News from SKPOS – 2nd half of 2024
Control software upgrade
We have upgraded the SKPOS control software to TPP version 5.2. The main feature of the new version is the suppression of increased ionospheric activity in the form of IonoGuard technology for network solution corrections. Furthermore, NREM messages for Galileo and BeiDou satellites have been added in the correction data. These reports contain information about the quality of the interpolation of the satellites in the networked solution and can be used by GNSS receivers as a weight in determining their position.
New reference station in Prešov
The reference station in Prešov (PRSV) has been moved from the roof to the pillar stabilization. We are making the change to pillar stabilization because pillar stabilization meets the criteria for geodynamics research, and we can mount InSAR passive reflectors on the pillar. The original PRES station will serve as a monitoring station.
New foreign reference station
The Hungarian reference station Györ (GYFH) has been relocated to the Pér site (MPER). In addition to the site itself, the type of stabilization has also changed, moving from the original roof of the building to the current pillar.
Replacement of the antenna at the HUVO reference station
The antenna at the Hurbanovo reference station (HUVO) was replaced with a new Zephyr 3 Geodetic antenna.
New physical monitoring stations MOPI, PRES, RISO, TUKE
New physical monitoring stations have been set up to complement the monitoring of the network solution based on virtual reference stations. The number of physical monitoring stations reached 6. The Prešov station (PRES) changed its status from reference to monitoring. Stations Modra (MOPI), Rimavská Sobota (RISO) were established in cooperation with the Department of Theoretical Geodesy and Geoinformatics, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava and station Košice (TUKE) was established in cooperation with the Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Geographical Information Systems, Faculty of Mining, Ecology, Process Control and Geotechnologies, Technical University in Košice. More information about the monitoring of the quality of the network solution can be found on the monitoring website.
Number of users
In October we surpassed the threshold of 3500 registered users. While we waited 10 years for the first thousand, the second fell in another 5 years, the third in 3 years and we expect the fourth within the next year.
Record number of simultaneous connections
During the third week of October, we set a record for the number of simultaneous connections, with 814 in one second. The record set in April was thus broken by 42 connections.
Publications and presentations
In the past six months, we published several professional articles - an article on the concept of the nearest reference station was published in the Geodetický a kartografický obzor magazine and an article on the testing of the third-generation BeiDou satellites was published in the Slovenský geodet a kartograf magazine. We presented the national report at the EUREF International Symposium and reported on the national report and new developments in GNSS and InSAR collocation at the EUPOS meeting. We also presented our poster on on geokinematics of Slovakia at the Geophysical Conference..
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