Integrated geodetic techniques at the CGS/ASI

Bianco G., Vespe F.
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, Centro di Geodesia Spaziale, Matera, Italy

Devoti R., Fermi M., Ferraro C., Lanotte R., Luceri V., Nardi A., Pacione R., Rutigliano P., Sciarretta C.
Telespazio SpA, ASI-CGS, Matera, Italy

The Italian Space Agency's (ASI) Space Geodesy Center (CGS) at Matera, Italy, is one of the fundamental geodetic station in the worldwide network as it hosts and operates SLR, VLBI, GPS and PRARE systems. This huge acquisition capability will be furtherly improved by the next arrival of the MLRO SLR system, replacing the old one and able to track the far GPS and GLONASS satellites, equipped with retroreflectors, and the Moon.

The collocation of techniques at ASI-CGS drives in a natural way our efforts in the related geodetic data analysis towards the integration of the results.

The networks of different geodetic techniques show different sensitivities to the various physical parameters of interest, due to the different observation equations and to the different geographic coverage. These features have to be taken into account when data from different sources are combined or even results are compared. In this conceptual frame we want to show some results relevant to:
- EOP determination by means of GPS, SLR and VLBI separately, using the dilution of precision and covariance analysis to characterize strength and weakness of each technique;
- comparison of VLBI and SLR terrestrial reference frames, using a 7 parameters trasformation and Eulerian poles;
- comparison of baselines and velocities for the European region using VLBI and GPS, in particular for the Italian region, where ASI operates several permanent GPS receivers covering broadly our peninsula.