For the first time in the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) history, the ITRF2014 is generated with an enhanced modeling of nonlinear station motions, including seasonal (annual and semiannual) signals of station positions and postseismic deformation for sites that were subject to major earthquakes. Using the full observation history of the four space geodetic techniques (very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), satellite laser ranging (SLR), Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), and Doppler orbitography and radiopositioning integrated by satellite (DORIS)), the corresponding international services provided reprocessed time series (weekly from SLR and DORIS, daily from GNSS, and 24 h session‐wise from VLBI) of station positions and daily Earth Orientation Parameters. ITRF2014 is demonstrated to be superior to past ITRF releases, as it precisely models the actual station trajectories leading to a more robust secular frame and site velocities. The ITRF2014 long‐term origin coincides with the Earth system center of mass as sensed by SLR observations collected on the two LAGEOS satellites over the time span between 1993.0 and 2015.0. The estimated accuracy of the ITRF2014 origin, as reflected by the level of agreement with the ITRF2008 (both origins are defined by SLR), is at the level of less than 3 mm at epoch 2010.0 and less than 0.2 mm/yr in time evolution. The ITRF2014 scale is defined by the arithmetic average of the implicit scales of SLR and VLBI solutions as obtained by the stacking of their respective time series. The resulting scale and scale rate differences between the two solutions are 1.37 (±0.10) ppb at epoch 2010.0 and 0.02 (±0.02) ppb/yr. While the postseismic deformation models were estimated using GNSS/GPS data, the resulting parametric models at earthquake colocation sites were applied to the station position time series of the three other techniques, showing a very high level of consistency which enforces more the link between techniques within the ITRF2014 frame. The users should be aware that the postseismic deformation models are part of the ITRF2014 products, unlike the annual and semiannual signals, which were estimated internally with the only purpose of enhancing the velocity field estimation of the secular frame.

ITRF2008 is a refined version of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame based on reprocessed solutions of the four space geodetic techniques: VLBI, SLR, GPS and DORIS, spanning 29, 26, 12.5 and 16 years of observations, respectively. The input data used in its elaboration are time series (weekly from satellite techniques and 24-h sessionwise from VLBI) of station positions and daily Earth Orientation Parameters (EOPs). The ITRF2008 origin is defined in such a way that it has zero translations and translation rates with respect to the mean Earth center of mass, averaged by the SLR time series. Its scale is defined by nullifying the scale factor and its rate with respect to the mean of VLBI and SLR long-term solutions as obtained by stacking their respective time series. The scale agreement between these two technique solutions is estimated to be 1.05 ± 0. that exhibits a Z-translation drift of 1.8 mm/yr with respect to ITRF2005. An evaluation of the ITRF2008 origin accuracy based on the level of its agreement with ITRF2005 is believed to be at the level of 1 cm over the time-span of the SLR observations. Considering the level of scale consistency between VLBI and SLR, the ITRF2008 scale accuracy is evaluated to be at the level of 1.2 ppb (8 mm at the equator) over the common time-span of the observations of both techniques. Although the performance of the ITRF2008 is demonstrated to be higher than ITRF2005, future ITRF improvement resides in improving the consistency between local ties in co-location sites and space geodesy estimates.

[1] The ITRF2008 velocity field is demonstrated to be of higher quality and more precise than past ITRF solutions. We estimated an absolute tectonic plate motion model made up of 14 major plates, using velocities of 206 sites of high geodetic quality (far from plate boundaries, deformation zones and Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) regions), derived from and consistent with ITRF2008. The precision of the estimated model is evaluated to be at the level of 0.3 mm/a WRMS. No GIA corrections were applied to site velocities prior to estimating plate rotation poles, as our selected sites are outside the Fennoscandia regions where the GIA models we tested are performing reasonably well, and far from GIA areas where the models would degrade the fit (Antarctica and North America). Our selected velocity field has small origin rate bias components following the three axis (X, Y, Z), respectively 0.41 AE 0.54, 0.22 AE 0.64 and 0.41 AE 0.60 (95 per cent confidence limits). Comparing our model to NNR-NUVEL-1A and the newly available NNR-MORVEL56, we found better agreement with NNR-MORVEL56 than with NNR-NUVEL-1A for all plates, except for Australia where we observe an average residual rotation rate of 4 mm/a. Using our selection of sites, we found large global X-rotation rates between the two models (0.016 /Ma) and between our model and NNR-MORVEL56 of 0.023 /Ma, equivalent to 2.5 mm/a at the Earth surface.

