81757 - Space Geodetic Techniques

Learning outcomes

Designed to provide the students with an up-to-date knowledge of the most important and accurate space geodetic techniques. During the last few decades, observing and studying the planet Earth have made considerable and fast progresses thanks to the availability of high-precision space geodetic techniques and to ever increasing measurement capabilities. Today the millimeter-level positioning is a global scale reality. These accurate and global scale observations have allowed advancing from a static knowledge of the geometric and physical parameters describing our planet to the capability of monitoring the dynamics of the System Earth over different spatial and temporal scales. The Lab will deal with the Global Positioning System (GPS) technique which, nowadays, is widely used for many scientific and societal applications. Lab work includes field experience with GPS receivers and processing of the collected data.

Course contents

Basic knowledge of the principles of space geodetic techniques and relevant applications to studies of the System Earth. Positiong techniques: Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR), Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) and Global Positioning System/Global Navigation Satellite System (GPS/GNSS). Radar techniques: Satellite Radar Altimetry for studying sea level variations and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) for studying crustal deformations. The Lab will provide the capability to  become familiar with GPS/GNSS receivers and acquire observations  that will be analyzed with well-established scientific software such as the Bernese package and Gipsy. Lab work includes field work experience with GPS/GNSS receivers.  

Readings/Bibliography

1) Guenter Seeber, Satellite Geodesy, de Gruyter;
2) Wolfang Torge, Geodesy, de Gruyter;

3) Gerhard Beutler et al. (Edts.), Earth gravity field from space - from sensors to Earth sciences, Kluver Academic Publishers;

4) Hans-Peter Plag and Michael Pearlman (Edts.), Global Geodetic Observing System, Springer.

Teaching methods

Lectures and Laboratory and field work.

Assessment methods

Oral examination of about 40 minutes and field test with GPS receivers

Teaching tools

Computers, projection material, movies and GPS receivers.

Office hours

See the website of Susanna Zerbini