Present limitations of accurate satellite Doppler positioning for tectonics. An example: Djibouti

One of the possibilities of the Doppler positioning from satellite is to provide geodetic measurements continuous in time without the need for reference stations. If measurements of sufficient accuracy can be achieved they may be used to study local surface displacements in relation to tectonic activity. A Doppler receiver of the MEDOC network is located near Djibouti in the Ghoubhat-Asal rift region which corresponds to the accreting plate boundary between the Arabian and African plates. In November 1978, a seismic and volcanic crisis occured in this area. Surface geodetic measurements and levellings performed in 1973 and 1978–79, just after the crisis, reveal a 60–80 cm sinking of the graben floor and a lateral extension of about 2 meters. Here we analyse Doppler measurements for the period January 1977 to November 1980. Point positions are computed for 7 to 10 day intervals using a precise ephemeris, and a moving window analysis is applied to the data. An apparent 2 meter uplift preceding the November 1978 seismic crisis is detected at Djibouti, whereas no similar phenomenon is observed at the two closest stations, Pretoria and Uccle-Brussels. However, field observations rule out a tectonic origin for this uplift. In Djibouti, the correlation between the apparent vertical station position and the electron density in the ionospheric F-layer reveals that a bias may be induced by the third order term of the ionospheric refractive index not previously taken into account, or more probably by the ray curvature through the ionosphere. This bias is particularly strong for our data set, from a station located close to the magnetic equator, and related to a period of rapid increase in the solar activity. Although our analysis fails to detect any tectonic displacement related to the rift seismic activity, it shows that similar tectonic studies by the Doppler method will be possible once the residual ionospheric errors are removed, for example by use of higher radio frequencies.