GPS-Geodesy with GNSS Receivers for Indian Plate Kinematics' studies with the recent plate velocities estimated from GNSS data

Already estimated Indian Plate motion at the rate of 37 ± 0.2 mm/yr towards NNE direction with respect to Eurasian Plate has been revalidated with the new state-of-the art GNSS receivers and a new global network spreading the geographical and azimuthal coverage, which almost includes all the plates surrounding India. 12 years of GPS data from 1995 to 2007 from the Hyderabad IGS GPS Permanent Station (HYDE) have been processed in the global network solution along with the data from other 11 stations. The baseline lengths from Hyderabad to other chosen sites and the rate of changes were also estimated. The angular velocity of Indian plate motion with respect to ITRF 05 reference frame and Indo-Eurasia plate pair have also been estimated. The global network solution has resulted in the estimation of the pole of the angular velocity vector of India with respect to Eurasia to be about a pole of rotation at 29.44 ± 1.2o N, 13.2 ± 7.3o E with an angular velocity of 0.356 ± 0.035o Myr -1 . Our results mostly conform to the REVEL-2000 Plate motion model but differs considerably from NUVEL-1A and other earlier studies. This departure could be attributed to the difference in geologic and geodetic estimations. The longer time span of GPS data from the central part of India yields more accurate estimations. This analysis is in the global network solution, which doesn’t take the plate- interior site velocities into account.