First Report of the Stable North America Reference Frame (SNARF) Working Group
Abstract
We report on the first SNARF Workshop funded by NSF EarthScope, held on Jan 27, 2004. The initial SNARF Working Group membership was approved by the UNAVCO Board and is charged with producing a standard reference frame (for studies in North America) and specifying standard procedures to realize such a frame to meet the needs of EarthScope and the UNAVCO community. SNARF is an official IAG working group under the North America Reference Frame (NAREF) sub-commission. There is also a public service element to these activities in that one objective is for SNARF to become part of the definition of the legal reference frame used in the USA and Canada (NAD83), a natural spin-off demanded by society's increasingly sophisticated needs following on the heels of scientific progress. Through the first workshop, the SNARF WG has already begun to address the pressing needs for a North America-fixed reference frame that is stable at the sub-millimeter level, and what is involved in defining a frame with such stability. Velocity solutions from GPS networks covering the North America-Pacific plate boundary (including the Plate Boundary Observatory under construction) are most naturally expressed with respect to the stable interiors of either the North America or Pacific plates. As well as providing a common frame by which to compare results from different analysis groups, such a system makes it easier to interpret the data in terms of where the total budget of relative plate motion is accomodated, and how deep plate boundary dynamics penetrate into the plate interior. Defining a stable frame at the sub-millimeter level requires adequate characterization of kinematics at that level across a sufficiently broad expanse of what may be termed the "plate interior," which deforms due to GIA and other mantle processes, coupled with lithospheric heterogeneity. A dynamically defined velocity datum (as opposed to a purely kinematic choice) is preferable to add interpretive value to site velocities. We summarize initial findings of the workshop that begin to address these issues, and present a roadmap of what is required to realize a reference frame for stable North America.
- Publication:
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AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004AGUSM.G21C..01B
- Keywords:
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- 1247 Terrestrial reference systems