Abstract
The present study deals with the determination of Mount Olympus summit (Mytikas), exploiting modern observations such as Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and existing geodetic information. The last official Olympus height determination goes back 102 years by the Swiss surveyor M. Kurz. Since then, only unofficial measurement campaigns have taken place. There is a variety of released heights, which range from 2917 to 2919 meters. In September and October of 2022, we conducted a GNSS campaign, focusing on the area of highest Olympus peaks. Employing precise GNSS measurements (accuracy of 1–3 cm), in conjunction with height information from Greece’s National Triangulation Network (5–10 cm accuracy) and an appropriate, recent geoid model (5–6 cm accuracy), we estimate through the so-called GNSS-levelling, the height of Olympus to 2917.727 m with respect to Greece’s officially accepted mean sea level and 2918.390 m with respect to the global vertical datum. Our estimation of Olympus highest peak shows remarkable consistency at the level of 12.8 cm to that of M. Kurz in 1921.
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Acknowledgments
Georgios Chalaris (retired employee of HMGS) gave us useful hints for the height quality of NTN. Dr. Lin WANG (German Federal Agency for Geodesy and Cartography) and Dr. Miltiadis Chatzinikos (Observatoire de Paris) helped us with the GNSS processing. Stavros Kouroutzaki, Manolis Nedas, Nikolaos Demirtzoglou and Anastasios Ganilas encouraged our attempt, giving us some climbing-related information. Assistant Professor Grigorios Tsinidis (University of Thessaly) gave us some hints on the multidisciplinary role of Olympus area. The two anonymous reviewers are kindly acknowledged, since their comments helped us improve the initial manuscript. The publication of the article in OA mode was financially supported by HEAL-Link.
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Ampatzidis, D., Moschopoulos, G., Mouratidis, A. et al. Revisiting the determination of Mount Olympus Height (Greece). J. Mt. Sci. 20, 1026–1034 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-022-7866-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-022-7866-8