MGO Instrumentation

MGO employs three main techniques used in space geodesy research:

To meet requirements for characterizing the Terrestrial Reference Frame (TRF) at 1 mm accuracy and 0.1 mm/year stability, these colocated systems are “tied” together through (a) a precise initial site survey and (b) several ongoing local motion monitoring techniques.

Why multi-technique core sites? 

  • VLBI orients the TRF to the celestial sources (quasars) and constrains the scale of the TRF.
  • SLR provides absolute scale and connects the TRF to the center of mass of the Earth System.
  • GNSS provides spatio-temporal densification and dissemination of the TRF.

Gravity measurements are added to integrate geometry and dynamics – Geoid-based height systems are the basis for US National Spatial Reference System 

Research is being carried out by the University of Texas at Austin to help reduce the km-scale network of instruments to mm-precision (virtual) fiducial point.