Influence of Geophysical Signals on Coordinate Variations GNSS Permanent Stations in Central Europe

This article presents an analysis of the extent of the impact of deformations of the earth’s crust resulting from geophysical models on changes in the coordinates of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations. The author presents the results of analyses of the spatial correlation coefficient of deformation components for the non-tidal atmospheric loading (NTAL), non-tidal ocean loading (NTOL) and hydrological loading (HYDRO) models of geophysical deformation. In addition, the author calculated the correlation coefficients between station’s coordinate series to determine whether the deformations of the earth’s crust have a more global, large-area (regional scale) or local-range (local scale) impact, limited to the nearest of stations. In addition to correlation coefficients, the author analysed the similarity in periodic components between station coordinates by calculating the coherence between them. The results of the analysis showed that for the height components (Up), we observe the global range of deformation models, and the NTAL deformation has the greatest influence on the change in them. The lack of correlation between coordinate signals for horizontal components may result from specific local conditions in the place of the station, low-resolution of geophysical models and small amplitudes of these signals in relation to noise. An analysis of the coherence coefficients showed that each station coordinates shows completely different periodic components in the North, East and Up directions.