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NGS Completes Site Survey to Improve Precise Reference Frame

Friday, January 31, 2020

NGS field staff conducted a geodetic local site survey at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which is located below the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii. The site is particularly important to the International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service (IERS) both because of its remote location in the Pacific Ocean and because of the two space geodesy systems at the site - a Very Long Baseline Array antenna station and a Continuously Operating Reference Station that receives data from the Global Navigation Satellite System. IERS uses data from local site surveys, along with satellite observations, to improve the International Terrestrial Reference Frame, which provides the coordinates for the world's navigation systems.

For more information, contact: Ryan Hippenstiel