EUROPEAN TERRESTRIAL REFERENCE SYSTEM 89 (ETRS89)

Definition

The IAG Subcommision for the European Reference Frame (EUREF) , following its Resolution 1 adopted in Firenze meeting in 1990, recommends that the terrestrial reference system to be adopted by EUREF will be coincident with ITRS at the epoch 1989.0 and fixed to the stable part of the Eurasian Plate. It will be named European Terrestrial Reference System 89 (ETRS89).

Realization

Following its definition, ETRS89 could be realized through several ways, and specifically:

• using ITRS realizations: for each frame labelled ITRF_yy a corresponding frame in ETRS89 can be computed and labelled ETRF_yy.The following ETRF solutions are presently available:
  • ETRF89
  • ETRF90
  • ETRF91
  • ETRF92
  • ETRF93
  • ETRF94
  • ETRF96
  • ETRF97
  • ETRF2000

  The EUREF Technical Working Group (TWG) recommends not to use the ETRF2005 and rather to adopt the ETRF2000 as a conventional frame of the ETRS89 system, see the memo for more details. However, in order to benefit from the quality of ITRF2005 solution, the TWG has also recommended that all European stations coordinates (GNSS, VLBI, SLR and DORIS) which are available in the ITRF2005 to be expressed in the ETRF2000 frame and to call the resulting set of coordinates (positions and velocities) ETRF2000(R05):

  • ETRF2000(R05)
  • ETRF2000(R05) (SINEX file)
    

  Similarly, the European station coordinates available in ITRF2008 solution were also expressed in ETRF2000 and the corresponding list is called ETRF2000(R08):

  • ETRF2000(R08) (Warning, the file format has changed)
  • ETRF2000(R08) (SINEX file)
    
    
• positioning with GNSS measurements of a campaign or permanent stations: using recent ITRF_yy station coordinates and IGS precise ephemerides following the procedure described in (Boucher and Altamimi, 2011): Postscript version, PDF version

Links

• EUREF web site
• ITRF web site