ILRS Analysis Center

Since 2002, DGFI-TUM has operated an official Analysis Centre of the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS AC). In this capacity, the institute routinely processes satellite laser ranging (SLR) data of the global SLR station network and contributes to the combined official daily/weekly ILRS reference frame and Earth rotation series by computing daily and weekly four-satellite solutions. These data, in turn, are the basis for the International Earth Rotation and Reference Frames Service (IERS) standard time series for Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP C04).

In addition, DGFI-TUM provides daily 7-day orbit forecasts for several spherical SLR satellites, determines global long-term SLR station coordinates and computes range and time biases for all SLR stations. DGFI-TUM has participated in various ILRS pilot projects over the years, including the ILRS Station Systematics and Error Monitoring Pilot Project (SSEM-PP), as well as in the past realizations of the International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS), namely ITRF2005, ITRF2008, and ITRF2014. A re-processed solution of 38 years of SLR observations is provided as part of the official ILRS contribution to ITRF2020 (see Table).

DGFI-TUM routine solutions and pilot project contributions for reference frames, EOP and satellite orbits in the framework of the ILRS AC.
Arc-wise SLR orbit fits for different spherical SLR constellations: Conventional five-satellite ILRS setup (top), input time series for the ITRF2020 (middle) and all other available spherical SLR satellites (bottom). Due to technological achievements at the stations, the improved global station distribution and refined (geo-)physical background models, the accuracy of SLR significantly improved over the last decades.

Selected Publications

Bloßfeld M., Kehm A.: ILRS Analysis Activities. DGFI-TUM (Deutsches Geodätisches Forschungsinstitut – Technische Universität München), Germany. In: Noll C., Pearlman M. (Eds.), International Laser Ranging Service 2016–2019 Report, 2020
Pearlman M. Arnold D. Davis M. Barlier F. Biancale R. Vasiliev V. Ciufolini I. Paolozzi A. Pavlis E.C. Sośnica K. Bloßfeld M.: Laser geodetic satellites: a high-accuracy scientific tool. Journal of Geodesy, 93(11), 2181-2194, 10.1007/s00190-019-01228-y, 2019
Bloßfeld M., Angermann D., Seitz M.: DGFI-TUM analysis and scale investigations of the latest Terrestrial Reference Frame realizations. In: Freymueller J. T., Sánchez L. (Eds.), International Symposium on Advancing Geodesy in a Changing World, 10.1007/1345_2018_47, 2018
Männel B. Thaller D., Rothacher M., Böhm J., Müller J., Glaser S., Dach R., Biancale R., Bloßfeld M., Kehm A., Herrera Pinzon I., Hofmann F., Andritsch F., Coulot D., Pollet A.: Recent Activities of the GGOS Standing Committee on Performance Simulations and Architectural Trade-Offs (PLATO). In: Freymueller J. T., Sánchez L. (Eds.), International Symposium on Advancing Geodesy in a Changing World, 10.1007/1345_2018_30, 2018

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