New Coordinate System for the Earth 30.05.2022 - The reference frame ITRF2020 is the at present most accurate coordinate system for the whole earth.

The International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) is the coordinate system of the whole body of the earth. The latest edition ITRF2020 was calculated from data including 2020 and was published recently. For the process data from four space-geodetic technique were used.

The high-precision coordinate system ITRF2020 is most widely used to measure global phenomena.  So it is for example possible to measure the rising of the sea level even though it is only a few millimeters per year. Furthermore ITRF2020 is of utmost importance for geodesy as the coordinate system ETRS89 used in Austria is directly based on it.

For the calculation of ITRF2020 the different technologies of the four space-geodetic techniques (GNSS, SLR, VLBI, DORIS) were combined to create a high-precision coordinate system. The Federal Office of Metrology and Surveying (BEV) did also contribute to that. The BEV and the TU Wien did evaluate data from the process Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI).

For more information about the VLBI please see:
https://www.vlbi.at/

For more information about the ITRF please see:
https://itrf.ign.fr/en/homepage