Using OPUS for Measuring Vertical Displacements in Houston, Texas

Abstract

The Houston area has been suffering from subsidence for several decades. Therefore, continuously operating reference stations (CORS) in this area may have experienced considerable vertical displacements. The Online Positioning User Service (OPUS), provided by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS), uses CORS as references in its data processing. This study investigated what effects, if any, the subsidence experienced by these CORS around Houston contributes to the accuracy of OPUS vertical results. Our OPUS results were determined from three long-term (over 10-year) blocks of continuous data using Global Positioning System (GPS) stations located in different parts of the Houston area. The OPUS results were compared with the vertical measurements from the precise point positioning with single receiver phase ambiguity (PPP-SRPA) solution implicit in the