Supporting GNSS applications in Latin America through the SIRGAS reference frame

V. CIOCE; WILLIAM A. MARTÍNEZ; M.V. MACKERN; SILVIO R. DE FREITAS; R. PEREZ RODINO

Falda del Carmen, Córdoba

Workshop; United Nations / Argentina Workshop on the Applications of Global Navigation Satellite System; 2018

UNOOSA

SIRGAS (Geocentric Reference System for the Americas) represents ITRF (International Terrestrial Reference Frame) continental densification for Latin America. Since 1995 it is offering to user community the possibility to satisfy requirements of stable and consistent reference frame for precise positioning based on GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) supporting wide number of technical and scientific applications inside geosciences branch. This is possible due to highly accurate geodetic network establishment, formerly passive and nowadays well defined and consolidated as continuously operating network called SIRGAS-CON (SIRGAS Continuously Operating Network), it is integrated by 400 GPS (Global Positioning System) and GLONASS (Global´naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema) tracking stations. In this sense, remarks must be done about participation level of Latin America countries which gradually have been modernizing their geodetic infrastructures, and so, densificating the continental reference frame to make it more accessible in practice. Besides, it is evident product coming from international cooperation demonstrated by SIRGAS and its Analysis Centres, to present under an organized work and a constant temporal basis, those results in terms of coordinates and velocities for every station belonging to the network. Inside this context, this contribution shows a landscape of SIRGAS-CON evolution, current status and advantages for GNSS implementation in the region.