For various geodetic and geophysical applications, users need to have access to a plate motion model (PMM) that is consistent with the ITRF2014 frame. This paper describes the approach used for determining a PMM from the horizontal velocities of a subset of the ITRF2014 sites away from plate boundaries, Glacial Isostatic Adjustment regions and other deforming zones. In theory it would be necessary to include in the inversion model a translational motion vector (called in this paper origin rate bias, ORB) that would represent the relative motion between the ITRF2014 origin (long-term averaged centre of mass of the Earth as sensed by SLR) and the centre of tectonic plate motion. We show that in practice, the magnitude of the estimated ORB is strongly dependent on the selection of ITRF2014 sites used for the PMM adjustment. Its Z-component can in particular range between 0 and more than 1 mm yr −1 depending on the station network used, preventing any geophysical interpretation of the estimated value. Relying on rigorous statistical criteria, the site selection finally adopted for the ITRF2014-PMM adjustment leads to a relatively small ORB (0.30 ± 0.18 mm yr −1 in the Z-component), which is statistically insignificant at the 2-sigma level, but also according to an F-ratio test. Therefore we opted for an ITRF2014-PMM without estimating the ORB, which in turn accommodates geodetic applications that require access to the ITRF2014 frame through pure plate rotation poles.

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International audienceThree-dimensional ground deformation measured with permanent GPS stations inWest Africa was used for investigating the hydrological loading deformation associatedwith Monsoon precipitation. The GPS data were processed within a global network for the2003–2008 period. Weekly station positions were retrieved with a repeatability (includingunmodeled loading effects) of 1–2 mm in the horizontal components and between 2.5and 6 mm in the vertical component. The annual signal in the vertical component forsites located between 9.6N and 16.7N is in the range 10–15 mm. It is consistent at the3 mm-level with the annual regional-scale loading deformations estimated from GRACEsatellite products and modeled with a combination of hydrological, atmospheric, andnontidal oceanic models. An additional 6 month transient signal was detected in the verticalcomponent of GPS estimates at most of the West African sites. It takes the form of anoscillation occurring between September and March, and reaching a maximum amplitude of12–16 mm at Ouagadougou (12.5N). The analysis of in situ hydro-geological data revealeda strong coincidence between this transient signal and peak river discharge at three siteslocated along the Niger River (Timbuktu, Gao, and Niamey). At Ouagadougou, a similarcoincidence was found with the seasonal variations of the water table depth. We propose amechanism to account for this signal that involves a sequence of swelling/shrinking of clayscombined with local loading effects associated with flooding of the Niger River

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Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) models commonly assume a mantle with a viscoelastic Maxwell rheology and a fixed ice history model. Here, we use a Bayesian Monte Carlo approach with a Markov chain formalism to invert the global GIA signal simultaneously for the mechanical properties of the mantle and the volumes of the ice sheets, using as starting ice models two previously published ice histories. Two stress relaxing rheologies are considered: Burgers and Maxwell linear viscoelasticities. A total of 5720 global palaeo sea level records are used, covering the last 35 kyr. Our goal is not only to seek the model best fitting this data set, but also to determine and display the range of possible solutions with their respective probability of explaining the data. In all cases, our a posteriori probability maps exhibit the classic character of solutions for GIA-determined mantle viscosity with two distinct peaks. What is new in our treatment is the presence of the bi-viscous Burgers rheology and the fact that we invert rheology jointly with ice history, in combination with the greatly expanded palaeo sea level records. The solutions tend to be characterized by an upper-mantle viscosity of around 5 × 10 20 Pa s with one preferred lower-mantle viscosities at 3 × 10 21 Pa s and the other more than 2 × 10 22 Pa s, a rather classical pairing. Best-fitting models depend upon the starting ice history and the stress relaxing law. A first peak (P1) has the highest probability only in the case with a Maxwell rheology and ice history based on ICE-5G, while the second peak (P2) is favoured for ANU-based ice history or Burgers stress relaxation. The latter solution also may satisfy lower-mantle viscosity inferences from long-term geodynamics and gravity gradient anomalies over Laurentia. P2 is also consistent with large Laurentian and Fennoscandian icesheet volumes at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and smaller LGM Antarctic ice volume than in either ICE-5G or ANU. Exploration of a bi-viscous linear relaxing rheology in GIA now seems logical due to a new set of requirements to satisfy observations of transient post-seismic flow seen so ubiquitously in space gravimetry and other global geodetic data.