****************************************************************************** DORISMail 15-Oct-2003 09:05:14 Message No 0266 ****************************************************************************** Author: "H. Fagard" Subject: New IDS station at Gavdos (Greece) Dear Colleagues, Following a proposal by TUC (Technical University of Crete) withing the frame of the IDS to host a DORIS station as part of a radar altimeter calibration and sea-level monitoring site, a new DORIS station has been installed at Gavdos, a small island 40 km South of the southern coast of Crete, located right under a crossing point of the ground tracks of Topex-Poseidon and Jason-1. For more information about the Gavdos project, please visit http://www.gavdos.tuc.gr/. The DORIS equipment consists of a third generation beacon and a Starec antenna. The beacon and batteries are hosted in a small shelter that also hosts a permanent GPS receiver, and the antenna is supported by a 1.1 meter high, 40 cm concrete pillar, anchored in a limestone outcrop. Since there is no mains power currently available at Gavdos, our Greek colleagues have installed a hefty "green" power supply system, consisting of: - eight solar panels providing up to 440 W (under 1 kW/m2 irradiance), - one wind generator providing 400 W (for a 12.5 m/s wind speed), - eight 115 Ah batteries (i.e. 920 Ah in total) for energy storage. The DORIS beacon is directly connected to the batteries, without using the charger that is normally part of the DORIS third generation station set. The name of the station is "Gavdos" and its acronym in the data files is GAVB. Transmissions started on September 27, 2003. The DOMES number for the antenna reference point is 12618S001. Its coordinates (ITRF2000, 2003.71), derived from a connection to the surrounding IGS stations processed with the Bernese software, are: X= 4783636.52 m Y= 2140697.64 m Z= 3623255.30 m (sigma: 2 cm) No ITRF nor GPS-derived velocities are available yet for this site. Please note that: - like other stations installed following IDS proposals, it is not - for the time being - considered part of the "DORIS permanent orbitography network". - in order to avoid jamming with the Dionysos station, DIOA has been temporarily turned to standby. This allows Gavdos to transmit on the nominal frequency and hence be received on all DORIS-equiped satellites. Best regards, Herve Fagard -- ====================================================================== Herve FAGARD e-mail : herve.fagard@ign.fr Institut Geographique National 94165 SAINT-MANDE CEDEX PHONE : + 33 1 43 98 81 48 FRANCE FAX : + 33 1 43 98 84 50 ====================================================================== Please do not reply directly to this message, but send comments and suggestions to IDS.central.bureau@cls.fr