The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) plays a vital role as a foundation of modern positioning and location-based services. At the same time, it has become an indispensable observational tool across a wide range of Earth science disciplines.
In Japan, GEONET, the nationwide GNSS observation network operated by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, has served as a key national infrastructure, enabling numerous breakthroughs in Earth science research. However, even GEONET, one of the densest GNSS observation networks in the world with more than 1,300 stations, has inherent limitations imposed by its station spacing (approximately 20 km). These limitations make it difficult to capture phenomena occurring at finer spatial scales, such as strain accumulation and release along inland active faults and the detailed spatial distribution of tropospheric water vapor.
Against this background, SoftBank Corp. has deployed an unprecedented network of more than 3,300 SoftBank original reference sites across Japan to enhance positioning services, and has been providing services based on this data since November 2019.
Since June 2021, the Graduate School of Science at Tohoku University has been receiving GNSS observation data from SoftBank's original reference sites and has conducted accuracy assessments to characterize crustal deformation fields. These studies have demonstrated that the SoftBank network enables high-precision characterization of crustal deformation and can serve as important infrastructure that complements GEONET, with significant potential for disaster prevention and mitigation.
Building on these achievements, the Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, in cooperation with SoftBank Corp. and ALES Corp., established the Consortium to Utilize the SoftBank Original Reference Sites for Earth and Space Science in August 2022. The consortium aims to promote the application of these data to research and development across a broad range of Earth science fields.
Through this consortium, we will advance the use of data from the SoftBank original reference sites in Earth science research and explore effective methodologies for their application. Furthermore, by fostering collaboration among researchers from diverse Earth science disciplines, we aspire to open new frontiers in Earth science. We sincerely appreciate your cooperation and support.
Representative,
Consortium to Utilize the SoftBank Original Reference Sites for Earth and Space Science
Yusaku Ohta
Professor, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University