DPOD2008: A DORIS-Oriented Terrestrial Reference Frame for Precise Orbit Determination

While accuracy of tracking station coordinates is of key importance for Precise Orbit Determination (POD) for altimeter satellites, reliability and operationality are also of great concern. In particular, while recent ITRF realizations should be the most accurate at the time of their computation, they cannot be directly used by the POD groups for operational consideration for several reasons such as new stations appearing in the network or new discontinuities affecting station coordinates. For POD purposes, we computed a new DORIS terrestrial frame called DPOD2008 derived from ITRF2008 (as previously done by DPOD2005 with regards to ITRF2005). In a first step, we will present the method used to validate the past ITRF2008 using more recent DORIS data and to derive new station positions and velocities, when needed. In particular, discontinuities in DORIS station positions and/or velocities are discussed. To derive new DORIS station coordinates, we used recent DORIS weekly time series of coordinates, recent GPS relevant time series at co-located sites and also dedicated GPS campaigns performed by IGN when installing new DORIS beacons. DPOD2008 also contains additional metadata that are useful when processing DORIS data, for example, periods during which DORIS data should not be used or at least for which data should be downweighted. In several cases, a physical explanation can be found for such temporary antenna instability. We then demonstrate improvements seen when using different reference frames, such as the original ITRF2008 solution, for precise orbit determination of altimeter satellites TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-2 over selected periods spanning 1993–2013.