combination series that will be provided for future realisations of the international terrestrial reference frame (ITRF). The latest addition to IGN Spain analysis capabilities is the IGN-Yebes Associated Analysis Centre. Highlights of its activities are the participation in the ITRF2020 reprocessing in collaboration with the Analysis Centre NSGF in the UK, and the computation of SLR centre-of-mass corrections for spherical geodetic satellites.

IGN strives to further exploit the synergies between these groups and work towards the combined analysis of the data. A description of the analysis activities of IGN Spain, along with its future prospects, is presented.

José C. Rodríguez[1], Esther Azcue[2], Víctor Puente[3], José A. López-F.[4, 5], José A. López-P.[4], Elena Martínez[4, 5], José A. Sánchez Sobrino[4],

Marcelino Valdés[4], Beatriz Vaquero[4, 5] & Pablo de Vicente[4, 5]

Keywords GNSS, IGN, SLR, VLBI

Type Proceeding

Event International Association of Geodesy Symposia 

Journal reference Geodesy for a Sustainable Earth pp 95–104

DOI /10.1007/1345_2022_182

[1] SLR AC, Yebes Observatory (IGN), Yebes, Guadalajara, Spain

[2] GNSS AC, Instituto Geográfico Nacional, Madrid, Spain

[3] VLBI AC, Instituto Geográfico Nacional, Madrid, Spain

[4] Instituto Geográfico Nacional, Madrid, Spain

[5] Yebes Observatory (IGN), Yebes, Guadalajara, Spain