Technical Description of Sinex Solution gsf2019a 2019.08.11 1. Purpose of solution: TRF, CRF and EOP series. 2. Analysis center: GSF (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center). 3. Short narrative description of solution: Solution gsf2019a_snx is the daily Sinex file version of quarterly update solution gsf2019a. All regular X/S dual-band Mark-3/Mark-4/Mark-5/K3/K4/VLBA VLBI observations from 1979.08.03 through 2019.06.20, with durations of 18 hours or longer (6382 sessions, 14,565,285 group delays) were used in the 2019a solution. The series will be updated with new sessions using the same control file. The positions of all stations were estimated as local parameters. Station velocities are not estimated. A priori site positions and velocities are from the 2019a solution and were derived from ITRF2014 [1]. Source positions are estimated for each session and included in the sinex files. The a priori source positions are from the ICRF3-SX catalog [2]. Several gravitational lenses (0218+357/0218+35A/0218+35B, 1422+231/1422+23C, 1830-21A/1830-21B/1830-211 and 0132-097) were excluded from the dataset. Only sources with at least two observations are estimated. The galactic aberration model (5.8 micro-arc-sec/year in the direction of the galactic center) is applied for consistency with ICRF3. Mean site gradients were applied. These were computed from the GSFC Data Assimilation Office (DAO) model from met data from 1990-95. Residual East and North gradients were then estimated at 6 hr intervals. Refer to references [3] and [4] for more details. 4. Estimated parameters: a. Source positions: A priori source positions are from the ICRF3-SX catalog[2] or from blokq.c11.dat for sources not in ICRF3-SX. Source positions are estimated for each session and included in the Sinex files. Galactic aberration is applied. Only sources with two or more observations in the session are estimated. b. Station positions: X,Y,Z station positions for each session. c. Earth Orientation: X-pole, Y-pole, UT1-TAI, Xdot, Ydot, UT1dot, X-nutation and Y-nutation for each session. The IAU2000/2006 Precession/Nutation model was applied. d. Zenith Troposphere: Linear spline 30-min interval; rate constraint with reciprocal weights generally 50 ps/hr; VMF wet partial derivative (segmented). e. Troposphere Gradient: 6-hour East and North linear splines at all stations using offset and rate constraints with reciprocal weights of 0.5 mm and 2.0 mm/day (segmented). f. Station Clocks: Quadratic + linear spline with 1-hr interval (segmented); rate constraint with reciprocal weights, generally 5.0E-14. g. Baseline Clocks: As set in initial analysis usually used. 5. A priori Earth orientation: a. A priori precession/nutation model: IAU2006/2000A Precession/Nutation, IERS 2010 [5] implementation in Calc 11. b. A priori short-period in X-pole, Y-pole and UT1 due to short period tidal and libration effects were applied. These were computed by Calc 11, as recommended in the IERS 2010 Conventions [5], chapter 5. 6. A priori geophysical models: a. Troposphere: VMF1 or VMF3 total (dry+wet) mapping function; Saastamoinen zenith delay calculated using logged pressure and temperature; a priori mean gradients from DAO weather model. b. Solid Earth tide: IERS Conventions 2010 [5], chapter 7, steps 1 and 2, including tides of the 2-nd and 3-rd order. c. Ocean loading: 3D ocean loading displacements computed using the Hardisp model. Ocean loading coefficients computed using the TPXO7.2 model. These were obtained from the ocean loading web site at http://holt.oso.chalmers.se/loading/, which is provided by H.-G. Scherneck, Onsala Space Observatory. d. Pole tide: Mean pole coordinates used for computation of pole tide deformation were set to the IERS 2010 Conventions [5] recommended values (Chapter 7, p. 114-116). e. Ocean pole tide loading: An ocean pole tide loading correction was applied, using the model of Desai 2002 [6]. These were computed by Calc 11, and are described in the IERS Conventions (2010), chapter 7, pages 116-118. This small correction should have an approximately 14 month period. f. Antenna thermal deformation: Antenna heights were adjusted, based on the average daily temperatures, using the IVS antenna thermal deformation model of Nothnagel 2008 [7]. g. Axis offsets: Taken from 2019a.axo, from the 2019a quarterly. h. The gravity deformation model is applied for EFLSBERG, GILCREEK, MEDICINA, NOTO, ONSALA60 and YEBES40M. 7. Data type: Group delays only. 8. Data editing: 5 deg elevation cutoff. 9. Data weighting: Weights are defined as follows: 1/sqrt ( f**2 + a**2 ). Quantity "f" is the formal uncertainty of the ionosphere free linear combination of group delays at X- and S-band obtained by fringe fitting. The station-dependent parameter "a" was computed for each session by an iterative procedure such that the ratio of the sum of the squares of the weighted residuals to the estimate of their mathematical expectation is about 1.0. 10. Software: Calc 11 and SOLVE (revision date 2019.04.19). References: 1. Altamimi, Z., P. Rebischung, L. Mtivier, and X. Collilieux, "ITRF2014: A new release of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame modeling nonlinear station motions, J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth, vol. 121, Issue #8, pp. 6109-6131, 2016. doi:10.1002/2016JB013098. 2. Charlot, P., et al, 'The Third Realization of the International Celestial Reference Frame by Very Long Baseline Interferometry'; Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2019, in preparation. Also see: https://iers.obspm.fr/icrs-pc/newwww/icrf/ 3. MacMillan, D.S. and C. Ma, "Atmospheric gradients from very long baseline interferometry observations", Geophys. Res. Lett., 22, 1041-1044, 1995. 4. MacMillan, D.S. and C. Ma, "Atmospheric gradients and the VLBI terrestrial and celestial reference frames", Geophys. Res. Lett., 24, 453-456, 1997. 5. Petit, Gerard and Luzum, Brian, 'IERS Conventions (2010), IERS Technical Note 36, 2010. 6. Desai, S.D., "Observing the pole tide with satellite altimetry," J. Geophysical Research, vol. 107 (C11), p.3186. doi:10.1029/2002JC001224. 7. Nothnagel, A., "Short Note: Conventions on Thermal Expansion Modelling of Radio Telescopes for Geodetic and Astrometric VLBI," Journal of Geodesy, DOI: 10.1007/s00190-008-0284-z, 2008.