NERC BNSC ILRS SGF Home Page IGS
Welcome to the Space Geodesy Facility Website
Tour the Facility Site Laser Telescope
General Information Leaflet SLR GPS EO
Site Photos Local weather

System Checks

Daily QC on global ILRS Data Automatic SLR Normal Point Analysis Service. Longarc and Shortarc 

Daily QC on Herstmonceux GNSS Data
HERS(Alt/Az and Range) HERT(Alt/Az and Range)

A Dynamic Priority Table for all ILRS satellites.  Each satellite is given an importance weight and a priority is determined according to the quantity of tracking over the last 10 days

Predictions of Bright Satellites All new lists of predictions (including The International Space Station) from a map of the UK updated DAILY

SGF Steering Committee


SGF Papers in LR Workshops
In October 2005 the SGF hosted the ILRS Technical Workshop.  Visit here for the proceedings.


The Space Geodesy Facility (SGF) exists to support geodetic and geophysical research through satellite tracking data and related products. It is operated as one of the Research Facilities of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), which funds the facility in collaboration with the Ministry of Defence. The SGF is located at Herstmonceux in East Sussex in the grounds of the Bader International Study Centre (BISC) which are also shared by The Observatory Science Centre. Oversight of the work of the Facility through review of its annual report is the responsibility of the S&F-appointed NERC Space Geodesy Steering Committee (NSGSC).

On site at Herstmonceux is a state-of-the-art satellite laser ranging (SLR) system, permanently operating Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GPS and GLONASS) receivers, an absolute gravimeter and meteorological and local water-table monitoring equipment. The station is part of global SLR and GNSS networks, and is registered both with the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) as an Operational SLR Station, that tracks the full constellation of SLR-supported satellite missions, and with the International GNSS Service (IGS) as an IGS site. The SGF GNSS data is also archived and made available through BIGF, the NERC-funded British Isles continuous GNSS Facility. In addition, one SGF receiver (HERT), as part of the EUREF network, is also a EUREF Real-Time data-provider, streaming data directly into the internet for rapid re-broadcast for general  real-time navigational applications. Also hosted on-site is one of the Ordnance Survey (OS) GeoNet 'zero-order' GNSS reference stations, named HERO; 12 of these sites are now established in the British Isles and GeoNet is set to become the new definition of ETRS89 for GB. The site has also been chosen by the British Geological Survey to host one of its broadband seismometers (HMNX) that automatically contributes in realtime to BGS' British Isles seismic network.

The Facility has been appointed by the Governing Board of the ILRS as one of the eight ILRS Analysis Centres. The SGF AC daily and weekly submits coordinate and Earth orientation parameter solutions to the ILRS Combination Centers at ASI and DGFI, in support of international and multi-technique efforts to maintain the terrestrial reference frame and support rapid EOP determination.

The work of the SGF should be seen in the context of the Global Geodetic Observing System GGOS of the International Association of Geodesy, IAG.

SGF Site

SLR Analysis

GPS Analysis

Water Table

Local Gravity

LIDAR


System Development

CSPAD test results

Facility Time Distribution

SR620 timer comparison

SLR Optical Layout

Energy Dependent Range Bias for single-photon-detection sofware 

ND for single photon across the sky  plots of recorded ND variability in Az and El

Parameters used for integrity checks during Herstmonceux SLR data reduction process

Satellite signature results in collaboration with the ILRS Signal Processing Working Group

Calibration Longterm Stability Baselines between the calibration targets to show any variations

HxET Improves SGF Accuracy The upgrade to the SGF time-of-flight measurements
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NERC Space Geodesy Facility, Herstmonceux
How to find us