South Africa - Inkaba.org

A proposal for the determination of intercontinental plate velocities in
Africa to support the establishment of the African Geodetic Reference
Frame (AFREF)
C. Munghemezulu 1 , W. L. Combrinck 1, 2
1. Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology, University of Pretoria, South Africa,
s27201211@tuks.co.za
2. Space Geodesy Programme, Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory, South Africa,
Ludwig@hartrao.ac.za
ABSTRACT
We propose to derive a velocity field map over the African continent derived from Global Navigation Satellite
System (GNSS) station coordinates as determined in the International Terrestrial Reference Frame. Such a velocity
field map will contribute towards a better understanding of the current intercontinental sub-plate movement and
will therefore support the future establishment and maintenance of a unified geodetic reference frame for Africa.
This work will be incorporated into the African Geodetic Reference Frame (AFREF) project as supported at
HartRAO; it will entail densification of the GNSS network in Africa, data processing, archiving, GNSS station
metadata log files maintenance and development of a software system for managing these activities. Data will be
processed with the GAMIT GPS software and estimated parameters will be utilised to describe crustal motion as a
function of time to enable the development of datum transformation parameters for different countries on the
African continent.
KEYWORDS: Global Navigation Satellite Systems, geodetic reference frames.
58