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5 pages, 177 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Editorial for the Special Issue: “High-Precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications”

by Xingxing Li, Jacek Paziewski and Mattia Crespi

Remote Sens. 2020, 12(10), 1602; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12101602 - 18 May 2020

Viewed by 2916

Abstract

In the past two decades, the high-precision Global Positioning System (GPS) has significantly increased the range of geoscience applications and their precision [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

Research

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18 pages, 3894 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigation of Tightly Combined Single-Frequency and Single-Epoch Precise Positioning Using Multi-GNSS Data

by Chenlong Deng, Qian Liu, Xuan Zou, Weiming Tang, Jianhui Cui, Yawei Wang and Chi Guo

Remote Sens. 2020, 12(2), 285; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12020285 - 15 Jan 2020

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3137

Abstract

The loose combination (LC) and the tight combination (TC) are two different models in the combined processing of four global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs). The former is easy to implement but may be unusable with few satellites, while the latter should cope with [...] Read more.

The loose combination (LC) and the tight combination (TC) are two different models in the combined processing of four global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs). The former is easy to implement but may be unusable with few satellites, while the latter should cope with the inter-system bias (ISB) and is applicable for few tracked satellites. Furthermore, in both models, the inter-frequency bias (IFB) in the GLObal NAvigation Satellite System (GLONASS) system should also be removed. In this study, we aimed to investigate the performance difference of ambiguity resolution and position estimation between these two models simultaneously using the single-frequency data of all four systems (GPS + GLONASS + Galileo + BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS)) in three different environments, i.e., in an open area, with surrounding high buildings, and under a block of high buildings. For this purpose, we first provide the definition of ISB and IFB from the perspective of the hardware delays, and then propose practical algorithms to estimate the IFB rate and ISB. Thereafter, a comprehensive performance comparison was made between the TC and LC models. Experiments were conducted to simulate the above three observation environments: the typical situation and situations suffering from signal obstruction with high elevation angles and limited azimuths, respectively. The results show that in a typical situation, the TC and LC models achieve a similar performance. However, when the satellite signals are severely obstructed and few satellites are tracked, the float solution and ambiguity fixing rates in the LC model are dramatically decreased, while in the TC model, there are only minor declines and the difference in the ambiguity fixing rates can be as large as 30%. The correctly fixed ambiguity rates in the TC model also had an improvement of around 10%. Once the ambiguity was fixed, both models achieved a similar positioning accuracy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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24 pages, 11132 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A LSTM Algorithm Estimating Pseudo Measurements for Aiding INS during GNSS Signal Outages

by Wei Fang, Jinguang Jiang, Shuangqiu Lu, Yilin Gong, Yifeng Tao, Yanan Tang, Peihui Yan, Haiyong Luo and Jingnan Liu

Remote Sens. 2020, 12(2), 256; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12020256 - 10 Jan 2020

Cited by 104 | Viewed by 7866

Abstract

Aiming to improve the navigation accuracy during global navigation satellite system (GNSS) outages, an algorithm based on long short-term memory (LSTM) is proposed for aiding inertial navigation system (INS). The LSTM algorithm is investigated to generate the pseudo GNSS position increment substituting the [...] Read more.

Aiming to improve the navigation accuracy during global navigation satellite system (GNSS) outages, an algorithm based on long short-term memory (LSTM) is proposed for aiding inertial navigation system (INS). The LSTM algorithm is investigated to generate the pseudo GNSS position increment substituting the GNSS signal. Almost all existing INS aiding algorithms, like the multilayer perceptron neural network (MLP), are based on modeling INS errors and INS outputs ignoring the dependence of the past vehicle dynamic information resulting in poor navigation accuracy. Whereas LSTM is a kind of dynamic neural network constructing a relationship among the present and past information. Therefore, the LSTM algorithm is adopted to attain a more stable and reliable navigation solution during a period of GNSS outages. A set of actual vehicle data was used to verify the navigation accuracy of the proposed algorithm. During 180 s GNSS outages, the test results represent that the LSTM algorithm can enhance the navigation accuracy 95% compared with pure INS algorithm, and 50% of the MLP algorithm. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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17 pages, 8863 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Atomic Clock Performance Assessment of BeiDou-3 Basic System with the Noise Analysis of Orbit Determination and Time Synchronization

by Xiaolin Jia, Tian Zeng, Rengui Ruan, Yue Mao and Guorui Xiao

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(24), 2895; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11242895 - 4 Dec 2019

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 4379

Abstract

The basic system of the BeiDou global navigation satellite system (BDS-3) with 18 satellites has been deployed since December 2018. As the primary frequency standard, BDS-3 satellites include two clock types with the passive hydrogen maser (PHM) and the rubidium atomic frequency standard [...] Read more.

The basic system of the BeiDou global navigation satellite system (BDS-3) with 18 satellites has been deployed since December 2018. As the primary frequency standard, BDS-3 satellites include two clock types with the passive hydrogen maser (PHM) and the rubidium atomic frequency standard (RAFS). Based on the final precise orbit and clock product from Xi’an Research Institute of Surveying and Mapping (XRS), the atomic clock performance of BDS-3 satellites is evaluated, including the frequency accuracy, frequency drift rate, and frequency stability, and compared with GPS block IIF satellites with RAFS, Galileo satellites with PHM, and BDS-2 satellites. A data auto-editing procedure to preprocess clock data and assess the clock performance is developed, where the assessed results are derived at each continuous data arc and the outliers are excluded properly. The stability of XRS product noise is given by using some stations equipped with high-precision active hydrogen masers (AHM). The best stability is 8.93 × 10⁻¹⁵ and 1.85 × 10⁻¹⁵ for the averaging time of 10,000 s and 1 day, which is basically comparable to one-third of the in-orbit PHM frequency stability. The assessed results show the average frequency accuracy and drift rate of BDS-3 with RAFS are slightly worse while the stability is better than BDS-2 medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites. The 10,000 s stability is better but the 1-day stability is worse than GPS, which may be related to the performance of the BDS-3 RAFS clock. As for BDS-3 with PHM, the frequency accuracy is slightly worse than Galileo PHM satellites; the drift rate, when excluding C34 and C35, is basically comparable to Galileo and significantly better than GPS satellites; the stability is comparable to Galileo, where the 10,000 s stability is slightly worse than Galileo and better than GPS. The 1-day stability among BDS-3 PHM, GPS IIF RAFS, and Galileo PHM satellites is basically comparable. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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21 pages, 4090 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Precise Orbit Determination of BDS-2 and BDS-3 Using SLR

by Honglei Yang, Tianhe Xu, Wenfeng Nie, Fan Gao and Meiqian Guan

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(23), 2735; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11232735 - 21 Nov 2019

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3591

Abstract

The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) of China is currently in the hybrid-use period of BDS-2 and BDS-3 satellites. All of them are equipped with Laser Retroreflect Arrays (LRAs) for Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), which can directly obtain an independent, sub-centimetre level of [...] Read more.

The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) of China is currently in the hybrid-use period of BDS-2 and BDS-3 satellites. All of them are equipped with Laser Retroreflect Arrays (LRAs) for Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), which can directly obtain an independent, sub-centimetre level of distance measurement. The main purpose of this contribution is to use the solely SLR Normal Points (NPs) data to determinate the precise orbit of BDS-2 and BDS-3 satellites, including one Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO), three Inclined Geo-Synchronous Orbits (ISGO), and one Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) of BDS-2 satellites, as well as four MEO of BDS-3 satellites, from 1 January to 30 June 2019. The microwave-based orbit from Wuhan University (WUM) are firstly validated to mark and eliminate the bad SLR observations in our preprocessing stage. Then, the 3-, 5-, 7-, and 9-day arc solutions are performed to investigate the impact of the different orbital arc lengths on the quality of SLR-derived orbits and test the optimal solution of the multi-day arc. Moreover, the dependency of SLR-only orbit determination accuracy on the number of SLR observations and the number of SLR sites are discussed to explore the orbit determination quality of the 3-,5-, 7-, and 9-day arc solutions. The results indicate that (1) during the half-year time span of 2019, the overall Root Mean Square (RMS) of SLR validation residuals derived from WUM is 19.0 cm for BDS-2 GEO C01, 5.2–7.3 cm for three BDS-2 IGSO, 3.4 cm for BDS-2 MEO C11, and 4.4–5.7 cm for four BDS-3 MEO satellites respectively. (2) The 9-day arc solutions present the best orbit accuracy in our multi-day SLR-only orbit determination for BDS IGSO and MEO satellites. The 9-day overlaps median RMS of BDS MEO in RTN directions are evaluated at 3.6–5.7, 12.4–21.6, and 15.6–23.9 cm respectively, as well as 5.7–9.6, 15.0–36.8, and 16.5–35.2 cm for the comparison with WUM precise orbits, while these values of BDS IGSO are larger by a factor of about 3–10 than BDS MEO orbits in their corresponding RTN directions. Furthermore, the optimal average 3D-RMS of 9-day overlaps is 0.49 and 1.89 m for BDS MEO and IGSO respectively, as well as 0.55 and 1.85 m in comparison with WUM orbits. Owing to its extremely rare SLR observations, the SLR-only orbit determination accuracy of BDS-2 GEO satellite can only reach a level of 10 metres or worse. (3) To obtain a stable and reliable SLR-only precise orbit, the 7-day to 9-day arc solutions are necessary to provide a sufficient SLR observation quantity and geometry, with more than 50–80 available SLR observations at 5–6 SLR sites that are evenly distributed, both in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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16 pages, 7186 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Adaptive Least-Squares Collocation Algorithm Considering Distance Scale Factor for GPS Crustal Velocity Field Fitting and Estimation

by Wei Qu, Hailu Chen, Shichuan Liang, Qin Zhang, Lihua Zhao, Yuan Gao and Wu Zhu

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(22), 2692; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11222692 - 18 Nov 2019

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3127

Abstract

High-precision, high-reliability, and high-density GPS crustal velocity are extremely important requirements for geodynamic analysis. The least-squares collocation algorithm (LSC) has unique advantages over crustal movement models to overcome observation errors in GPS data and the sparseness and poor geometric distribution in GPS observations. [...] Read more.

High-precision, high-reliability, and high-density GPS crustal velocity are extremely important requirements for geodynamic analysis. The least-squares collocation algorithm (LSC) has unique advantages over crustal movement models to overcome observation errors in GPS data and the sparseness and poor geometric distribution in GPS observations. However, traditional LSC algorithms often encounter negative covariance statistics, and thus, calculating statistical Gaussian covariance function based on the selected distance interval leads to inaccurate estimation of the correlation between the random signals. An unreliable Gaussian statistical covariance function also leads to inconsistency in observation noise and signal variance. In this study, we present an improved LSC algorithm that takes into account the combination of distance scale factor and adaptive adjustment to overcome these problems. The rationality and practicability of the new algorithm was verified by using GPS observations. Results show that the new algorithm introduces the distance scale factor, which effectively weakens the influence of systematic errors by improving the function model. The new algorithm can better reflect the characteristics of GPS crustal movement, which can provide valuable basic data for use in the analysis of regional tectonic dynamics using GPS observations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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22 pages, 5804 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Integrated Precise Orbit Determination of Multi-GNSS and Large LEO Constellations

by Xingxing Li, Keke Zhang, Fujian Ma, Wei Zhang, Qian Zhang, Yujie Qin, Hongmin Zhang, Yansong Meng and Lang Bian

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(21), 2514; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11212514 - 27 Oct 2019

Cited by 26 | Viewed by 4725

Abstract

Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) orbits are traditionally determined by observation data of ground stations, which usually need even global distribution to ensure adequate observation geometry strength. However, good tracking geometry cannot be achieved for all GNSS satellites due to many factors, such [...] Read more.

Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) orbits are traditionally determined by observation data of ground stations, which usually need even global distribution to ensure adequate observation geometry strength. However, good tracking geometry cannot be achieved for all GNSS satellites due to many factors, such as limited ground stations and special stationary characteristics for the geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellites in the BeiDou constellation. Fortunately, the onboard observations from low earth orbiters (LEO) can be an important supplement to overcome the weakness in tracking geometry. In this contribution, we perform large LEO constellation-augmented multi-GNSS precise orbit determination (POD) based on simulated GNSS observations. Six LEO constellations with different satellites numbers, orbit types, and altitudes, as well as global and regional ground networks, are designed to assess the influence of different tracking configurations on the integrated POD. Then, onboard and ground-based GNSS observations are simulated, without regard to the observations between LEO satellites and ground stations. The results show that compared with ground-based POD, a remarkable accuracy improvement of over 70% can be observed for all GNSS satellites when the entire LEO constellation is introduced. Particularly, BDS GEO satellites can obtain centimeter-level orbits, with the largest accuracy improvement being 98%. Compared with the 60-LEO and 66-LEO schemes, the 96-LEO scheme yields an improvement in orbit accuracy of about 1 cm for GEO satellites and 1 mm for other satellites because of the increase of LEO satellites, but leading to a steep rise in the computational time. In terms of the orbital types, the sun-synchronous-orbiting constellation can yield a better tracking geometry for GNSS satellites and a stronger augmentation than the polar-orbiting constellation. As for the LEO altitude, there are almost no large-orbit accuracy differences among the 600, 1000, and 1400 km schemes except for BDS GEO satellites. Furthermore, the GNSS orbit is found to have less dependence on ground stations when incorporating a large number of LEO. The orbit accuracy of the integrated POD with 8 global stations is almost comparable to the result of integrated POD with a denser global network of 65 stations. In addition, we also present an analysis concerning the integrated POD with a partial LEO constellation. The result demonstrates that introducing part of a LEO constellation can be an effective way to balance the conflict between the orbit accuracy and computational efficiency. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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13 pages, 2810 KiB

Open AccessArticle

PPP and PPP-AR Kinematic Post-Processed Performance of GPS-Only, Galileo-Only and Multi-GNSS

by Georgia Katsigianni, Sylvain Loyer and Felix Perosanz

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(21), 2477; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11212477 - 24 Oct 2019

Cited by 45 | Viewed by 7348

Abstract

Precise point positioning (PPP) has been used for decades not only for general positioning needs but also for geodetic and other scientific applications. The CNES-CLS Analysis Centre (AC) of the International GNSS Service (IGS) is performing PPP with phase ambiguity resolution (PPP-AR) using [...] Read more.

Precise point positioning (PPP) has been used for decades not only for general positioning needs but also for geodetic and other scientific applications. The CNES-CLS Analysis Centre (AC) of the International GNSS Service (IGS) is performing PPP with phase ambiguity resolution (PPP-AR) using the zero-difference ambiguity fixing approach also known as “Integer PPP” (IPPP). In this paper we examine the postprocessed kinematic PPP and PPP-AR using Galileo-only, GPS-only and Multi-GNSS (GPS + Galileo) constellations. The interest is to examine the accuracy for each GNSS system individually but also of their combination to measure the current benefits of using Galileo within a Multi-GNSS PPP and PPP-AR. Results show that Galileo-only positioning is nearly at the same level as GPS-only; around 2–4 mm horizontal and aound 10 mm vertical repeatability (example station of BRUX). In addition, the use of Galileo system—even uncompleted—improves the performance of the positioning when combined with GPS giving mm level repeatability (improvement of around 30% in East, North and Up components). Repeatabilities observed for Multi-GNSS (GPS + GAL) PPP-AR, taking into account the global network statistics, are a little larger, with 8 mm in horizontal and 17 mm in vertical directions. This result shows that including Galileo ameliorates the best positioning accuracy achieved until today with GPS PPP-AR. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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20 pages, 8301 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mitigation of Unmodeled Error to Improve the Accuracy of Multi-GNSS PPP for Crustal Deformation Monitoring

by Kai Zheng, Xiaohong Zhang, Xingxing Li, Pan Li, Xiao Chang, Jizhang Sang, Maorong Ge and Harald Schuh

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(19), 2232; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11192232 - 25 Sep 2019

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3540

Abstract

High-rate multi-constellation global navigation satellite system (GNSS) precise point positioning (PPP) has been recognized as an efficient and reliable technique for large earthquake monitoring. However, the displacements derived from PPP are often overwhelmed by the centimeter-level noise, therefore they are usually unable to [...] Read more.

High-rate multi-constellation global navigation satellite system (GNSS) precise point positioning (PPP) has been recognized as an efficient and reliable technique for large earthquake monitoring. However, the displacements derived from PPP are often overwhelmed by the centimeter-level noise, therefore they are usually unable to detect slight deformations which could provide new findings for geophysics. In this paper, Global Positioning System (GPS), GLObalnaya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (GLONASS), and BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) data collected during the 2017 Mw 6.5 Jiuzhaigou earthquake were used to further exploit the capability of BDS-only and multi-GNSS PPP in deformation monitoring by applying sidereal filtering (SF) in the observation domain. The equation that unifies the residuals for the uncombined and undifferenced (UCUD) PPP solution on different frequencies was derived, which could greatly reduce the complexity of data processing. An unanticipated long-term periodic error term of up to ± 3 cm was found in the phase residuals associated with BDS satellites in geostationary Earth orbit (GEO), which is not due to multipath originated from the ground but is in fact satellite dependent. The period of this error is mainly longer than 2000 s and cannot be alleviated by using multi-GNSS. Compared with solutions without sidereal filtering, the application of the SF approach dramatically improves the positioning precision with respect to the weekly averaged positioning solution, by 75.2%, 42.8%, and 56.7% to 2.00, 2.23, and 5.58 cm in the case of BDS-only PPP in the east, north, and up components, respectively, and 71.2%, 27.7%, and 37.9% to 1.25, 0.81, and 3.79 cm in the case of GPS/GLONASS/BDS combined PPP, respectively. The GPS/GLONASS/BDS combined solutions augmented by the SF successfully suppress the GNSS noise, which contributes to the detection of the true seismic signal and is beneficial to the pre- and post-seismic signal analysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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17 pages, 2622 KiB

Open AccessArticle

LEO Precise Orbit Determination with Inter-satellite Links

by Xingxing Li, Zihao Jiang, Fujian Ma, Hongbo Lv, Yongqiang Yuan and Xin Li

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(18), 2117; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11182117 - 11 Sep 2019

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 7960

Abstract

Traditional precise orbit determination (POD) for low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites relies on observations from ground stations and onboard receivers. Although the accuracy can reach centimeter level, there are still problems such as insufficient autonomous operation capability. The inter-satellite link (ISL) is a [...] Read more.

Traditional precise orbit determination (POD) for low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites relies on observations from ground stations and onboard receivers. Although the accuracy can reach centimeter level, there are still problems such as insufficient autonomous operation capability. The inter-satellite link (ISL) is a link used for communication between satellites and has a function of dual-way ranging. Numerous studies have shown that observational data using ISLs can be adopted for POD of navigation satellites. In this contribution, we mainly focus on LEO satellites POD with ISLs. First, we design LEO constellations with different numbers of satellites and ISL measurements, based on which the constellations are simulated. Then rough tests of POD using different link topologies are carried out. The results show that in the 60-LEO constellation the average 3-dimensional (3D) orbital errors are 0.112 m using “4-connected” link topology with constant 4 links per satellite and 0.069 m using “all-connected” link topology with theoretically maximum numbers of links. After that, we carry out refined POD experiments with several sets of satellite numbers and different observation accuracy. The results show the higher link ranging accuracy and the more numbers of links bring higher POD precision. POD with ISLs gets bad performance in the case of center of gravity reference when link ranging accuracy is poor and numbers of links are small. When the link accuracy is 40 cm, average 3D orbital errors of 60-LEO constellation are 0.358 m, which can only meet the demand of autonomous navigation. With the constraint of the right ascension of the ascending node (RAAN), POD using ISLs reaches an extremely high precision when adopting a spatial reference provided by navigation satellites. For 120-LEO constellation, the average 3D orbital errors are 0.010 m; for 192-LEO constellation, the errors are 0.006 m. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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16 pages, 2459 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Performance of Selected Ionospheric Models in Multi-Global Navigation Satellite System Single-Frequency Positioning over China

by Ahao Wang, Junping Chen, Yize Zhang, Lingdong Meng and Jiexian Wang

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(17), 2070; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11172070 - 3 Sep 2019

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 3898

Abstract

Ionospheric delay as the major error source needs to be properly handled in multi-GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) single-frequency positioning and the different ionospheric models exhibit apparent performance difference. In this study, two single-frequency positioning solutions with different ionospheric corrections are utilized to [...] Read more.

Ionospheric delay as the major error source needs to be properly handled in multi-GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) single-frequency positioning and the different ionospheric models exhibit apparent performance difference. In this study, two single-frequency positioning solutions with different ionospheric corrections are utilized to comprehensively analyze the ionospheric delay effects on multi-frequency and multi-constellation positioning performance, including standard point positioning (SPP) and ionosphere-constrained precise point positioning (PPP). The four ionospheric models studied are the GPS broadcast ionospheric model (GPS-Klo), the BDS (BeiDou Navigation Satellite System) broadcast ionospheric model (BDS-Klo), the BDS ionospheric grid model (BDS-Grid) and the Global Ionosphere Maps (GIM) model. Datasets are collected from 10 stations over one month in 2019. The solar remained calm and the ionosphere was stable during the test period. The experimental results show that for single-frequency SPP, the GIM model achieves the best accuracy, and the positioning accuracy of the BDS-Klo and BDS-Grid model is much better than the solution with GPS-Klo model in the N and U components. For the single-frequency PPP performance, the average convergence time of the ionosphere-constrained PPP is much reduced compared with the traditional PPP approach, where the improvements are of 11.2%, 11.9%, 21.3% and 39.6% in the GPS-Klo-, BDS-Klo-, BDS-Grid- and GIM-constrained GPS + GLONASS + BDS single-frequency PPP solutions, respectively. Furthermore, the positioning accuracy of the BDS-Grid- and GIM-constrained PPP is generally the same as the ionosphere-free combined single-frequency PPP. Through the combination of GPS, GLONASS and BDS, the positioning accuracy and convergence performance for all single-system single-frequency SPP/PPP solutions can be effectively improved. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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21 pages, 15077 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Global Model for Estimating Tropospheric Delay and Weighted Mean Temperature Developed with Atmospheric Reanalysis Data from 1979 to 2017

by Zhangyu Sun, Bao Zhang and Yibin Yao

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(16), 1893; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11161893 - 13 Aug 2019

Cited by 77 | Viewed by 5743

Abstract

Precise modeling of tropospheric delay and weighted mean temperature (T_m) is critical for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning and meteorology. However, the model data in previous models cover a limited time span, which limits the accuracy of these models. Besides, [...] Read more.

Precise modeling of tropospheric delay and weighted mean temperature (T_m) is critical for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning and meteorology. However, the model data in previous models cover a limited time span, which limits the accuracy of these models. Besides, the vertical variations of tropospheric delay and T_m are not perfectly modeled in previous studies, which affects the performance of height corrections. In this study, we used the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA-Interim reanalysis from 1979 to 2017 to build a new empirical model. We first carefully modeled the lapse rates of tropospheric delay and T_m. Then we considered the temporal variations by linear trends, annual, and semi-annual variations and the spatial variations by grids. This new model can provide zenith hydrostatic delay (ZHD), zenith wet delay (ZWD), and T_m worldwide with a spatial resolution of 1° × 1°. We used the ECMWF ERA-Interim data and the radiosonde data in 2018 to validate this new model in comparison with the canonical GPT2w model. The results show that the new model has higher accuracies than the GPT2w model in all parameters. Particularly, this new model largely improves the accuracy in estimating ZHD and T_m at high-altitude (relative to the grid point height) regions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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22 pages, 6435 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A BDS-2/BDS-3 Integrated Method for Ultra-Rapid Orbit Determination with the Aid of Precise Satellite Clock Offsets

by Qianxin Wang, Chao Hu and Kefei Zhang

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(15), 1758; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11151758 - 25 Jul 2019

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3354

Abstract

The accuracy of ultra-rapid orbits is a key parameter for the performance of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) real-time or near real-time precise positioning applications. The quality of the current BeiDou demonstration system (BDS) ultra-rapid orbits is lower than that of GPS, especially [...] Read more.

The accuracy of ultra-rapid orbits is a key parameter for the performance of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) real-time or near real-time precise positioning applications. The quality of the current BeiDou demonstration system (BDS) ultra-rapid orbits is lower than that of GPS, especially for the new generational BDS-3 satellites due to the fact that the availability of the number of ground tracking stations is limited, the geographic distribution of these stations is poor, and the data processing strategies adopted are not optimal. In this study, improved data processing strategies for the generation of ultra-rapid orbits of BDS-2/BDS-3 satellites are investigated. This includes both observed and predicted parts of the orbit. First, the predicted clock offsets are taken as constraints in the estimation process to reduce the number of the unknown parameters and improve the accuracy of the parameter estimates of the orbit. To obtain more accurate predicted clock offsets for the BDS’ orbit determination, a denoising method (also called the Tikhonov regularization algorithm), inter-satellite correlation, and the partial least squares method are all incorporated into the clock offsets prediction model. Then, the Akaike information criterion (AIC) is used to determine the arc length in the estimation models by taking the optimal arc length in the estimation of the initial orbit states into consideration. Finally, a number of experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the ultra-rapid orbits resulting from the proposed methods. Results showed that: (1) Compared with traditional models, the accuracy improvement of the predicted clock offsets from the proposed methods were 40.5% and 26.1% for BDS-2 and BDS-3, respectively; (2) the observed part of the orbits can be improved 9.2% and 5.0% for BDS-2 and BDS-3, respectively, by using the predicted clock offsets as constraints; (3) the accuracy of the predicted part of the orbits showed a high correlation with the AIC value, and the accuracy of the predicted orbits could be improved up to 82.2%. These results suggest that the approaches proposed in this study can significantly enhance the accuracy of the ultra-rapid orbits of BDS-2/BDS-3 satellites. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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17 pages, 7844 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Characteristics of BD3 Global Service Satellites: POD, Open Service Signal and Atomic Clock Performance

by Xiaolong Xu, Xilong Wang, Jingnan Liu and Qile Zhao

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(13), 1559; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11131559 - 1 Jul 2019

Cited by 33 | Viewed by 4720

Abstract

The Chinese BeiDou Navigation Satellite System has provided a global-coverage service since 27 December 2018. Eighteen BD3 MEO satellites have been launched into space during 2017 and 2018. The signal constitution has been redesigned and four open service signals are used for transmission, [...] Read more.

The Chinese BeiDou Navigation Satellite System has provided a global-coverage service since 27 December 2018. Eighteen BD3 MEO satellites have been launched into space during 2017 and 2018. The signal constitution has been redesigned and four open service signals are used for transmission, including B1I, B1C, B2a and B3I. This paper focuses on the signal performance, Precise Orbit Determination (POD) and the atomic clock’s frequency stability issues of the BD3 satellites. The satellite-induced code bias issue found in BD2 satellites multipath combination has been proven to be eliminated in BD3 satellites. However, the pseudorange code of B1C is much noisier than that of other three frequencies, which may be related to the signal constitution and power distribution, as the minimum received power levels on the ground of B1C is 3 dB lower than that of the B2a signal. Similar results were achieved by the Ionosphere-Free combination residuals in POD using four signals, B1I-B3I, B1I-B2a, B1C-B3I and B1C-B2a, and the phase residual of B1C-B2a combination performed best. Considering the noise amplitude and compatibility with other GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), the B1C-B2a combination is recommended in priority for precise GNSS data processing. GFIFP combinations were also implemented to evaluate the inter-frequency phase bias of the four signals. The experimental results showed that the systematic signal with an amplitude of about 2 cm could be found in the GFIFP series. In addition, multi-GNSS POD was performed and analyzed as well, using about a hundred global-distributed IGS and iGMAS stations. Furthermore, the atomic clock’s frequency stability was estimated using the parameters of clock bias calculated in POD and the Overlap Allan Deviations showed that the frequency stability of BD3 reached approximately 2.43 × 10⁻¹⁴ at intervals of 10,000 s and 2.51 × 10⁻¹⁵ at intervals of 86,400 s, which was better than that of the GPS BLOCK IIF satellites but worse than that of Galileo satellites. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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14 pages, 2603 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Discovery of the Fastest Ice Flow along the Central Flow Line of Austre Lovénbreen, a Poly-thermal Valley Glacier in Svalbard

by Songtao Ai, Xi Ding, Jiachun An, Guobiao Lin, Zemin Wang and Ming Yan

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(12), 1488; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11121488 - 24 Jun 2019

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3890

Abstract

Ice flow velocity is a sensitive indicator of glacier variations both controlling and representing the delivery of ice and affecting the future stability of ice masses in a warming climate. As one of the poly-thermal glaciers in the high Arctic, Austre Lovénbreen (AL) [...] Read more.

Ice flow velocity is a sensitive indicator of glacier variations both controlling and representing the delivery of ice and affecting the future stability of ice masses in a warming climate. As one of the poly-thermal glaciers in the high Arctic, Austre Lovénbreen (AL) is on the northwestern coast of Spitsbergen, Svalbard. The ice flow velocity of AL was investigated using in situ global positioning system (GPS) observations over 14 years and numerical modelling with Elmer/Ice. First, the ice flow velocity field of AL along central flow line was presented and the ice flow velocity is approximately 4 m/a. Obvious seasonal changes of ice flow velocity can be found in the middle of the glacier, where the velocity in spring-summer is 47% larger than in autumn–winter in 2016, and the mean annual velocity increased 14% from 2009 until 2016. Second, the numerical simulation was performed considering the poly-thermal character of the glacier, and indicated that there are two peak ice flow regions on the glacier, and not just one peak ice flow region as previously believed. The new peak ice flow zone found by simulation was verified by field work, which also demonstrated that the velocity of the newly identified zone is 8% faster than the previously identified zone. Third, although our field observations showed that the ice flow velocity is slowly increasing recently, the maximum ice flow velocity will soon begin to decrease gradually in the long term according to glacier evolution modelling of AL. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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19 pages, 7416 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Differential Inter-System Biases Estimation and Initial Assessment of Instantaneous Tightly Combined RTK with BDS-3, GPS, and Galileo

by Mingkui Wu, Wanke Liu, Wang Wang and Xiaohong Zhang

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(12), 1430; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11121430 - 16 Jun 2019

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 3880

Abstract

In this contribution, we assess, for the first time, the tightly combined real-time kinematic (RTK) with GPS, Galileo, and BDS-3 operational satellites using observations from their overlapping L1-E1-B1C/L5-E5a-B2a frequencies. First, the characteristics of B1C/B2a signals from BDS-3 operational satellites is evaluated compared to [...] Read more.

In this contribution, we assess, for the first time, the tightly combined real-time kinematic (RTK) with GPS, Galileo, and BDS-3 operational satellites using observations from their overlapping L1-E1-B1C/L5-E5a-B2a frequencies. First, the characteristics of B1C/B2a signals from BDS-3 operational satellites is evaluated compared to GPS/Galileo L1-E1/L5-E5a signals in terms of observed carrier-to-noise density ratio, pseudorange multipath and noise, as well as double-differenced carrier phase and code residuals using data collected with scientific geodetic iGMAS and commercial M300Pro receivers. It’s demonstrated that the observational quality of B1C/B2a signals from BDS-3 operational satellites is comparable to that of GPS/Galileo L1-E1/L5-E5a signals. Then, we investigate the size and stability of phase and code differential inter-system bias (ISB) between BDS-3/GPS/Galileo B1C-L1-E1/B2a-L5-E5a signals using short baseline data collected with both identical and different receiver types. It is verified that the BDS-3/GPS/Galileo ISBs are indeed close to zero when identical type of receivers are used at both ends of a baseline. Moreover, they are generally present and stable in the time domain for baselines with different receiver types, which can be easily calibrated and corrected in advance. Finally, we present initial assessment of single-epoch tightly combined BDS-3/GPS/Galileo RTK with single-frequency and dual-frequency observations using a formal and empirical analysis, consisting of ambiguity dilution of precision (ADOP), ratio values, the empirical ambiguity resolution success rate, and the positioning accuracy. Experimental results demonstrate that the tightly combined model can deliver much lower ADOP and higher ratio values with respect to the classical loosely combined model whether for GPS/BDS-3 or GPS/Galileo/BDS-3 solutions. The positioning accuracy and the empirical ambiguity resolution success rate are remarkably improved as well, which could reach up to approximately 10%∼60% under poor observational conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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18 pages, 11147 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Gravity Field Model Determination Based on GOCE Satellite Point-Wise Accelerations Estimated from Onboard Carrier Phase Observations

by Tangting Wu, Jiancheng Li, Xinyu Xu, Hui Wei, Kaifa Kuang and Yongqi Zhao

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(12), 1420; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11121420 - 14 Jun 2019

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4102

Abstract

GPS-based, satellite-to-satellite tracking observations have been extensively used to elaborate the long-scale features of the Earth’s gravity field from dedicated satellite gravity missions. We proposed compiling a satellite gravity field model from Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite accelerations directly [...] Read more.

GPS-based, satellite-to-satellite tracking observations have been extensively used to elaborate the long-scale features of the Earth’s gravity field from dedicated satellite gravity missions. We proposed compiling a satellite gravity field model from Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite accelerations directly estimated from the onboard GPS data using the point-wise acceleration approach, known as the carrier phase differentiation method. First, we composed the phase accelerations from the onboard carrier phase observations based on the sixth-order seven-point differentiator, which can eliminate the carrier phase ambiguity for Low Earth Orbiter (LEO). Next, the three-dimensional (3D) accelerations of the GOCE satellite were estimated from the derived phase accelerations as well as GPS satellite ephemeris and precise clock products. Finally, a global gravity field model up to the degree and order (d/o) 130 was compiled from the 71 days and nearly 2.5 years of 3D satellite accelerations. We also recovered three gravity field models up to d/o 130 from the accelerations derived by differentiating the kinematic orbits of European Space Agency (ESA), Graz, and School of Geodesy and Geomatics (SGG), which was the orbit differentiation method. We analyzed the accuracies of the derived accelerations and the recovered gravity field models based on the carrier phase differentiation method and orbit differentiation method in time, frequency, and spatial domain. The results showed that the carrier phase derived acceleration observations had better accuracy than those derived from kinematic orbits. The accuracy of the recovered gravity field model based on the carrier phase differentiation method using 2.5 years observations was higher than that of the orbit differentiation solutions for degrees greater than 70, and worse than Graz-orbit solution for degrees less than 70. The cumulative geoid height errors of carrier phase, ESA-orbit, and Graz-orbit solutions up to degree and order 130 were 17.70cm, 21.43 cm, and 22.11 cm, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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23 pages, 3707 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Precise Onboard Real-Time Orbit Determination with a Low-Cost Single-Frequency GPS/BDS Receiver

by Xuewen Gong, Lei Guo, Fuhong Wang, Wanwei Zhang, Jizhang Sang, Maorong Ge and Harald Schuh

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(11), 1391; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11111391 - 11 Jun 2019

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4382

Abstract

The low-cost single-frequency GNSS receiver is one of the most economical and affordable tools for the onboard real-time navigation of numerous remote sensing small/micro satellites. We concentrate on the algorithm and experiments of onboard real-time orbit determination (RTOD) based on a single-frequency GPS/BDS [...] Read more.

The low-cost single-frequency GNSS receiver is one of the most economical and affordable tools for the onboard real-time navigation of numerous remote sensing small/micro satellites. We concentrate on the algorithm and experiments of onboard real-time orbit determination (RTOD) based on a single-frequency GPS/BDS receiver. Through various experiments of processing the real single-frequency GPS/BDS measurements from the Yaogan-30 (YG30) series and FengYun-3C (FY3C) satellites of China, some critical aspects of the onboard RTOD are investigated, such as the optimal force models setting, the effect of different measurements, and the impact of GPS/BDS fusion. The results demonstrate that a gravity model truncated to 55 × 55 order/degree for YG30 and 45 × 45 for FY3C and compensated with an optimal stochastic modeling of empirical accelerations, which minimize the onboard computational load and only result in a slight loss of orbit accuracy, is sufficient to obtain high-precision real-time orbit results. Under the optimal force models, the real-time orbit accuracy of 0.4–0.7 m for position and 0.4–0.7 mm/s for velocity is achievable with the carrier-phase-based solution, while an inferior real-time orbit accuracy of 0.8–1.6 m for position and 0.9–1.7 mm/s for velocity is achieved with the pseudo-range-based solution. Furthermore, although the GPS/BDS fusion only makes little change to the orbit accuracy, it increases the number of visible GNSS satellites significantly, and thus enhances the geometric distribution of GNSS satellites that help suppress the local orbit errors and improves the reliability and availability of the onboard RTOD, especially in some anomalous arcs where only a few GPS satellites are trackable. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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18 pages, 17992 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Initial Positioning Assessment of BDS New Satellites and New Signals

by Yize Zhang, Nobuaki Kubo, Junping Chen, Jiexian Wang and Hu Wang

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(11), 1320; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11111320 - 1 Jun 2019

Cited by 45 | Viewed by 5024

Abstract

With the official announcement of open service since the end of 2018, the BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) has started to provide global positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services. Thus, it is worth assessing the positioning service of new BDS satellites and signals. [...] Read more.

With the official announcement of open service since the end of 2018, the BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) has started to provide global positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services. Thus, it is worth assessing the positioning service of new BDS satellites and signals. In this paper, we comprehensively assess the system status and the global positioning performance of BDS regarding single point positioning (SPP) and real-time kinematic (RTK) performance. Results show that the signal in space range error (SISRE) of BDS-3 satellites is superior to that of BDS-2 satellites, showing an overall accuracy of 0.71 m versus 0.97 m, which is competitive with GPS and Galileo. With the contribution of BDS-3, the number of global average visible satellites has increased from 5.1 to 10.7, which provides a mean global position dilution of precision (PDOP) value better than 6 at 99.88% and the mean availability of basic PNT performance is also improved from 35.25% to 98.84%. One week of statistical results from 54 globally distributed international GNSS service (IGS) stations show that the root mean square (RMS) of SPP accuracy is 1.1 m in horizontal and 2.2 m in vertical, which is at the same level of GPS. The new B1c and B2a signals show a smaller observation noise than B1I, and SPP performance of B1c is similar to that of B1I. However, the positioning precision is slightly worse at the B2a frequency, which may be due to the inaccurate BDS ionosphere correction. As for short baseline RTK, baseline accuracy is also improved due to the increased number of new BDS satellites. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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16 pages, 3166 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cycle Slip Detection and Repair for Dual-Frequency LEO Satellite GPS Carrier Phase Observations with Orbit Dynamic Model Information

by Hui Wei, Jiancheng Li, Shoujian Zhang and Xinyu Xu

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(11), 1273; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11111273 - 29 May 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4120

Abstract

Cycle slip detection and repair are crucial for precise GPS-derived orbit determination of the low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. We present a new approach to detect and repair cycle slips for dual-frequency LEO satellite GPS observations. According to Newton’s equation of motion, the second-order [...] Read more.

Cycle slip detection and repair are crucial for precise GPS-derived orbit determination of the low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. We present a new approach to detect and repair cycle slips for dual-frequency LEO satellite GPS observations. According to Newton’s equation of motion, the second-order time difference of the LEO satellite’s position (STP) is only related to the sampling interval and the satellite’s acceleration, which can be precisely obtained from the known orbit dynamic models. Then, several kinds of second-order time-difference geometry-free (STG) phase combinations, taking full advantage of the correlation between the satellite orbit variations and the dynamic model, with different level of ionospheric residuals, are proposed and adopted together to detect and fix cycle slips. The STG approach is tested with some LEO satellite GPS datasets. Results show that it is an effective cycle slip detection and repair method for LEO satellite GPS observations. This method also has some important features. Firstly, the STG combination is almost independent of the pseudorange. Secondly, this method is effective for LEO satellites, even in real-time application. Thirdly, this method is suitable for ground-based GPS receivers if we know the acceleration of the receivers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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20 pages, 4762 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Factors Affecting Asynchronous RTK Positioning with GNSS Signals

by Bao Shu, Hui Liu, Yanming Feng, Longwei Xu, Chuang Qian and Zhixin Yang

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(10), 1256; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11101256 - 27 May 2019

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4926

Abstract

For short baseline real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning, the atmosphere and broadcast ephemeris errors can be usually eliminated in double-differenced (DD) processing for synchronous observations. However, in the case of possible communication latency time, these errors may not be eliminated in DD treatments due [...] Read more.

For short baseline real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning, the atmosphere and broadcast ephemeris errors can be usually eliminated in double-differenced (DD) processing for synchronous observations. However, in the case of possible communication latency time, these errors may not be eliminated in DD treatments due to their variations during latency time. In addition, the time variation of these errors may present different characteristics among GPS, GLONASS, BDS, and GALILEO due to different satellite orbit and clock types. In this contribution, the formulas for studying the broadcast orbit and clock offset errors and atmosphere error in asynchronous RTK (ARTK) model is proposed, and comprehensive experimental analysis is performed to numerically show time variations of these errors and their impacts on RTK results from short-baselines among four systems. Compared with synchronous RTK, the degradation of position precision for ARTK can reach a few centimeters, but the accuracy degradation to a different degree by different systems. BDS and Galileo usually outperform GPS and GLONASS in ARTK due to the smaller variation of broadcast ephemeris error. The variation of broadcast orbit error is generally negligible compared with the variation of broadcast clock offset error for GPS, BDS, and Galileo. Specifically, for a month of data, the root mean square (RMS) values for the variation of broadcast ephemeris error over 15 seconds are 11.2, 16.9, 7.3, and 3.0 mm for GPS, GLONASS, BDS, and Galileo, respectively. The variation of ionosphere error for some satellites over 15 seconds can reach a few centimeters during active sessions under a normal ionosphere day. In addition, compared with other systems, BDS ARTK shows an advantage under high ionosphere activity, and such advantage may be attributed to five GEO satellites in the BDS constellation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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20 pages, 9786 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Current Activity of the Long Point Fault in Houston, Texas Constrained by Continuous GPS Measurements (2013–2018)

by Yuhao Liu, Xiaohan Sun, Guoquan Wang, Michael J. Turco, Gonzalo Agudelo, Yan Bao, Ruibin Zhao and Shuilong Shen

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(10), 1213; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11101213 - 22 May 2019

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 6005

Abstract

The Long Point Fault is one of the most active urban faults in Houston, Texas, which belong to a complex system of normal growth faults along the Texas Gulf Coast. To assess the activity of the Long Point Fault, a GPS array with [...] Read more.

The Long Point Fault is one of the most active urban faults in Houston, Texas, which belong to a complex system of normal growth faults along the Texas Gulf Coast. To assess the activity of the Long Point Fault, a GPS array with 12 permanent stations was installed along the two sides of the 16-km-long fault scarp in 2013. GPS datasets were processed with the Precise Point Positioning (PPP) and Double-Difference (DD) methods. The daily PPP solutions with respect to the International Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Reference Frame 2014 (IGS14) were converted to the Stable Houston Reference Frame (Houston16). The six-year continuous GPS observations indicate that the Long Point Fault is currently inactive, with the rates of down-dip-slip and along-strike-slip being below 1 mm/year. The Long Point Fault area is experiencing moderate subsidence varying from 5 to 11 mm/year and a coherent horizontal movement towards the northwest at a rate of approximately 2 to 4 mm/year. The horizontal movement is induced by the subsidence bowl that has been developing since the 1980s in the Jersey Village area. Current surficial damages in the Long Point Fault area are more likely caused by ongoing uneven subsidence and its induced horizontal strains, as well as the significant seasonal ground deformation, rather than deep-seated or tectonic-controlled fault movements. The results from this study suggest a cause-and-effect relationship between groundwater withdrawals and local faulting, which is pertinent to plans for future urban development, use of groundwater resources, and minimization of urban geological hazards. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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17 pages, 9613 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimal Strategy of a GPS Position Time Series Analysis for Post-Glacial Rebound Investigation in Europe

by Janusz Bogusz, Anna Klos and Krzysztof Pokonieczny

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(10), 1209; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11101209 - 22 May 2019

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4512

Abstract

We describe a comprehensive analysis of the 469 European Global Positioning System (GPS) vertical position time series. The assumptions we present should be employed to perform the post-glacial rebound (PGR)-oriented comparison. We prove that the proper treatment of either deterministic or stochastic components [...] Read more.

We describe a comprehensive analysis of the 469 European Global Positioning System (GPS) vertical position time series. The assumptions we present should be employed to perform the post-glacial rebound (PGR)-oriented comparison. We prove that the proper treatment of either deterministic or stochastic components of the time series is indispensable to obtain reliable vertical velocities along with their uncertainties. The statistical significance of the vertical velocities is examined; due to their small vertical rates, 172 velocities from central and western Europe are found to fall below their uncertainties and excluded from analyses. The GPS vertical velocities reach the maximum values for Scandinavia with the maximal uplift equal to 11.0 mm/yr. Moreover, a comparison between the GPS-derived rates and the present-day motion predicted by the newest Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) ICE-6G_C (VM5a) model is provided. We prove that these rates agree at a 0.5 mm/yr level on average; the Sweden area with the most significant uplift observed agrees within 0.2 mm/yr. The largest discrepancies between GIA-predicted uplift and the GPS vertical rates are found for Svalbard; the difference is equal to 6.7 mm/yr and arises mainly from the present-day ice melting. The GPS-derived vertical rates estimated for the southern coast of the Baltic Sea are systematically underestimated by the GIA prediction by up to 2 mm/yr. The northern British Isles vertical rates are overestimated by the GIA model by about 0.5 mm/yr. The area of the Netherlands and the coastal area of Belgium are both subsiding faster than it is predicted by the GIA model of around 1 mm/yr. The inland part of Belgium, Luxemburg and the western part of Germany show strong positive velocities when compared to the GIA model. Most of these stations uplift of more than 1 mm/yr. It may be caused by present-day elastic deformation due to terrestrial hydrology, especially for Rhein basin, or non-tidal atmospheric loading, for Belgium and Luxembourg. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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18 pages, 3397 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Three-Step Method for Determining Unhealthy Time Period of GPS Satellite Orbit in Broadcast Ephemeris and Its Preliminary Applications for Precise Orbit Determination

by Fei Ye, Yunbin Yuan, Baocheng Zhang, Bingfeng Tan and Jikun Ou

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(9), 1098; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11091098 - 8 May 2019

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3703

Abstract

Abnormal information of satellite orbits inevitably appears in the broadcast ephemeris. Failure to obtain unhealthy information on GPS satellite orbits in precise orbit determination (POD) degrades GPS service performance. At present, the reliable unhealthy information published by the Center for Orbit Determination in [...] Read more.

Abnormal information of satellite orbits inevitably appears in the broadcast ephemeris. Failure to obtain unhealthy information on GPS satellite orbits in precise orbit determination (POD) degrades GPS service performance. At present, the reliable unhealthy information published by the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE) is usually used, but it has at least one-day latency, and the current level of unhealthy information cannot fully meet the requirements of rapid and real-time geodetic applications, especially for non-IGS (International global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) Service) analysis centers and BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) users. Furthermore, the unhealthy orbit information detected by the traditional method, which is based on the synchronized pseudo-range residuals and regional observation network, cannot meet the requirement of setting separate sub-arcs in POD. In view of these problems, we propose a three-step method for determining unhealthy time periods of GPS satellite orbit in broadcast ephemeris during POD to provide reliable unhealthy information in near-real time. This method is a single-epoch solution, and it can detect unhealthy time periods in each sampling of observation in theory. It was subsequently used to detect unhealthy time periods for satellites G09 and G01 based on the 111 globally distributed tracking stations in the IGS. The performance of the new method was evaluated using cross-validation. Based on the test results, it detected an orbital leap for G09 in the broadcast ephemeris from 09:59:42 to 14:00:42 on 25 August 2017. Compared to the traditional method, the unhealthy start time using the three-step method was in better agreement with the information provided by CODE’s satellite crux files. G01 did not appear to have an orbital leap on the specified date, but it was misjudged by the traditional method. Furthermore, compared to the traditional method, the three-step method can perform unhealthy time period detection for a satellite all day long. In addition, precise orbit determination for unhealthy satellites is realized successfully with the unhealthy orbit arc information identified in this study. Compared to the CODE orbit, the root mean square and standard deviation of the new method for G09 are less than 2 cm, and the three-step method shows an improvement in accuracy compared with the traditional method. From the above results, it can be seen that this study can provide a feasible approach to meet the real-time unhealthy time period detection requirements of a satellite orbit in a broadcast ephemeris during POD. Furthermore, compared to waiting for updates of CODE’s satellite crux files or for accumulating delayed observation data, it has the potential to provide additional information in the process of generating ultra-rapid/real-time orbits. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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18 pages, 6528 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Controllable Success Fix Rate Threshold Determination Method for GNSS Ambiguity Acceptance Tests

by Lei Wang, Ruizhi Chen, Lili Shen, Fu Zheng, Yanming Feng and Jiming Guo

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(7), 804; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11070804 - 3 Apr 2019

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3730

Abstract

Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) integer ambiguity acceptance test is one of the open problems in GNSS data processing. A number of ambiguity acceptance tests have been proposed from different perspectives and then unified into the integer aperture estimation framework. The existing comparative [...] Read more.

Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) integer ambiguity acceptance test is one of the open problems in GNSS data processing. A number of ambiguity acceptance tests have been proposed from different perspectives and then unified into the integer aperture estimation framework. The existing comparative studies indicate that the impact of test statistics form on the test performance is less critical, while how to construct an efficient, practical test threshold is still challenging. Based on the likelihood ratio test theory, a new computationally efficient ambiguity acceptance test with controllable success fix rate, namely the fixed likelihood ratio (FL-) approach is proposed, which does not require Monte Carlo simulation. The study indicates that the fixed failure rate (FF-) approach can only control the overall failure rate of the acceptance region, but the local failure rate is not controllable. The proposed FL-approach only accepts the fixed solution meeting the likelihood ratio requirement. With properly chosen likelihood ratio threshold, the FL-approach achieves comparable success rate as the FF-approach and even lower failure rate than the FF-approach for the strong underlying model cases. The fixed success fix rate of the FL-approach is verified with both simulation data and real GNSS data. The numerical results indicate that the success fix rate of the FL-approach achieves >98% while the failure rate is <1.5%. The real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning with ambiguities tested by the FL-approach achieved 1–2cm horizontal precision and 2–4 cm vertical precision for all tested baselines, which confirms that the FL-approach can serve as a reliable and efficient threshold determination method for the GNSS ambiguity acceptance test problem. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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16 pages, 4181 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Accurate and Rapid Broadcast Ephemerides for Beidou-Maneuvered Satellites

by Jing Qiao, Wu Chen, Shengyue Ji and Duojie Weng

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(7), 787; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11070787 - 2 Apr 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5417

Abstract

The geostationary earth orbit (GEO) and inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) satellites of the Beidou navigation satellite system are maneuvered frequently. The broadcast ephemeris can be interrupted for several hours after the maneuver. The orbit-only signal-in-space ranging errors (SISREs) of broadcast ephemerides available after [...] Read more.

The geostationary earth orbit (GEO) and inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) satellites of the Beidou navigation satellite system are maneuvered frequently. The broadcast ephemeris can be interrupted for several hours after the maneuver. The orbit-only signal-in-space ranging errors (SISREs) of broadcast ephemerides available after the interruption are over two times larger than the errors during normal periods. To shorten the interruption period and improve the ephemeris accuracy, we propose a two-step orbit recovery strategy based on a piecewise linear thrust model. The turning points of the thrust model are firstly determined by comparison of the kinematic orbit with an integrated orbit free from maneuver; afterward, precise orbit determination (POD) is conducted for the maneuvered satellite by estimating satellite orbital and thrust parameters simultaneously. The observations from the IGS Multi-Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Experiment (MGEX) network and ultra-rapid products of the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) are used for orbit determination of maneuvered satellites from Sep to Nov 2017. The results show that for the rapidly recovered ephemerides, the average orbit-only SISREs are 1.15 and 1.0 m 1 h after maneuvering for GEO and IGSO respectively, which is comparable to the accuracy of Beidou broadcast ephemerides in normal cases. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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29 pages, 16022 KiB

Open AccessArticle

CARIB18: A Stable Geodetic Reference Frame for Geological Hazard Monitoring in the Caribbean Region

by Guoquan Wang, Hanlin Liu, Glen S. Mattioli, Meghan M. Miller, Karl Feaux and John Braun

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(6), 680; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11060680 - 21 Mar 2019

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 5675

Abstract

We have developed a Stable Caribbean Reference Frame 2018 (CARIB18) using long-term continuous observations from 18 continuously operating Global Positioning System (GPS) stations fixed on the margins of the stable portion of the Caribbean plate. The frame stability of CARIB18 is approximately 0.7 [...] Read more.

We have developed a Stable Caribbean Reference Frame 2018 (CARIB18) using long-term continuous observations from 18 continuously operating Global Positioning System (GPS) stations fixed on the margins of the stable portion of the Caribbean plate. The frame stability of CARIB18 is approximately 0.7 mm/year in the horizontal direction and 0.9 mm/year in the vertical direction. A method that employs a total of seven parameters for transforming positional time series from a global reference frame (IGS14) to a regional reference frame is introduced. The major products from this study include the seven parameters for realizing CARIB18 coordinates and three-component site velocities of 250 continuous GPS stations (>3 years) with respect to CARIB18. Geological hazard monitoring using GPS has traditionally been performed using the carrier-phase differential method that requires single or multiple reference stations to be simultaneously operated in the field. CARIB18 allows for precise geological hazard monitoring using stand-alone GPS, which substantially reduces field costs and simplifies logistics for long-term geological hazard monitoring. Applications of CARIB18 in plate motion, post-seismic, and volcano monitoring and research are demonstrated in this article. The regional reference frame will be periodically updated every few years with more reference stations and longer periods of observations to mitigate the degradation of the frame over time and will be synchronized with the updates of the International GNSS Service (IGS) IGS reference frame. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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15 pages, 7410 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Improving GNSS Zenith Wet Delay Interpolation by Utilizing Tropospheric Gradients: Experiments with a Dense Station Network in Central Europe in the Warm Season

by Florian Zus, Jan Douša, Michal Kačmařík, Pavel Václavovic, Kyriakos Balidakis, Galina Dick and Jens Wickert

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(6), 674; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11060674 - 21 Mar 2019

Cited by 30 | Viewed by 5544

Abstract

The Benchmark data set collected within the European COST Action ES1206 has aimed to support the development and validation of advanced Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) tropospheric products, in particular high-resolution zenith delays and tropospheric gradients. In this work we utilize this unique [...] Read more.

The Benchmark data set collected within the European COST Action ES1206 has aimed to support the development and validation of advanced Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) tropospheric products, in particular high-resolution zenith delays and tropospheric gradients. In this work we utilize this unique data set to show that the interpolation of GNSS Zenith Wet Delays (ZWDs) can be improved by utilizing tropospheric gradients. To do this we first prove the concept with simulated observations, that is, zenith delays and tropospheric gradients derived from a Numerical Weather Model. We show how tropospheric gradients can be converted to ZWD gradients. Then the ZWD gradients together with the ZWDs at selected reference stations are used in an inverse distance weighting interpolation scheme to estimate the ZWD at some target station. For a station configuration with an average station distance of 50 km in Germany and a period of two months (May and June 2013), we find an improvement of 20% in interpolated ZWDs when tropospheric gradients are taken into account. Next, we replace the simulated by real observations, that is, zenith delays and tropospheric gradients from a Precise Point Positioning (PPP) solution provided with the G-Nut/Tefnut analysis software. Here we find an improvement of 10% in interpolated ZWDs when tropospheric gradients are taken into account. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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16 pages, 3896 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multi-GNSS Relative Positioning with Fixed Inter-System Ambiguity

by Hua Chen, Weiping Jiang and Jiancheng Li

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(4), 454; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11040454 - 22 Feb 2019

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3967

Abstract

In multi-GNSS cases, two types of Double Difference (DD) ambiguity could be formed including an intra-system ambiguity and an inter-system ambiguity, which are identified as the DD ambiguity between satellites from the same and from different GNSS systems, respectively. We studied the relative [...] Read more.

In multi-GNSS cases, two types of Double Difference (DD) ambiguity could be formed including an intra-system ambiguity and an inter-system ambiguity, which are identified as the DD ambiguity between satellites from the same and from different GNSS systems, respectively. We studied the relative positioning methods using intra-system DD observations and using Un-Difference (UD) observations, and developed a frequency-free approach for fixing inter-system ambiguity based on UD observations for multi-GNSS positioning, where the inter-system phase bias is calculated with the help of a fixed Single-Difference (SD) ambiguity. The consistency between the receiver-end uncalibrated phase delays (RUPD) and the SD ambiguity were investigated and the positioning performance of this new approach was assessed. The results show that RUPD could be modeled as a constant if the receiver were tracking satellites continuously. Furthermore, compared to the method using DD observations with only an intra-system DD ambiguity fixed, the new ambiguity fixing approach has a better performance, especially in hard environments with a large cut-off angle or serve signal obstructions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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20 pages, 7689 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Galileo Augmenting GPS Single-Frequency Single-Epoch Precise Positioning with Baseline Constrain for Bridge Dynamic Monitoring

by Qiuzhao Zhang, Chun Ma, Xiaolin Meng, Yilin Xie, Panagiotis Psimoulis, Laiyi Wu, Qing Yue and Xinjun Dai

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(4), 438; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11040438 - 20 Feb 2019

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4753

Abstract

The Single-frequency Single-epoch double-differenced baseline resolution technique of Global Positioning System (GPS) provides a good opportunity for monitoring the displacement or deflection behavior of bridges under different loading conditions in real-time. However, for single GPS, a high success rate baseline solution is difficult [...] Read more.

The Single-frequency Single-epoch double-differenced baseline resolution technique of Global Positioning System (GPS) provides a good opportunity for monitoring the displacement or deflection behavior of bridges under different loading conditions in real-time. However, for single GPS, a high success rate baseline solution is difficult to achieve due to the lack of sufficient visible satellites and the low accuracy of float solutions. Galileo Satellite Navigation System (Galileo) has 14 medium earth orbit satellites (as of May 2018) that can be used to supplement GPS. The frequency bands of Galileo overlap with that of GPS on E1/L1 and E5a/L5, which is conducive to the combination of observations in integration positioning. Accordingly, Galileo augmenting GPS is an effective and necessary approach to improve the positioning availability and reliability. Moreover, using the baseline length constraint can improve the accuracy of float solutions, narrow the search space, and finally increase the success rate of ambiguity resolution and positioning. The single-frequency single-epoch double-differenced GPS/Galileo mathematical model with baseline length constraint is deduced in this paper. Two sets of GNSS real bridge data were used for further analysis on the improvement of GPS/Galileo with baseline length constraint when compared to single GPS. Finally, a Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) algorithm was adopted for precisely detecting the local dominant frequencies of XB, YB, and ZB direction of the two stations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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13 pages, 3623 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigation and Validation of the Time-Varying Characteristic for the GPS Differential Code Bias

by Haojun Li, Jingxin Xiao and Weidong Zhu

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(4), 428; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11040428 - 19 Feb 2019

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3438

Abstract

The time-varying characteristic of the bias in the GPS code observation is investigated using triple-frequency observations. The method for estimating the combined code bias is presented and the twelve-month (1 January–31 December 2016) triple-frequency GPS data set from 114 International GNSS Service (IGS) [...] Read more.

The time-varying characteristic of the bias in the GPS code observation is investigated using triple-frequency observations. The method for estimating the combined code bias is presented and the twelve-month (1 January–31 December 2016) triple-frequency GPS data set from 114 International GNSS Service (IGS) stations is processed to analyze the characteristic of the combined code bias. The results show that the main periods of the combined code bias are 12, 8, 6, 4, 4.8 and 2.67 h. The time-varying characteristic of the combined code bias, which is the combination of differential code bias (DCB) (P1–P5) and DCB (P1–P2), shows that the real satellite DCBs are also time-varying. The difference between the two sets of the computed constant parts of the combined code bias, with the IGS DCB products of DCB (P1–P2) and DCB (P1–P2) and the mean of the estimated 24-h combined code bias series, further show that the combined code bias cannot be replaced by the DCB (P1–P2) and DCB (P1–P5) products. The time-varying part of inter-frequency clock bias (IFCB) can be estimated by the phase and code observations and the phase based IFCB is the combinations of the triple-frequency satellite uncalibrated phase delays (UPDs) and the code-based IFCB is the function of the DCBs. The performances of the computed the IFCB with different methods in single point positioning indicate that the accuracy for the constant part of the combined code bias is reduced, when the IGS DCB products are used to compute. These performances also show that the time-varying part of IFCB estimated with phase observation is better than that of code observation. The predicted results show that 98% of the predicted constant part of the combined code bias can be corrected and the attenuation of the predicted accuracy is much less evident. However, the accuracy of the predicted time-varying part decreases significantly with the predicted time. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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21 pages, 6418 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of Orbit, Clock and Ionospheric Corrections from Five Currently Available SBAS L1 Services: Methodology and Analysis

by Zhixi Nie, Peiyuan Zhou, Fei Liu, Zhenjie Wang and Yang Gao

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(4), 411; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11040411 - 17 Feb 2019

Cited by 44 | Viewed by 5974

Abstract

To meet the demands of civil aviation and other precise navigation applications, several satellite-based augmentation systems (SBASs) have been developed around the world, such as the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) for North America, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) for Europe, [...] Read more.

To meet the demands of civil aviation and other precise navigation applications, several satellite-based augmentation systems (SBASs) have been developed around the world, such as the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) for North America, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) for Europe, the Multi-functional Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS) for Japan, the GPS (Global Positioning System) Aided GEO Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) for India, and the System for Differential Corrections and Monitoring (SDCM) for Russia. The SBASs broadcast messages to correct satellite orbit, clock, and ionosphere errors to augment the GPS positioning performance. In this paper, SBAS orbit, clock and ionospheric corrections are evaluated. Specifically, the orbit, clock and ionospheric corrections derived from SBAS messages are comprehensively evaluated using data collected from the above mentioned systems over 181 consective days. The evaluation indicates that the EGNOS outperforms other systems with signal-in-space range error (SISRE) at 0.645 m and ionospheric correction accuracy at 0.491 m, respectively. Meanwhile, the accuracy of SDCM is comparable to EGNOS with SISRE of 0.650 m and ionospheric correction accuracy of 0.523 m. For WAAS, the SISRE is 0.954 m and the accuracy of ionospheric correction is 0.505 m. The accuracies of the SBAS corrections from the MSAS and GAGAN systems, however, are significantly worse than those of others. The SISREs are 1.931 and 1.325 m and the accuracies of ionospheric corrections are 0.795 and 0.858 m, for MSAS and GAGAN, respectively. At the same time, GPS broadcast orbit, clock and ionospheric corrections are also evaluated. The results show that there are no significant improvements in the SISRE of the broadcast navigation data by applying SBAS corrections. On the other hand, the accuracy of SBAS ionospheric corrections is still much better than GPS broadcast ionospheric corrections, which could still be beneficial for single-frequency users. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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17 pages, 6489 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Improved PPP Ambiguity Resolution with the Assistance of Multiple LEO Constellations and Signals

by Xin Li, Xingxing Li, Fujian Ma, Yongqiang Yuan, Keke Zhang, Feng Zhou and Xiaohong Zhang

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(4), 408; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11040408 - 17 Feb 2019

Cited by 35 | Viewed by 5464

Abstract

The fusion of low earth orbit (LEO) constellation and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) can increase the number of visible satellites and optimize spatial geometry, which is expected to improve the performance of precise point positioning (PPP) ambiguity resolution (AR). In addition, the [...] Read more.

The fusion of low earth orbit (LEO) constellation and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) can increase the number of visible satellites and optimize spatial geometry, which is expected to improve the performance of precise point positioning (PPP) ambiguity resolution (AR). In addition, the multi-frequency signals of LEO satellites can bring a variety of observation combinations, which is potential to further improve the efficiency of PPP AR. In this contribution, multi-frequency PPP AR was achieved with the augmentation of different LEO constellations. Three types of LEO constellations were designed with 60, 192, and 288 satellites. Moreover, the corresponding observation data were simulated with the GNSS observations over the ground stations. The LEO constellations were designed to transmit navigation signals on three frequencies: L1, L2, and L5 at 1575.42, 1227.6, and 1176.45 MHz, respectively, which are consistent with the GPS signals. For PPP AR, the uncalibrated phase delay (UPD) products of GNSS and LEO were estimated first. Furthermore, the quality of UPD products was also analyzed. The research findings show that the performance of estimated LEO UPD is comparable to that of GNSS UPD. Based on the UPD products, LEO-augmented multi-GNSS PPP AR can be achieved. Numerous results show that the performance of single-system and multi-GNSS PPP AR can be significantly improved by introducing the LEO constellations. The augmentation performance is more remarkable in the case of increasing LEO satellites. The time to first fix (TTFF) of the GREC fixed solution can be shortened from 7.1 to 4.8, 1.1, and 0.7 min, by introducing observations of 60-, 192-, and 288-LEO constellations, respectively. The positioning accuracy of multi-GNSS fixed solutions is also improved by about 60%, 80%, and 90% with the augmentation of 60-, 192-, and 288-LEO constellations, respectively. Compared to the dual-frequency solutions, the triple-frequency LEO-augmented PPP fixed solution presents a better performance. The TTFF of GREC fixed solutions is shortened to 33 s with the augmentation of 288-LEO constellation under the triple-frequency environment. It is worth indicating that the 288-satellite LEO-only PPP AR was conducted in dual-frequency and triple-frequency modes, respectively. The averaged TTFFs of both modes are 71.8 s and 55.2 s, respectively. It indicates that LEO constellation with 288 satellites is capable of achieving high-precision positioning independently and shows an even better performance than GNSS-only solutions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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23 pages, 12024 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatiotemporal Filtering and Noise Analysis for Regional GNSS Network in Antarctica Using Independent Component Analysis

by Wenhao Li, Fei Li, Shengkai Zhang, Jintao Lei, Qingchuan Zhang and Lexian Yuan

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(4), 386; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11040386 - 14 Feb 2019

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 4421

Abstract

The common mode error (CME) and optimal noise model are the two most important factors affecting the accuracy of time series in regional Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) networks. Removing the CME and selecting the optimal noise model can effectively improve the accuracy [...] Read more.

The common mode error (CME) and optimal noise model are the two most important factors affecting the accuracy of time series in regional Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) networks. Removing the CME and selecting the optimal noise model can effectively improve the accuracy of GNSS coordinate time series. The CME, a major source of error, is related to the spatiotemporal distribution; hence, its detrimental effects on time series can be effectively reduced through spatial filtering. Independent component analysis (ICA) is used to filter the time series recorded by 79 GPS stations in Antarctica from 2010 to 2018. After removing stations exhibiting strong local effects using their spatial responses, the filtering results of residual time series derived from principal component analysis (PCA) and ICA are compared and analyzed. The Akaike information criterion (AIC) is then used to determine the optimal noise model of the GPS time series before and after ICA/PCA filtering. The results show that ICA is superior to PCA regarding both the filter results and the consistency of the optimal noise model. In terms of the filtering results, ICA can extract multisource error signals. After ICA filtering, the root mean square (RMS) values of the residual time series are reduced by 14.45%, 8.97%, and 13.27% in the east (E), north (N), and vertical (U) components, respectively, and the associated speed uncertainties are reduced by 13.50%, 8.06% and 11.82%, respectively. Furthermore, different GNSS time series in Antarctica have different optimal noise models with different noise characteristics in different components. The main noise models are the white noise plus flicker noise (WN+FN) and white noise plus power law noise (WN+PN) models. Additionally, the spectrum index of most PN is close to that of FN. Finally, there are more stations with consistent optimal noise models after ICA filtering than there are after PCA filtering. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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21 pages, 5326 KiB

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Performance of Multi-GNSS Precise Point Positioning Time and Frequency Transfer with Clock Modeling

by Yulong Ge, Peipei Dai, Weijin Qin, Xuhai Yang, Feng Zhou, Shengli Wang and Xingwang Zhao

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 347; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030347 - 10 Feb 2019

Cited by 39 | Viewed by 4475

Abstract

Thanks to the international GNSS service (IGS), which has provided multi-GNSS precise products, multi-GNSS precise point positioning (PPP) time and frequency transfer has of great interest in the timing community. Currently, multi-GNSS PPP time transfer is not investigated with different precise products. In [...] Read more.

Thanks to the international GNSS service (IGS), which has provided multi-GNSS precise products, multi-GNSS precise point positioning (PPP) time and frequency transfer has of great interest in the timing community. Currently, multi-GNSS PPP time transfer is not investigated with different precise products. In addition, the correlation of the receiver clock offsets between adjacent epochs has not been studied in multi-GNSS PPP. In this work, multi-GNSS PPP time and frequency with different precise products is first compared in detail. A receiver clock offset model, considering the correlation of the receiver clock offsets between adjacent epochs using an a priori value, is then employed to improve multi-GNSS PPP time and frequency (scheme2). Our numerical analysis clarify how the approach performs for multi-GNSS PPP time and frequency transfer. Based on two commonly used multi-GNSS products and six GNSS stations, three conclusions are obtained straightforwardly. First, the GPS-only, Galileo-only, and multi-GNSS PPP solutions show similar performances using GBM and COD products, while BDS-only PPP using GBM products is better than that using COD products. Second, multi-GNSS time transfer outperforms single GNSS by increasing the number of available satellites and improving the time dilution of precision. For single-system and multi-GNSS PPP with GBM products, the maximum improvement in root mean square (RMS) values for multi-GNSS solutions are up to 7.4%, 94.0%, and 57.3% compared to GPS-only, BDS-only, and Galileo-only solutions, respectively. For stability, the maximum improvement of multi-GNSS is 20.3%, 84%, and 45.4% compared to GPS-only, BDS-only and Galileo-only solutions. Third, our approach contains less noise compared to the solutions with the white noise model, both for the single-system model and the multi-GNSS model. The RMS values of our approach are improved by 37.8–91.9%, 10.5–65.8%, 2.7–43.1%, and 26.6–86.0% for GPS-only, BDS-only, Galileo-only, and multi-GNSS solutions. For frequency stability, the improvement of scheme2 ranges from 0.2 to 51.6%, from 3 to 80.0%, from 0.2 to 70.8%, and from 0.1 to 51.5% for GPS-only, BDS-only, Galileo-only, and multi-GNSS PPP solutions compared to the solutions with the white noise model in the Eurasia links. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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16 pages, 4385 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Unified Model for Multi-Frequency PPP Ambiguity Resolution and Test Results with Galileo and BeiDou Triple-Frequency Observations

by Guorui Xiao, Pan Li, Yang Gao and Bernhard Heck

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(2), 116; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11020116 - 10 Jan 2019

Cited by 44 | Viewed by 5560

Abstract

With the modernization of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), triple- or multi-frequency signals have become available from more and more GNSS satellites. The additional signals are expected to enhance the performance of precise point positioning (PPP) with ambiguity resolution (AR). To deal with [...] Read more.

With the modernization of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), triple- or multi-frequency signals have become available from more and more GNSS satellites. The additional signals are expected to enhance the performance of precise point positioning (PPP) with ambiguity resolution (AR). To deal with the additional signals, we propose a unified modeling strategy for multi-frequency PPP AR based on raw uncombined observations. Based on the unified model, the fractional cycle biases (FCBs) generated from multi-frequency observations can be flexibly used, such as for dual- or triple- frequency PPP AR. Its efficiency is verified with Galileo and BeiDou triple-frequency observations collected from globally distributed MGEX stations. The estimated FCB are assessed with respect to residual distributions and standard deviations. The obtained results indicate good consistency between the input float ambiguities and the generated FCBs. To assess the performance of the triple-frequency PPP AR, 11 days of MGEX data are processed in three-hour sessions. The positional biases in the ambiguity-fixed solutions are significantly reduced compared with the float solutions. The improvements are 49.2%, 38.3%, and 29.6%, respectively, in east/north/up components for positioning with BDS, while the corresponding improvements are 60.0%, 29.0%, and 21.1% for positioning with Galileo. These results confirm the efficiency of the proposed approach, and that the triple-frequency PPP AR can bring an obvious benefit to the ambiguity-float PPP solution. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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13 pages, 3009 KiB

Open AccessLetter

Real-Time Geophysical Applications with Android GNSS Raw Measurements

by Marco Fortunato, Michela Ravanelli and Augusto Mazzoni

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(18), 2113; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11182113 - 11 Sep 2019

Cited by 35 | Viewed by 6636

Abstract

The number of Android devices enabling access to raw GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) measurements is rapidly increasing, thanks to the dedicated Google APIs. In this study, the Xiaomi Mi8, the first GNSS dual-frequency smartphone embedded with the Broadcom BCM47755 GNSS chipset, was [...] Read more.

The number of Android devices enabling access to raw GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) measurements is rapidly increasing, thanks to the dedicated Google APIs. In this study, the Xiaomi Mi8, the first GNSS dual-frequency smartphone embedded with the Broadcom BCM47755 GNSS chipset, was employed by leveraging the features of L5/E5a observations in addition to the traditional L1/E1 observations. The aim of this paper is to present two different smartphone applications in Geoscience, both based on the variometric approach and able to work in real time. In particular, tests using both VADASE (Variometric Approach for Displacement Analysis Stand-alone Engine) to retrieve the 3D velocity of a stand-alone receiver in real-time, and VARION (Variometric Approach for Real-Time Ionosphere Observations) algorithms, able to reconstruct real-time sTEC (slant total electron content) variations, were carried out. The results demonstrate the contribution that mass-market devices can offer to the geosciences. In detail, the noise level obtained with VADASE in a static scenario—few mm/s for the horizontal components and around 1 cm/s for the vertical component—underlines the possibility, confirmed from kinematic tests, of detecting fast movements such as periodic oscillations caused by earthquakes. VARION results indicate that the noise level can be brought back to that of geodetic receivers, making the Xiaomi Mi8 suitable for real-time ionosphere monitoring. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-precision GNSS: Methods, Open Problems and Geoscience Applications)

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