Articles | Volume 24, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-24-3173-2006
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-24-3173-2006
22 Nov 2006
 | 22 Nov 2006

Multiple triangulation analysis: application to determine the velocity of 2-D structures

X.-Z. Zhou, Q.-G. Zong, J. Wang, Z. Y. Pu, X. G. Zhang, Q. Q. Shi, and J. B. Cao

Abstract. In order to avoid the ambiguity of the application of the Triangulation Method (multi-spacecraft timing method) to two-dimensional structures, another version of this method, the Multiple Triangulation Analysis (MTA) is used, to calculate the velocities of these structures based on 4-point measurements. We describe the principle of MTA and apply this approach to a real event observed by the Cluster constellation on 2 October 2003. The resulting velocity of the 2-D structure agrees with the ones obtained by some other methods fairly well. So we believe that MTA is a reliable version of the Triangulation Method for 2-D structures, and thus provides us a new way to describe their motion.