ABSTRACT

The proliferation of continuously operating GPS tracking sites and improvements in estimating the vertical component of a site's position from GPS measurements presents a unique opportunity to directly observe the effects of ocean tidal loading. The long, continuous record from these permanent sites permits the coherent accumulation of observations with respect to the driving tidal forces. Techniques like this defeat atmospheric, geometrical, and multipathing effects which can have a comparable magnitude, but do not have the same periods as the ocean-loading signals.

A project is underway to estimate ocean-loading effects at selected sites in North America. Agreement with a priori estimates of height variation generated from existing models is excellent. This presentation will describe the technique used, results and the feasibility of extending this processing globally. The significance of these results for local, regional, and global GPS data processing will be discussed.

1. Introduction

2. Data

3. Processing

4. Results

5. Conclusions

Acknowledgments

References