The Permanent GPS Station at the University of Padova

Abstract

Since January 1994, in coincidence with the official start of the International GPS Service for Geodynamics (IGS), a fixed GPS station is operational at the Department of Geology, Paleontology and Geophysics of the University of Padova. The equipment is based on a dual frequency receiver TRIMBLE 4000 SSE located on the astronomic observatory on the roof of the University’s Main Building, formerly used for astrogeodetic observations. The site is unmanned and the equipment is monitored remotely from our Department or from virtually any other place with a telephone line. Likewise, remote users can access autonomously the local data base and download at any time data in compressed RINEX 2 format. As part of the support of the IGS, daily RINEXing, compression and download via Internet to the Matera Space Geodesy Center for subsequent routing to IfAG and IGS Central Bureau is done automatically with timed batch procedures running in the local PC. The station runs virtually unattended and features a ratio [data yield/operational costs] considerably higher than for other space geodetic techniques. Future enhancements include real time services in support of local DGPS applications and a remotely accessible geodetic/geophysical data base.