The goal of the work discussed in this paper was to evaluate GPS sensitivity and accuracy for deformation control on non-permanent networks of dierent extensions. This kind of network has been extensively considered in the recent past and it is still of relevant importance in several engineering, geological and geophysical applications. To this aim a high-precision device was properly built in order to set up known displacements along three orthogonal axes of a GPS antenna.
On the basis of the results obtained according to the outlined data analysis strategy, we can draw the following conclusions.
As regards local networks, the GPS is able to single out horizontal displacements at subcentimeter level and vertical displacements at centimeter level; moreover, the availability of a priori information on the stability of the points improves the results slightly but does not seem to be crucial in this kind of network.
As regards the regional network, the GPS is able to single out horizontal displacements at centimeter level, provided particular care is given to the tropospheric delay modeling by estimating suitable parameters. However, even if we are able to avoid gross distortions in the height estimates by the joint estimation of tropospheric and geometrical parameters, this approach seems not to be satisfactory for the height precisions: for this reason only displacements of some centimeters can be identified with sucient probability.