Transformation Parameters Between PZ-90 and WGS 84

With the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) having reached its final 24 satellite configuration earlier this year, it receives growing interest from the geodetic and navigational community. Especially the combined use of GPS and GLONASS measurements can result in a significant improvement in the number of visible satellites and satellite geometry. It thus can contribute very much to accuracy and reliability of satellite measurements. But in order to combine both systems adequately, the transformations between the two employed geodetic reference systems (WGS84 for GPS and PZ-90 for GLONASS) must be known. The terrestrial determination of these parameters up to now always suffered from the lack of sites that were accurately surveyed in both systems, With the GLONASS constellation complete and accurate GLONASS receivers available, known points in the WGS84 (ITRF) system can now also be surveyed precisely in PZ-90. The Institute of Geodesy and Navigation (BEN) of the University FAF Munich, together with the Institute of Applied Geodesy (IfAG), Geodetic Research Division, and DLR Remote Sensing Ground Station Neustrelitz, carried out an observation campaign, in which known WGS84 (ITRF) sites distributed over Europe were surveyed in PZ-90 by means of GLONASS observations. The transformation parameters between the two coordinate frames were derived from the measured positions and baselines. This paper reports on the preliminary results of this campaign and the transformation parameters determined between PZ-90 and WGS84.