Who we are

The Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) is a federal research institute, working under the aegis of the Belgian Federal Science Policy. ROB's research and services focus on the Earth (space geodesy, seismology, gravimetry, Earth rotation), the Sun (coronal holes, solar activity, sun spots, space weather), the planets, and the stars.

The Department of "Reference systems and Planetology" at the ROB performs research on topics including space geodesy, planetology, Earth rotation, reference frames, and time transfer and provides scientific services in several of these fields. It has a long tradition of collaboration in international astronomical and geodetic campaigns for monitoring the form and dimensions of the Earth.

In 1988, ROB set up a research program focusing on the Global Positioning System (GPS). Today, the original GPS research program has been extended to all Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), e.g. GPS, GLONASS (the Russian navigation system), and GALILEO (the upcoming European navigation system).
The primary mission of the GNSS research group, which is part of the legal mission of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, is to integrate Belgium in international reference frames, both in time and space.
This task is only possible through observations, research and data analysis.

The GNSS research group uses GNSS satellite navigation signals for different multi-disciplinary applications:

• Monitoring of ground deformations
• Reference frame maintenance
• Time and frequency transfer
• Monitoring of the Earth's atmosphere

The GNSS team consists of the following people: