Modern Geodetic Reference Frames for Precise Satellite Positioning and Navigation

The NAD83 and WGS84 reference coordinate frames were established more than a decade ago to satisfy most mapping, charting, positioning and navigation applications. They are consistent at the 1-2 metre level on a continental and global scales respectively, reflecting the limitations of available data and techniques. With rapid improvements in positioning accuracy, mainly due to GPS, submetre navigation has become practical and reference frames at the cm to mm level are required by the most demanding users. The IERS Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) was established in 1988 by the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) to facilitate precise monitoring of the Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP) based on state-of-the-art techniques such as Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) and Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR). With the establishment of the International GPS Service for Geodynamics (IGS) in 1994, the ITRF is directly accessible to users world-wide by means of precise global GPS satellite orbit/clock solutions and a large number of IGS monitoring stations. The most recent ITRF solutions, designated ITRF92 and ITRF93, are based on space geodetic observations including GPS up to the end of 1993 providing global consistency at the cm level. The Canadian Active Control System (CACS) facilitates access to ITRF through active participation in IGS and VLBI. Fiducial VLBI points included in NAD83 provide a direct link to ITRF and make it possible to upgrade NAD83 coordinates in order to satisfy positioning and navigation requirements with cm precision in the future. CACS facilitates the most efficient connections to the ITRF and NAD83 reference frames for high precision positioning by GPS as well as for general spatial referencing needs in Canada. 1