The Western Crete geodetic infrastructure: Long-range power-law correlations in GPS time series using Detrended Fluctuation Analysis

The Global Positioning System makes it possible, nowadays, to measure crustal displacements with unprecedented accuracy. These measurements can improve our understanding of the spatio-temporal evolution of motion along tectonic plate boundaries, as well as deepen our comprehension for the nature of earthquake fault behavior and earthquake cycle. The Hellenic subduction zone and the earthquake-prone Crete, with large crustal motions of 3–4 cm/yr, may provide such a natural laboratory for this type of investigation. In this work, we examine the statistical structure and behavior of time series, as produced by permanent GPS sites, established on the islands of Crete and Gavdos.     

The contribution of local gravimetric geoid models to the calibration of satellite altimetry data and an outlook of the latest GOCE GGM performance in Gavdos

The use of geoid heights has been one of the available methodologies utilized for the independent calibration/validation of altimeters on-board satellites. This methodology has been employed for long in the Gavdos dedicated cal/val facility (Crete, Greece), where calibration results for the Jason satellites have been estimated, both for ascending and descending passes. The present work gives a detailed overview of the methodology followed in order to estimate a high-resolution and accuracy gravimetric geoid model for the wider Gavdos area, in support of the on-going calibration work. To estimate the geoid model, the well-known remove-compute-restore method is used while residual geoid heights are estimated through least-squares collocation so that associated errors are determined as well. It is found that the estimated formal geoid errors from LSC along passes 018 and 109 of Jason satellites, used for the bias estimation, range between ±0.8–1.6 cm. The so-derived geoid heights are employed in the determination of the Jason-2 altimeter bias for all available cycles (cycles 1-114, spanning the period from July 2008 to August 2011) together with the RioMed DOT model. From the results acquired the Jason-2 bias has been estimated to be +196.1 ± 3.2 mm for pass 109 and +161.9 ± 5.1 mm for pass 018. Within the same frame, the GOCE/GRACE-based geopotential model GOCO02s has been used to estimate the mean dynamic ocean topography and the steady-state circulation in the area around Gavdos. The so-derived DOT model was used to estimate the Jason-2 bias in an effort to evaluate the performance of satellite-only geoid models and investigate whether their spatial resolution and accuracy provides some improvement w.r.t. traditional local gravimetric geoids. From the results acquired with geoid heights from GOCO02s, the estimated Jason-2 bias deviates significantly from that of the local gravimetric model, which can be attributed to a possible mean offset and the low resolution of GOCE-based GGMs. On the other hand, when the newly estimated GOCE-based DOT was employed with geoid heights from the local gravimetric geoid model, the Jason-2 bias has been estimated to be +185.1 ± 3.2 mm for pass 109 and +130.2 ± 5.1 mm for pass 018.     

DORIS and GPS monitoring of the Gavdos calibration site in Crete

Due to its specific geographical location as well as its geodetic equipment (DORIS, GNSS, microwave transponder and tide gauges), the Gavdos station in Crete, Greece is one of the very few sites around the world used for satellite altimetry calibration. To investigate the quality of the Gavdos geodetic coordinates and velocities, we analyzed and compared here DORIS and GPS-derived results obtained during several years of observations. The DORIS solution is the latest ignwd11 solution at IGN, expressed in ITRF2008, while the GPS solution was obtained using the GAMIT software package. Current results show that 1–2 mm/yr agreement can be obtained for 3-D velocity, showing a good agreement with current geophysical models. In particular, the agreement obtained for the vertical velocity is around 0.3–0.4 mm/yr, depending on the terrestrial reference frame. As a by-product of these geodetic GPS and DORIS results, Zenith Tropospheric Delays (ZTDs) estimations were also compared in 2010 between these two techniques, and compared to ECMWF values, showing a 6.6 mm agreement in dispersion without any significant difference between GPS and DORIS (with a 97.6% correlation), but with a 13–14 mm agreement in dispersion when comparing to ECMWF model (with only about 90% correlation for both techniques). These tropospheric delay estimations could also provide an external calibration of the tropospheric correction used for the geophysical data of satellite altimetry missions.     

Altimetry,bathymetry and geoid variations at the Gavdos permanent Cal/Val facility

The aim of this work has been to examine the relationship of steep bathymetry in the coastal areas around the permanent Cal/Val facility of Gavdos, and their influence on the produced calibration values for the Jason-2 satellite altimeter. The paper describes how changes in seafloor topography (from 200 to 3500 m depth over a distance of 10 km) are reflected on the determined altimeter parameters using different reference surfaces for satellite calibration. Finally, it describes the relation between these parameter trends and the region’s local characteristics.     

Studies of the radiation budget anomalies over Antarctica during 1974–1983, and their possible relationship to climatic variations

We present the results of a study of anomalies, which are defined as differences of seasonal means from the data set seasonal means, in the Earth's radiation budget from the analysis of nine years of ten day mean observations derived from the NOAA polar orbiter satellites for the period, 1974–1983. We estimate that the standard deviation in the outgoing longwave flux for this period is less than 12 Wm^?2 and typically 7 Wm^?2. The results show that there are several geographical areas for which the standard deviation is in excess of 20 Wm^?2; in such regions the radiation budget anomalies exceeded these due to natural atmospheric variability. In this paper we discuss the relationship of these anomalies with climatic change.