The Use of the Euref Permanent GPS Network for the Maintenance of the European Terrestrial Reference frame

Taking into account the growing number of permanent GPS stations in Europe, the EUREF subcommission decided in 1995 to coordinate the activities related to this network for the maintenance of the European Reference Frame.The EUREF permanent GPS network, which is the European densification of the IGS network, presently consists of more than 60 GPS stations, covering 23 countries all over Europe. The processing scheme allows for distributed processing : 10 Local Analysis Centers each analyze a part of the EUREF network. One analysis center is responsible for merging the individual subnetwork solutions into one European solution. This solution in submitted to the International GPS Service for Geodynamics (IGS) within the frame of the IGS Densification Project.Weekly free-network solutions for Europe are available since April 1996. The mean RMS values of the coordinate residuals of the combined solution with respect to the individual solutions is about 2 mm for the north and east components and 6 mm for the height component. The agreement between the solutions of the different analysis centers is of the same quality as the week-to-week repeatabilities of each analysis center.In may 1997, EUREF submitted its solution to the International Earth Rotation Service. As a result, all EUREF stations will show up in the next realization of the International Terrestrial Reference System.