A comparison of ITRF2020, DTRF2020 and JTRF2020

New realizations of the International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS) were recently released by the three ITRS combination centers: ITRF2020 by IGN (France), DTRF2020 by DGFI-TUM (Germany) and JTRF2020 by JPL (USA). The three solutions are based on the same reprocessed data from the four space geodetic techniques (DORIS, GNSS, SLR, VLBI). However, the strategies used by the three ITRS centers to combine these input data into their respective solutions differ in several key aspects, such as the modeling of time-varying station trajectories, the connection of the station networks of the four techniques into a unique common frame, and the choices made to define the origin and scale of that frame.

This presentation compares the ITRF2020, DTRF2020 and JTRF2020 solutions and discusses how different aspects of the combination strategies employed by the three ITRS centers affect their solutions in terms of origin, scale and geometry. This comparison and discussion covers two main aspects: (1) individual station trajectories in the three solutions, and their ability to accurately describe the Earth’s time-varying shape, and (2) origins, scales (and orientations) of the station coordinates of each technique in the three solutions.