Differential Global Positioning Satellites (dGPS) on Turtle Mountain

What is a dGPS?

Differential Global Positioning System (dGPS) is a technology that collects information from satellites to determine the location of a point on Earth. By collecting information from different satellites over longer periods (hours to days), the position of a GPS antenna can be located within a few millimetres. Recreational and automotive GPS devices use this same technology.

dGPS on Turtle Mountain

There are 11 permanent dGPS monitoring stations on the south peak and eastern face of the Turtle Mountain. Ten of the stations are on the top and west side of South Peak and two are on the lower slopes. McElhanney Engineering Services of Vancouver, British Columbia, designed and installed these stations.

The signals from these stations are collected at a central collection point on the mountain and the data are sent via wireless radio link to the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre via the provincial building at Blairmore. We compare these signals to those with base stations on Third Peak and in the valley bottom to achieve an accuracy of about one to two millimetres on the horizontal plane.

Each of these stations has a GPS antenna mounted on a concrete pillar and an electronics box containing telemetry equipment. The latter is mounted on a separate antenna mast a few metres away to avoid possible radio interference between the two.

Four of these stations also have prism stations.

Results

The first of the dGPS stations was functional in late summer 2006. Since then, data have been collected continuously showing hourly and daily trends. The figure below shows a sample of the data points collected and the long-term trends from a dGPS station on an active block close to the eastern face of South Peak.

Digital GPS monitoring on Turtle Mountain. Click on images to enlarge.