Scientific Research Through Laser Ranging
The ILRS supports scientific research and data analysis using Satellite and Lunar Laser Ranging data and their products. The aim of these activities is primarily focused on geodetic and geophysical parameter estimation and geophysical model development. Furthermore, the main thrust of these activities addresses the needs of IERS with products that contribute to the development of an ever more accurate International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). The unique ability of ILRS to sense the Earth System center of mass with high accuracy, makes these products invaluable in the development of the ITRF, the prime product is the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS). The ILRS data and products are collected and generated under strict standards and they contribute to a wide range of scientific, engineering, and operational applications and experimentation.
In addition to collecting, merging, archiving and distributing Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) and Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) the ILRS interacts with the other IAG (Int. Assoc. of Geodesy) services under the GGOS umbrella, to harmonize the standards and conventions used for its operations and its data analysis and product generation activities. These activities are coordinated, supervised and validated by the Analysis Working Group, with the support of all Analysis Centers and Associate Analysis Centers. The official products of the ILRS are produced by the Combination Centers (primary and back-up) to ensure a unique product for the users with the highest accuracy and fully validated prior to its release. The service encourages international collaboration and strives to include as many different groups from various countries as possible, with a similar variety in the utilized software.
Recent News
Read more...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwqz097N2IY&list=PLIIfsJS7iAuxXGqq0YLAUO_m_06za9vqr
Read more...
https://itrf.ign.fr/en/solutions/ITRF2020
The new reference frame realization includes the contributions of all the IAG Geodetic Services (IVS, ILRS, IDS, IGS) and their Analysis Centers and Combination Centers. The ILRS contribution was based on a reprocessing of SLR data to the LAGEOS, LAGEOS-2 & the two Etalon satellites from 1993.0 to 2020.0 and to LAGEOS only from 1983.0 to 1993.0.
The ILRS ASC is working on an ILRS extended version, the SLRF2020, which will include the SLR stations that were not part of the ITRF2020 solution and will provide instructions on how to get the highest accuracy results when implementing this extended model in SLR data analysis.
Read more...
We thank our station colleagues Andrea Di Mira, Jens Steinborn for their efforts, and congratulate them on this achievement!
During the current campaign (April 17- 30, 2022) ILRS stations in the Eastern Region of the Indian Ocean (Asia, Australia) will track IRNSS 1C plus IRNSS -1D. ILRS stations in the Western Region of the Indian Ocean (Europe, Africa) will track IRNSS 1C plus IRNSS- 1I. The IRNSS tracking data from the campaigns will be used to assess the performance of these IRNSS satellites, in a similar way to that used to validate the performance of other GNSS constellations such as Galileo.
Read more...
The following definitions have been agreed to:
- A pass is defined as all tracking that lasts less than a full satellite period. For geosynchronous satellites, the duration is capped at 24 hours; this is the standard product.
- A pass-segment is another term for a session (interval of continuous data) which is a reflection of how the data was taken at the station and submitted to the data centers. A single pass-segment/session is counted from one H1 to H8.
A pass includes all data taken on a satellite during one transit over the station. The pass-segment is just a magnification of how the data was taken and submitted.
Key Dates:
- June 20, 2022 (Abstract deadline)
- July 25, 2022 (Early registration deadline)
For more information, check the URL for the meeting: www.refag2022.org
Meetings
Many meetings have been canceled or postponed due to COVID-19. Please see the Meetings page for futher information.