Bernese GPS Software Version 5.0 - Bernese GNSS Software

5. Preparation of Earth Orientation, GNSS Orbit, and Satellite Clock Information
available. The best way to perform this task is by means of the orbit related programs
POLUPD (”Menu>Orbits/EOP>Handle EOP files>Convert IERS to Bernese format”) and POLXTR (”Menu
>Orbits/EOP>Handle EOP files>Concatenate IERS pole files”).
POLUPD takes information from input files of (almost) any conventional format and converts
the data to the Bernese pole format. About 20 foreign formats are supported. Pole files are
located in the ORB-directory of the campaign 3 . Usually the extension IEP indicates a file
containing pole information in a foreign format, the extension ERP denotes Bernese format.
Because files in foreign format usually have the extension ERP you have to rename them
after downloading to a file name with extension IEP.
Program POLUPD requires the file GPSUTC. which is located in the directory $X/GEN and
contains a table of all leap seconds during the last several years (see option “GPS-UTC
seconds” in panel “POLUPD 1.1: General Files”). The file has to be updated whenever a new
leap second is announced by the IERS. You may download the file from http://www.aiub.
unibe.ch/download/BSWUSER50/GEN/.
The file specifying pole offset information (see option “Pole offset coefficients” in panel
“POLUPD 1.1”) is no longer required. This file contains the pole offset information that
is used to transform C04-pole and Rapid-pole information to the actual epoch (e.g., C04
ITRF 1988 to C04 ITRF 1996). Until the revision of the generation of C04-pole and Rapidpole
information by the IERS in 1997 this file had to be updated every year to introduce the
new ”constants” given in the annual report of the IERS. Today the pole offsets are no longer
required because the IERS pole series are kept consistent with the ITRF in near real-time,
3 Up to Version 4.2 the EOP files were located in the ${X}/GEN-directory.
Figure 5.2: Options in program POLUPD.
Page 86 AIUB