Monitoring Activities of Permanent GPS Stations at Tide Gauge in South Korea

South Korea has about 80 permanent GPS stations, being used for a variety of applications such as DGPS, RTK, survey and geodesy. Some of them are installed in or near the coastal area for the purpose of maritime navigation. But, until recently, none of them are used for tide gauge benchmark monitoring. In order to monitor the absolute sea level changes, it is necessary to monitor the land uplift or subsidence occurring at tide gauge sites. It is a common practice to use GPS stations installed at tide gauges to determine absolute sea level. This collaborative efforts coordinated by IGS are called TIGA Pilot Project. Many countries including U.S., Canada, European Union nations, Australia and Japan are participating in TIGA, but South Korea is not a member yet. Recently, we established continuously operating GPS stations at tide gauges located in Incheon and Jeju to monitor the movement of tide gauges sites. This paper will introduce goals and progress of the efforts.