The velocities of the Global Positioning System (GPS) stations are widely employed for numerous geodynamical studies. The aim of this paper is to investigate the reliability of station velocities and to draw reader’s attention that for proper estimates of velocity, we need to consider the optimal character of noise. We focus on a set of 115 European GPS stations which contributed to the newest release of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF), i.e. ITRF2014. Based on stacked Power Spectral Densities (PSDs), we show that amplitudes o f seasonal signals are significant for nine harmonics of tropical year (365.25 days) and two harmonics of draconitic year (351.60 days). The amplitudes of tropical annual signal fall between 0.1-8.4 mm and are much higher for vertical component than for horizontal. Draconitic annual signal reaches the maximum amplitudes of 1.2 and 0.9 mm for North and East, respectively, whereas is slightly higher for the Up component with a maximum of 3.1 mm. We performed a noise analysis with Maximum Like lihood Estimation (MLE) and found that stations in Central and Northern Europe are characterized by spectral index between flicker and random-walk noise, while stations in Southern and Western Europe: between white and flicker noise. Both amplitudes and spectral indices of power-law noise show a spatial correlation for Up component. We compared the uncertainties of velocities derived in this study with a combination of power-law and white noises to the ones offici ally released in the ITRF2014 with a pure white noise. A ratio of the two estimates is larger than 10 for 13 % and 30 % of stations in horizontal and vertical direction, respectively with medians of 6 and 7. The large differences support the fact that at the velocity determination the proper noise characteristic should be taken into account to avoid any mislead interpretation., Anna Klos and Janusz Bogusz., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Water is one of the most important components of the environment, having a direct effect on the maintenance of life on the Earth. In this paper, analysis of groundwater level variations, water balance and all the parameters included in these quantities, i.e. precipitation, evapotranspiration, surface run-off and subsurface run-off, were performed in the area of the Sudety Mountains for the period of November 2002 - October 2015. The groundwater level variations were computed on the basis of the mean Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS) values determined from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) observations and Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLD AS). TWS data have been determined with a spatial resolution of one degree and temporal resolution of one month. According to the results, groundwater level variation can be approximately determined by water balance changes (with reverse sign). Specifically, for the Sudety area a high average stability of total water storage over the period of past 13 years and decline in groundwater level by about 13 cm (approximately 1 cm/year) was detected., Zofia Rzepecka, Monika Birylo, Joanna Kuczynska-Siehien, Jolanta Nastula and Katarzyna Pajak., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
High temperature alters the internal microstructure of rocks and consequently changes the physical and mechanical properties of rocks. Many studies have been carried out to examine the transformations in the microstructures of rocks under high temperature through near infrared spectroscopy (NIR), Raman spectroscopy, or thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). The current review synthesizes the data from a number of literatures and summarizes the major transformations of silica rocks under high temperature. The analysis shows that silica rocks starts to lose the water adsorbed in open pores upon heating at about 150 °C. At 200-300 °C, the reaction between SiOH (silanole) in the rocks generates new Si-O-Si bonds as well as H2O, and decreases the open pores. The rocks undergo volume expansion at >550 °C, and the volume contracts and forms new micro pores or cracks which play an important role in the evacuation of the water., Jishi Geng, Qiang Sun, Yuchun Zhang and Yuliang Zhang., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The use of Continuously Operating Reference Stations, both singly and as part of an active network, is widely employed in surveying, engineering and other geomatics applications, achieving high accuracy positioning even in real time. With an active network the measurements of the reference stations are processed jointly in order to model the errors and compute network RTK corrections. Due to distance dependent errors (ionospheric and tropospheric delays), single base RTK positioning accuracy decreases with increased baseline length. However, the network solution (NRTK) retains the accuracy and the time to fix ambiguities (TTFA) at a constant level. This study aims to contribute to the scientific research on real time positioning based on active networks. In Southern Spain, ERGNSS, a national CORS network that provides GNSS data for post-processing and real time single- b ased reference station corrections, shares territory with the Andalusian Positioning Network (RAP), a local active network. RAP provides network an d single-based RTK corrections. In order to analyze the quality of real time positioning based on both networks, several tests have been performed on a sample of test points. The reference frame, the time to fix ambiguity resolution, precision, accuracy and repeatability of RTK positioning are considered as the evaluation parameters. The results confirm that the RAP network complements the precise positioning services provided by the ERGNSS network, ensuring accurate real time positioning, full cove rage and reliable positioning services in the Andalusian Community., Mª Selmira Garrido, Antonio J. Gil and Rafael Gaitán., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Since October 2011, the Russian GLObal NAvigation Satellite System (GLONASS) has been revitalized and is now fully operational with 24 satellites in orbit. It is critical to assess the benefits and problems of using GLONASS observations (i.e. GLONASS-only or combined Global Positioning System (GPS) and GLONASS) for precise positioning and zenith total delay (ZTD) retrieval on a global scale using precise point positioning (PPP) technique. In this contribution, extensive evaluations are conducted with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data sets collected from 251 globally distributed stations of the International GNSS Service (IGS) network in July 2016. The stations are divided into 30 groups by antenna/radome types to investigate whether there are ante nna/radome-dependent biases in position and ZTD derived from GLONASS-only PPP. The positioning results do not show obvious antenna/radome-dependent biases except the stations with JAV_RINGANT_G3T/NONE. For these stations, the averaged biases in horizontal component, especially in the north component, can achieve as high as -9.0 mm. The standard de viation (STD) and root mean square (RMS) are used as indicators of positioning repeatability and accuracy, respectively. The averaged horizontal STD and RMS of GLONASS-only PPP are comparable to GPS-only PPP, while in vertical component, those for GLONASS-only P PP are larger. Furthermore, the STD and RMS of GPS+GLONASS combined PPP solutions are the smallest in horizontal and vertical components, indicating that adding GLONASS observations can achieve better positioning performance than GPS-only PPP. With the IGS final ZTD as reference, we find that ZTD biases and accuracy of GLONASS-only are latitude - and antenna/radome-independent. The ZTD accuracy of GLONASS-only PPP is slightly worse than that of GPS-only PPP. Compared with GPS-only PPP, the ZTD accuracy is only improved by 1.3% from 7.8 to 7.7 mm by adding GLONASS observations., Feng Zhou, Shengfeng Gu, Wen Chen and Danan Dong., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
