Impact of Ambiguity Resolution and Orbit Reprocessing on the Global Reference Frame

GPS can now be used to realize a terrestrial reference frame one site at a time with ambiguity resolution. Calibration from other techniques comes in the form of satellite and receiver antenna patterns and seven daily transformation parameters. As knowledge of antenna patterns and orbits improves, daily scale and geocenter adjustments will diminish and may eventually become unnecessary. In this study we investigate the impact of ambiguity resolution and orbit reprocessing on realizations of the terrestrial reference frame. Improved orbits and clocks from a third round of processing at JPL's IGS Analysis Center will be used realize the IGS08 reference frame with and without ambiguity resolution. The resulting frames will be compared to each other and to the IGS08 reference solution.