First Results of WEGENER/MEDLAS Data Analysis

Abstract

The WEGENER/MEDLAS project is aimed at the determination of crustal deformations in the Mediterranean area, the region where the Eurasian, the African and the Arabic tectonic plates meet (Reinhart, 1985). The deformations are to be derived from the very precise distance measurements to the geodetic satellite LAGEOS (Cohen, 1985), that are obtained by mobile satellite laser ranging (SLR) systems. Participating mobile laser systems are MTLRS-1 from Germany, MTLRS-2 from the Netherlands and the US TLRS-1 system. From 1985, they are being deployed at about 15 carefully selected locations in this region, occupying each site at intervals of about one or two years. From the SLR tracking data acquired at these sites, successive and very precise solutions for the positions of the mobile laser systems are computed. The small differences between these solutions are assumed to be related to the tectonic deformations in the region. This paper will mainly discuss the analysis results that have been computed from full-rate laser range observations. These results are based on the measurements taken during the first two observation campaigns, that were organized in 1986 and 1987. In addition, a preliminary result from the analysis of quick-look data of the 1989 campaign will also be presented.