Crustal motion at the permanent GPS station SVEA, Antractica

• Main Author: Edres, Walyeldeen Hassan
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: KTH, Geodesi och satellitpositionering 2009
• Subjects: Engineering and Technology; Teknik och teknologier; Svea; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-199680

Since the last two decades, the Global Positioning System (GPS) has played a special role in Antarctica in the study of crustal motion. The permanent GPS station SVEA was installed in Antarctica by the division of geodesy at KTH. In November 14, 2004 the station became operational and provides continuous GPS data. The objective of this study is to estimate the crustal motion at SVEA. The GPS data of the first five days of January, years 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 of station SVEA and six IGS reference stations have been processed using the Bernese GPS Software 0.5. Two methods (regression analysis and the Bernese software) were used to estimate the velocity at SVEA. In addition, horizontal velocities have been calculated from the plate motion calculator. A student’s t‐test has been used to judge whether the estimated motions are significant or not at risk level 5%. The estimated velocity components (in mm/year) are 8.0±1.9 North, 1.0 ± 0.5 East and 0.1 ± 0.9 Up in linear regression analysis and 8.4 ±1.9 North, 1.1 ± 0.5 East and 0.2 ± 0.9 Up in the Bernese GPS Software. From the statistical test, the estimated velocity in the North component is significant in the Bernese GPS Software at risk level 5%. For the rest of the components, the estimated velocities are not significant for any method. The estimated horizontal velocities are mostly consistent with plate motion models. In order to estimate reliable and accurate crustal motion in the Up component, the time span should be longer than four years.