Conditions of access to the GPS data

The publication of GPS data complies with the policy of the international IGS service, established at the beginning of the 1990s. The GPS data are freely accessible and published on the Internet. This policy of scientific service is founded on the need to share the load of an infrastructure that greatly exceeds the capacity of any given agency. This policy is similar to that of a public service and provides access to products of a quality that could never be achieved without this infrastructure and that are useful in numerous applications of precision positioning (satellite orbits, clocks etc.).

The IGS thus depends on the goodwill of agencies which understand and have in common this logic of free publication and sharing. However, it is important to acknowledge this kind of service in the publications of the results obtained by thanking either the IGS and all of those involved, or the agency that provided the data which were used in the study. In SONEL, the agency is indicated in the specification file for the GPS stations. Thanks for your cooperation !

Two references which are suggested by the IGS for citation in publications written using the stations or products of the IGS are :

Dow J.M., R. E. Neilan, C. Rizos (2009): The International GNSS Service in a changing landscape of Global Navigation Satellite Systems. Journal of Geodesy, 83, pp. 191–198.

Dow J.M., R.E. Neilan, G. Gendt (2005): The International GPS Service (IGS): Celebrating the 10th Anniversary and Looking to the Next Decade. Adv. Space Res. 36 vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 320-326.