The permanent station on the island of Terceira, which belongs to the Network of Permanent Stations in the Autonomous Region of the Azores (REPRAA), was recently included in one of the major international networks, the EUREF Permanent Network (EPN).

The announcement was made by the Regional Secretary for Science, Technology and Infrastructures during the visit to the GNSS station (Global Navigation Satellite System) on Terceira Island.

José Contente stressed the strategic role played by the seven permanent stations in the Region in different areas, by means of providing georeferenced data which is available at the REPRAA website.

Like the other six REPRAA stations, the Terceira station can be used by the users, who need to collect correctly georeferenced geographic data (surveyors, cartographers, SIG users, designers, etc.). The user may use this equipment in real time through a simple Internet connection via mobile phone or office, using the data available at: www.repraa.azores.gov.pt.

The seven stations are already at the service of the Azoreans and of those who have projects that must be georeferenced, in which they must indicate a precise and accurate location in any building project,” said the Regional Secretary.

At the present moment, the REPRAA has seven permanent stations and another four are being installed on Santa Maria, São Jorge and Faial, respectively.

“As we want cover the entire Region, this year we are focusing on the remaining islands where this technology is not implemented yet and we will integrate the GPS and space technology, thus making these investments useful and credible, under the Regional Secretary.

The coverage of the entire archipelago with these permanent space technology stations - that capture, process and transmit GNSS data, which currently includes the famous GPS data (from the United States of America) and also the GLONASS data (Russian system) – is carried out by the Regional Secretariat for Science, Technology and Infrastructures in collaboration with three other entities, the Portuguese Geographic Institute and the Universities of Lisbon and Porto.

According to José Contente, “this station represents an advance in the context of similar stations that already exist in Europe; therefore, joining the European EUREF network bestows credibility and authenticity to the data provided by such stations.” 

The EPN (EUREF Permanent Network) has over 200 stations distributed throughout Europe which provide data in almost real time with high quality.

The data from the EPN network are weekly used to calculate positions that are used for the operation of the European Reference Systems. These Reference Systems are the basis of the geographic and geodesic works carried on European soil.