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Updated: 2004-01-07

Crustal Deformation Velocities From Episodic Regional Measurements at Canadian Base Network Sites - presented at the AGU-2004 fall meeting in San Francisco, CA.

With a new focus on positioning from space, Geodetic Survey has created a dynamic infrastructure to serve both present and future needs for positioning. The Canadian Base Network is designed to serve as the new ground segment of monumented survey control in the Canadian Spatial Reference System.

The program was initiated in 1994, in cooperation with the provinces, to complement the Canadian Active Control System (CACS) network. With a nominal spacing of 200 kilometres in the southern latitudes, it provides easily accessible high accuracy control (at centimetre accuracy with respect to the CACS. It also provides the means to evaluate the lower layers of traditional monumented control points established throughout the years by various government agencies.

The CBN is a network of pillar monuments with forced-centering plates, positioned three-dimensionally with GPS to centimetre-level accuracy with respect to the CACS. It provides the link between the existing framework and CACS. The network, once completed, will consist of an array of pillars at an average spacing of 200 km in the built-up areas of southern Canada, 500 km in the middle regions of Canada, and 1000 km in the northern areas. As well as being a GPS control network, the CBN can serve as a monitoring network for deformation studies of the Canadian landmass.

The CBN is a cooperative effort. Provincial agencies first carry out the reconnaissance of the sites according to Geodetic Survey Division (GSD) guidelines. GSD personnel then take observations at the proposed sites with a GPS receiver and spectrum analyzer to check for possible sources of multipath and radio frequency interference. Once the sites are approved, the provincial agencies construct the pillar monuments, again according to GSD guidelines. GSD then carries out the GPS observations to determine precise coordinates in relation to the CACS and conducts leveling to the primary vertical control network. At the same time, GSD encourages the cooperating agencies to conduct simultaneous surveys to meet their needs for integration or densification.