We estimated the common seasonal signal (annual oscillation) included in the Global Positioning System (GPS) vertical position time series by using Multichannel Singular Spectrum Analysis (MSSA). We employed time series from 24 International GNSS Service (IGS) stations located in Europe which contributed to the newest ITRF 2014 (International Terrestrial Reference Frame). The MSSA method has an advantage over the traditional modelling of seasonal signals by the Least-Squares Estimation (LSE) and Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) approaches because it can extract time-varying and common seasonal oscillations for stations located in the considered area. Having estimated the annual curve with LSE, we may make a misfit of 3 mm when a peak-to-peak variations of seasonal si gnals are to be estimated due to the time-variability of seasonal signal. A variance of data modelled as annual signal with SSA and MSSA differs of 3 % at average what proves that the MSSA-curves contain only time-varying and common seasonal signal and leave the station-specific part, local phenomena and power-law noise intact. In contrast to MSSA, these effects are modelled by SSA. The differences in spectral indices of power-law noise between MSSA and LSE esti mated with Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) are closer to zero than the ones between SSA and LSE, which means that MSSA curves do not contain site-specific noise as much as the SSA curves do., Marta Gruszczynska, Anna Klos, Severine Rosat and Janusz Bogusz., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Microseismic monitoring has become a standard technique to map the development of hydraulic fracturing. This study is a case study of a downhole monitoring of the hydraulic fracturing in a lateral well in Northern Poland. The downhole monitoring array detected a large number of microseismic events indicating successful development of a hydraulic fracture. We show evidence that some stages interacted with the pre-existing natural fault system also mapped from surface active seismic imaging. The mapped hydraulic fracture shows a slight asymme try of the developed hydraulic fractures. We show that the observed microseismicity is cons istent with microseismicity usually observed in the North American shale gas stimulations., Eryk Święch, Paweł Wandycz, Leo Eisner, Andrzej Pasternacki and Tomasz Maćkowski., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The deformation measurements are performed for the purpose of obtaining information concerning ground movement and objects on the ground within given time intervals. For the purpose of improving conventional models of deformation analysis (CDA) it is desirable to use several different methods and also implement alternative proce dures as a further improvement, such as the concept of robust geodetic networks and strain analysis, aimed at obtaining objective information about the movements. In the present paper, in addition to the CDA methods, we also analyze the robust methods in deformation detecting and the method of the strain analysis based on elasticity theory as a supplement to the conventional geometric deformation methods (CDA). The mentioned methods are applied and analysed for the case of a test example of Fruška Gora in Serbia, for which there exist geological and geophysical studies of recent tectonic movements. The measuring results for two measuring epochs concern the GNSS vectors measured by applying the fast static method within closed polygons over a ten-year interval, where only the horizontal movement component is analysed. The efficiency of the applied CDA and robust methods is measured by applying a mean success rate (MSR) by applying Monte Carlo simulations in order to investigate the efficiency of a given methods for a given control network., Zoran Sušić, Mehmed Batilović, Toša Ninkov, Vladimir Bulatović, Ivan Aleksić and Gojko Nikolić., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Using the FLAC3D numerical simulation method, the characteristics of mining stress evolution, fault activation patterns, and fault energy evolution characteristics are simulated and analyzed in the process of the footwall and hanging wall working face heading to a normal fault. The study shows that the fault cut off the mining stress propagation of overlying strata, and the stress blocking effect due to the fault is evident. When working faces head towards a fault, the abutment pressure and the vertical stress of the surrounding rock increase first and subsequently decrease. The abutment pressure of the coal wall and fault is highest when the distances to the fault are 40 m and 30 m for the footwall and hanging wall working faces, respectively. Moreover, the hanging wall mining stress is higher than the footwall mining stress. Fault activation in high-located strata precedes that in low-located strata when working faces head towards the normal fault. Energy is gradually accumulated before unstable fault events take place because of mining, and fault instability quickly releases a lot of energy. The mining stress concentration and fault activation due to faults easily result in rock bursts and mine seismicity, Wu Quan-sen, Jiang Li-shuai and Wu Quan-lin., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The case study of a ground steps creation due to underground mining in Upper Silesia Basin, where for many years was conducted intensive hard coal extraction has been presented in this paper. This type of linear discontinuous deformations is considered as an important threat to the surface building constructions and elements of underground technical infrastructure. This threat is even more important, that presently still we do not have methods for predictions of such phenomena, and protection of building constructions against such damages is difficult, if not impossible. On the basis of the analyzes results shown in the paper, the following factors were pointed, that favor the formation of mining-induced ground steps: the presence of fault outcrops in the vicinity of extraction fields, multiple extraction in several coal seams led to the same border and large values of tensile horizontal strain., Piotr Strzałkowski and Roman Ścigała., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy