An ERA5 tropospheric parameters-augmented approach for improving GNSS precise point positioning

Precise Point Positioning(PPP) technology has developed into a potent instrument for geodetic positioning, ionospheric modeling, tropospheric atmospheric parameter detection, and seismic monitoring.As atmospheric reanalysis data products’ accuracy and spatiotemporal resolution have improved recently, it has become important to apply these products to obtain high-accuracy tropospheric delay parameters, like zenith tropospheric delay(ZTD) and tropospheric horizontal gradient. These tropospheric delay parameters can be applied to PPP to reduce the convergence time and to increase the accuracy in the vertical direction of the position. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis 5(ERA5) atmospheric reanalysis data is the latest product with a high spatiotemporal resolution released by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts(ECMWF). Only a few researches have evaluated the application of ERA5 data to Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)PPP. Therefore, this study compared and validated the ZTD products derived from ERA5 data using ZTD values provided by 290 global International GNSS Service(IGS) stations for 2016-2017. The results indicated a stable performance for ZTD, with annual average bias and RMS values of 0.23 cm and 1.09 cm,respectively. Further, GNSS observations for one week in each of the four seasons(spring: DOY 92-98;summer: DOY 199-205;autumn: DOY 275-281;and winter: DOY 22-28) from 34 multi-GNSS experiments(MGEX) stations distributed globally in 2016 were considered to evaluate the performance of ERA5-derived tropospheric delay products in GNSS PPP. The performance of ERA5-enhanced PPP was compared with that of the two standard GNSS PPP schemes(without estimated tropospheric horizontal gradient and with estimated tropospheric horizontal gradient). The results demonstrated that ERA5-enhanced GNSS PPP showed no significant improvement in the convergence times in both the Eastern(E) and Northern(N) directions, while the average convergence time over four weeks in the vertical(U)direction improved by 53.3% and 52.7%, respectively(in the case of pngm station). The average convergence times for each week in the U direction of the northern and southern hemisphere stations indicated a decrease of 16.3%, 12.6%, 9.6%, and 9.1%, and 16.9%, 9.6%, 8.9%, and 14.5%, respectively.Regarding positioning accuracy, ERA5-enhanced PPP showed an improvement of 13.3% and 16.2% over the two standard PPP schemes in the U direction, respectively. No significant improvement in the positioning performance was observed in both the E and N directions. Thus, this study demonstrated the potential application of the ERA5 tropospheric parameters-augmented approach to Beidou navigation and positioning.

Deformation caused by the 2011 eastern Japan great earthquake monitored using the GPS single-epoch precise point positioning technique

Crustal deformation can provide constraints for studying earthquake rupture and shock wave transmission for the Mw9.0 eastern Japan great earthquake. Using the single- epoch precise point positioning （PPP） method and the appropriate positioning flow, we process GPS data from six IGS （International GNSS Service） sites （e.g., MIZU, TSK2, USUD, MTKA, AIRA and KSMV） located in Japan and obtain the positioning results with centimeter scale precision. The displacement time series of the six sites are analyzed using the least squares spectral analysis method to estimate deformations caused by the Mw9.0 mainshock and the Mw7.9 aftershock, and the cumulative displacements after 1 day. Mainshock displacements at station MIZU, the nearest site to the mainshock in the North （N）, East （E）, and Up （U） directions, are -1.202 m, 2.180 m and -0.104 m, respectively, and the cumulative deformations after 1 day are -1.117 m, 2.071 m and -0.072 m, respectively. The displacements at station KSMV, the nearest site to the Mw7.9 aftershock in the N, E and U directions, are -0.032 m, 0.742 m and -0.345 m, respectively. The other sites obviously experienced eastern movements and subsidence. The deformation vectors indicate that the horizontal displacements caused by the earthquake point to the epicenter and rupture. Elastic bounds evidently took place at all sites. The results indicate that the crustal movements and earthquake were part of a megathrust caused by the Pacific Plate sinking under the North American Plate to the northeast of Japan island arc.

Modified algorithm of combined GPS/GLONASS precise point positioning for applications in open-pit mines

A modified algorithm of combined GPS/GLONASS precise point positioning （GG-PPP） was developed by decreasing the number of unknowns to be estimated so that accurate position solutions can be achieved in the case of less number of visible satellites. The system time difference between GPS and GLONASS （STDGG） and zenith tropospheric delay （ZTD） values were firstly estimated in an open sky condition using the traditional GG-PPP algorithm. Then, they were used as a priori known values in the modified algorithm instead of estimating them as unknowns. The proposed algorithm was tested using observations collected at BJFS station in a simulated open-pit mine environment. The results show that the position filter converges much faster to a stable value in all three coordinate components using the modified algorithm than using the traditional algorithm. The modified algorithm achieves higher positioning accuracy as well. The accuracy improvement in the horizontal direction and vertical direction reaches 69% and 95% at a satellite elevation mask angle of 50°, respectively.

Positioning performance analysis on combined GPS/BDS precise point positioning

Combining the observation data from five Multi-GNSS Experiment(MGEX)stations with the precise orbit and clock products from Global Positioning System(GPS)and BeiDou Navigation Satellite System(BDS),we studied the model of combined GPS/BDS precise point positioning,and then analyzed the convergence speed and short-time(6 h)positioning accuracy.The calculation results show that in static positioning,the average convergence time of GPS is about 50 min,and its horizontal accuracy is better than 2 cm while the vertical accuracy is better than 4 cm.The convergence speed of combined GPS/BDS is about 40 min,and its positioning accuracy is close to that of GPS.In kinematic positioning,the average convergence time of GPS is about 72 min,and its horizontal accuracy is better than 5 cm while the vertical accuracy is better than 12 cm.The average convergence time of GPS/BDS is about 57 min,and its horizontal accuracy is better than 3 cm while the vertical accuracy is better than 9 cm.Combined GPS/BDS has significantly improved the convergence speed,and its positioning accuracy is slightly than that of GPS.

Precise point positioning and its application in mining deformation monitoring

Precise point positioning (PPP)-based deformation monitoring scheme is presented for the use in mining deformation monitoring. Within the solutions of daily observation, outliers are detected and removed to avoid any potential misinterpretation of the results and then the deformation can be extracted by the coordinate differences between the two consecutive solutions. Meanwhile, because of the special location of a rover station in mining areas, the satellite geometry may be insufficient for a reasonable PPP solution, and the multipath impact an also be significant. Therefore, it is necessary to predict the satellite geometry before any daily observation. To evaluate the ability of extracting the deformation using the PPP-based method, various quality measures were introduced. The results of three datasets of the same station show that the precision of deformation monitored by PPP can reach up to cm level and even mm level.

Estimation of annual variation of water vapor in the Arctic Ocean between 80°–87°N using shipborne GPS data based on kinematic precise point positioning

The measurement of atmospheric water vapor （WV） content and variability is important for meteorological and climatological research. A technique for the remote sensing of atmospheric WV content using ground-based Global Positioning System （GPS） has become available, which can routinely achieve accuracies for integrated WV content of 1-2 kg/m2. Some experimental work has shown that the accuracy of WV measurements from a moving platform is comparable to that of （static） land-based receivers. Extending this technique into the marine environment on a moving platform would be greatly beneficial for many aspects of meteorological research, such as the calibration of satellite data, investigation of the air-sea interface, as well as forecasting and climatological studies. In this study, kinematic precise point positioning has been developed to investigate WV in the Arctic Ocean （80°-87°N） and annual variations are obtained for 2008 and 2012 that are identical to those related to the enhanced greenhouse effect.

Signal quality analysis and quality check of BDS3 Precise Point Positioning in the Arctic Ocean

This study analyzes the signal quality and the accuracy of BeiDou 3 rd generation Satellite Navigation System(BDS3) Precise Point Positioning(PPP) in the Arctic Ocean. Assessment of signal quality of BDS3 includes signal to noise ratio(SNR), multipath(MP), dilution of precision(DOP), and code-minus-carrier combination(CC). The results show that, 5 to 13 satellites are visible at any time in the Arctic Ocean area as of September 2018, which are sufficient for positioning. In the mid-latitude oceanic region and in the Arctic Ocean, the SNR is 25–52 dB Hz and the MP ranges from-2 m to 2 m. As the latitude increases, the DOP values show large variation, which may be related to the distribution of BDS satellites. The CC values of signals B1 I and BIC range from-5 m to 5 m in the mid-latitude sea area and the Arctic Ocean, which means the effect of pseudorange noise is small. Moreover, as to obtain the external precise reference value for GNSS positioning in the Arctic Ocean region is difficult, it is hard to evaluate the accuracy of positioning results. An improved isotropy-based protection level method based on Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring is proposed in the paper, which adopts median filter to smooth the gross errors to assess the precision and reliability of PPP in the Arctic Ocean. At first, the improved algorithm is verified with the data from the International GNSS Service Station Tixi. Then the accuracy of BDS3 PPP in the Arctic Ocean is calculated based on the improved algorithm. Which shows that the kinematic accuracy of PPP can reach the decimeter level in both the horizontal and vertical directions, and it meets the precision requirements of maritime navigation.

Comparison of availability and reliability among different combined-GNSS/RNSS precise point positioning

With emergence of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System(BDS), the Galileo Satellite Navigation System(Galileo), the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System(QZSS)and the restoration of the Global Navigation Satellite System(GLONASS), the single Global Positioning System(GPS) has been gradually expanded into multiple global and regional navigation satellite systems(multi-GNSS/RNSS). In view of differences in these 5 systems, a consolidated multi-GNSS/RNSS precise point positioning(PPP) observation model is deduced in this contribution. In addition, the performance evaluation of PPP for multi-GNSS/RNSS is conducted using a large number of the multi-GNSS experiment(MGEX) station datasets. Experimental results show that multi-GNSS/RNSS can guarantee plenty of visible satellites effectively. Compared with single-system GPS, PDOP, HDOP, and VDOP values of the multi-GNSS/RNSS are improved by 46.8%, 46.5% and 46.3%, respectively. As for convergence time, the static and kinematic PPP of multi-GNSS/RNSS are superior to that of the single-system GPS, whose reliability, availability, and stability drop sharply with the increasing elevation cutoff. At satellite elevation cutoff of 40 °, the single-system GPS fails to carry out continuous positioning because of the insufficient visible satellites, while the multi-GNSS/RNSS PPP can still get positioning solutions with relatively high accuracy, especially in the horizontal direction.

On ionosphere-delay processing methods for single-frequency precise-point positioning

In single-frequency precise-point positioning of a satellite,ionosphere delay is one of the most important factors impacting the accuracy. Because of the instability of the ionosphere and uncertainty of its physical properties, the positioning accuracy is seriously limited when using a precision-limited model for correction. In order to reduce the error, we propose to introduce some ionosphere parameter for real-time ionosphere-delay estimation by applying various mapping functions. Through calculation with data from the IGS（ International GPS Service） tracking station and comparison among results of using several different models and mapping functions, the feasibility and effectiveness of the new method are verified.

Impact of Tropospheric Delay Gradients on Total Tropospheric Delay and Precise Point Positioning

GPS signals are electromagnetic waves that are affected by the Earth’s atmosphere. The Earth’s atmosphere can be categorized, according to its effect on GPS signals, into the ionosphere (ionospheric delay) and neutral atmosphere (tropospheric delay). The first-order ionospheric delay can be eliminated by linear combination of GPS observables on different frequencies. However, tropospheric delay cannot be eliminated because it is frequency-independent. The total tropospheric delay can be divided into three components. The first is the dry component, the second part is the wet component, and the third part is the horizontal gradients which account for the azimuthal dependence of tropospheric delay. In this paper, the effect of modeling tropospheric gradients on the estimation of the total tropospheric delay and station position is investigated. Long session, one month during January 2015, of GPS data is collected from ten randomly selected globally distributed IGS stations. Two cases are studied: the first case, the coordinates of stations are kept fixed to their actual values and the tropospheric delay is estimated twice, with and without tropospheric gradients. In the second case, the station position is estimated along with the total tropospheric delay with and without tropospheric gradients. It is shown that the average bias of the estimated total tropospheric delay when neglecting tropospheric gradients ranges from ?1.72 mm to 2.14 mm while the average bias when estimating gradients are ?0.898 mm to 1.92 mm which means that the bias is reduced by about 30%. In addition, the average standard deviation of the bias is 4.26 mm compared with 4.52 mm which means that the standard deviation is improved by about 6%.

Endemic error correction model and quantitative analysis of precise point positioning

To identify the endemic error of the precise point positioning which cannot be weakened or eliminated in precise point positioning (PPP) zero-difference model, the 24 h observation data acquired from CHAN station on Oct 31st, 2010, were adopted for analyses, different correction models of various errors were discussed and their influences on traditional zero-difference model were analyzed. The results show that the errors cannot be ignored. They must be corrected with suitable models and estimated with auxiliary parameters. The influence magnitudes of all errors are defined, and the results have guiding significance to improve the accuracy of precise point positioning zero-difference model.

Application of precise point positioning technology in airborne gravity measurement

The precise point positioning （PPP） technology is applied to an airborne gravity survey. By analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of several velocity and acceleration measurement methods and in combination with an actual marine gravity survey, the position difference method is confirmed to be a useful survey method for velocity and acceleration. Finally, the practicability of using PPP in airborne marine gravity survey is verified by measured data.

Performance analysis of real-time and post-mission kinematic precise point positioning in marine environments

This article focuses on the performance analysis of both real-time and post-mission kinematic precise point positioning(PPP)in challenging marine environments.For this purpose,a real dynamic experiment lasting 6 h was carried out on a lake dam in?orum City of Turkey.While the kinematic test was continuing,the real-time PPP coordinates were obtained for each measurement epoch with a commercial real-time PPP(RT-PPP)service,namely the Trimble Center Point RTX.Then the post-mission PPP(PM-PPP)coordinates were calculated by using Multi-GNSS data and the Multi-GNSS Experiment(MGEX)precise products.The kinematic RT-PPP and PM-PPP results showed that the PPP coordinates were consistent with the relative solution at centimetre and decimetre level in horizontal and height components,respectively.This study implies that PPP technique is a powerful tool for highly accurate positioning in both real-time and post-mission modes,even for dynamic applications in harsh environments.

Modeling and Prediction of Inter-System Bias for GPS/BDS-2/BDS-3 Combined Precision Point Positioning

The combination of Precision Point Positioning(PPP)with Multi-Global Navigation Satellite System(MultiGNSS),called MGPPP,can improve the positioning precision and shorten the convergence time more effectively than the combination of PPP with only the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System(BDS).However,the Inter-System Bias(ISB)measurement of Multi-GNSS,including the time system offset,the coordinate system difference,and the inter-system hardware delay bias,must be considered for Multi-GNSS data fusion processing.The detected ISB can be well modeled and predicted by using a quadratic model(QM),an autoregressive integrated moving average model(ARIMA),as well as the sliding window strategy(SW).In this study,the experimental results indicate that there is no apparent difference in the ISB between BDS-2 and BDS-3 observations if B1I/B3I signals are used.However,an obvious difference in ISB can be found between BDS-2 and BDS-3 observations if B1I/B3I and B1C/B2a signals are used.Meanwhile,the precision of the Predicted ISB(PISB)on the next day of all stations is about 0.1−0.6 ns.Besides,to effectively utilize the PISB,a new strategy for predicting the PISB for MGPPP is proposed.In the proposed strategy,the PISB is used by adding two virtual observation equations,and an adaptive factor is adopted to balance the contribution of the Observed ISB(OISB)and the PISB to the final estimations of ISB.To validate the effectiveness of the proposed method,some experimental schemes are designed and tested under different satellite availability conditions.The results indicate that in open sky environment,the selective utilization of the PISB achieves almost the same positioning precision of MGPPP as the direct utilization of the PISB,but the convergence time of MGPPP is reduced by 7.1%at most in the north(N),east(E),and up(U)components.In the blocked sky environment,the selective utilization of the PISB contributes to more significant improvement of the positioning precision and convergence time than that in the open sky environment.Compared with the direct utilization of the PISB,the selective utilization of the PISB improves the positioning precision and convergence time by 6.7%and 12.7%at most in the N,E,and U components,respectively.

