GPS Observations and Analysis from Macaronesia and Western Africa: the Canary GNSS Center (CGC), an effort to promote Space-Geodetic Data and Techniques.

HR: 0800h
AN: G21C-0660 [Abstracts]
TI: GPS Observations and Analysis from Macaronesia and Western Africa: the Canary GNSS Center (CGC), an effort to promote Space-Geodetic Data and Techniques.
AU: * Romero, I
EM: nacho@canaryadvancedsolutions.com
AF: Canary Advanced Solutions S.L., Zorrilla, 2, Telde, 35214, Spain
AU: Rodríguez-Santana, A
EM: arodriguez@dfis.ulpgc.es
AF: Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Physics Department, Campus de Tafira, Las Palmas, 35017, Spain
AU: Mendes, V
EM: vmendes@fc.ul.pt
AF: Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciencias (IDL-LATTEX), Lisboa, 1749-016, Portugal
AU: Montiel-Nelson, J A
EM: montiel@iuma.ulpgc.es
AF: Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Institute for Applied Microelectronics, Campus de Tafira, Las Palmas, 35017, Spain
AU: Abad-Real, P
EM: mabad@dcegi.ulpgc.es
AF: Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Cartography Department, Campus de Tafira, Las Palmas, 35017, Spain
AU: Martín-Betancor, M
EM: mmartin@dcegi.ulpgc.es
AF: Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Cartography Department, Campus de Tafira, Las Palmas, 35017, Spain
AB: Space Geodetic techniques are of great importance for the study of The Macaronesia and Western Africa. Composed of 5 archipelagos (Azores, Madeira, Savage Islands, Canary Islands, and Cape Verde) and sitting less than 60 miles from the African coast at its closest point. The Macaronesia groups of islands undergo so far understudied loading effects, relative movements, volcanic ‘hot spot' deformations, etc which using GNSS techniques we are trying to study and uncover. In the Canary Islands the newly established Canary GNSS Center (CGC) is an open association between companies, universities and institutions to promote the installation, maintenance, data dissemination and quality control of GNSS stations in the Macaronesia and Western Africa. Several important research lines using space geodetic techniques will be discussed herein. An initial study of the baselines for the GPS stations in our region has been carried out and is presented which points out certain effects, this study underscores the lack of consistent data, and articulates the needs for more Continuous Operating Reference Stations (CORS) in our region. The CGC hopes to officially participate in the AFREF soon, the association is promoting the free publication of data from all operating regional stations that may already exist and which have been kept private up to now. The CGC are involved in contacting the owners of these stations to make as much past and present data as possible available through our ftp server and website. The center makes available a free centralized site for the dissemination of all our region's current data and will start producing relevant quality and statistical information about all the stored data soon. The CGC promotes station maintenance following the International GNSS Service (IGS) standards. Through its members' activities the CGC wants to show the benefits to public and private institutions in the Canary Islands and beyond of establishing more CORS in the Macaronesia (especially in the Canary Islands and Cape Verde) and Western Africa (initially in Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia) to support mapping activities and topography, differential correction networks, in-depth scientific studies, and to promote the AFREF project as an essential development for our continent.
UR: http://www.canarygnsscenter.org
DE: 1240 Satellite geodesy: results (6929, 7215, 7230, 7240)
DE: 1241 Satellite geodesy: technical issues (6994, 7969)
SC: Geodesy [G]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting