Ice and the apparent variation of GPS station positions for Alaska

Most GPS stations in Alaska show apparent seasonal variations on the order of one centimeter. The majority of these stations move downwards throughout the winter, a motion which is in phase with regional snowfall and has been attributed to hydrological loading (Fu et. al., 2012). The range of phases across the state, however, spans half the year and does not correlate with snow patterns. Six stations show discontinuous seasonal variations on the order of 1-10cm. After examining the geography and windspeed at these sites, we conclude that at least three of them will accumulate rime ice during the winter, and that this ice can cause apparent upwards motions of the stations. This hypothesis is supported by seasonal variations in the stations' multipath values, which indicate increased signal scattering during the winter.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Kochanski, Kelly Anne

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Thomas Herring.

• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114125

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/114125