实时PPP离岸潮位遥测方法与试验

为降低离岸潮位实时遥测成本,提高适用性,提出了基于实时精密单点定位的离岸潮位数据获取与提取方法,利用小型浮标搭载具有实时PPP和远程通讯功能的GNSS接收机进行离岸潮位遥测,原始观测数据经粗差剔除、均值化处理、S-G滤波后,较好地剔除了风、浪、流等引起浮标姿态变化所带来的测量误差。研发了相应软硬件,并在天津港外海进行了试验,测试结果优于±8cm,整体中误差为±3.7cm,满足海洋观测规范要求。相较基于压力式传感器加声学通信的现行数据采集方式,该方法具有建设成本较低、观测方式简单、后期维护方便、产业化前景好等特点,可进一步在实际项目中推广使用。

基于北斗3号PPP-B2b信号的实时精密单点定位方法研究

针对IGS精密产品存在相应时延且在列车长时间高速运行下不便联网下载的问题,研究基于BDS-3提供的PPP-B2b服务的实时PPP方法。基于广播星历和PPP-B2b校正模型获取PPP-B2b实时精密产品,基于PPP模型及模糊度在线解算方法得到实时动/静态PPP结果,并利用实测数据对PPP-B2b轨道及钟差修正量级、实时PPP性能进行分析。20 min实验结果表明:实时动态PPP的北向定位精度为0.4172 m,东向定位精度为0.3041 m;实时静态PPP的北向定位精度为0.1005 m,东向定位精度为0.1741 m。基于PPP-B2b服务的实时PPP具有时效性优势,静态性能优于传统基于IGS精密产品的PPP,动态性能与之相当。

BDS-3 PPP-B2b实时精密时间同步方法探讨

针对传统实时精密单点定位(PPP)时间同步方法需要连接互联网,以及对北斗三号全球卫星导航系统(BDS-3)精密单点定位服务信号(PPP-B2b)用于长基线实时时间同步的研究较少的问题,提出一种将PPP-B2b信号用于PPP时间同步的实时时间同步方法:将高精度铷原子钟作为全球卫星导航系统(GNSS)接收机外频标输入,通过GNSS接收机实时接收PPP-B2b改正数,解算接收机钟差并实时调整铷原子钟,输出与时间基准同步的秒脉冲(1PPS)信号,较之传统GNSS接收机输出1PPS有更佳的频率稳定性;设计PPP-B2b时间同步硬件测试平台对提出的PPP-B2b时间同步方法进行测试。结果表明,通过PPP-B2b时间同步方法进行时间传递的精度优于0.2 ns;短基线实测实时时间同步精度优于0.95 ns;卫星模拟器仿短基线精度优于0.87 ns,仿长基线精度优于0.9 ns。

BDS-3 PPP模糊度固定实现及精度评估

精密单点定位(PPP)模糊度固定(AR)能够显著提升精密定位的收敛速度和精度。通过在BDS-2和BDS-3之间添加系统间偏差的方法实现BDS-3的模糊度固定,并基于全球MGEX测站静态、仿动态数据和车载实验数据全面评估了BDS-3模糊度固定的效果。结果表明,相对于浮点解,BDS-3 PPP模糊度固定能够显著提升PPP的精度,在东北天3个方向上静态解算精度提升依次为37.4%、26.2%和20.1%;仿动态解算精度提升依次为38.3%、27.2%和11.1%;车载动态实验BDS-3模糊度固定精度在三维方向上综合提升为40.4%。此外,模糊度固定后,以浮点解稳定后的两倍定位精度为基准,在东北天方向上,静态定位时间提升程度依次为63.5%、64.0%和40.3%;仿动态定位时间提升程度依次为58.7%、56.8%和25.4%;车载实验在三维方向的收敛时间为30.0 min。以上结果证明了所提方法的有效性及BDS-3模糊度固定的性能提升。

城市环境下多系统PPP/INS定位测速性能分析

为了进一步提升动态环境下的组合导航定位测速的精度,对城市环境下多系统精密单点定位(PPP)/惯性导航系统(INS)定位进行测速性能分析:基于消电离层组合PPP模型构建松、紧组合PPP/INS模型,利用卡尔曼滤波实现PPP/INS定位测速算法;然后通过车载实测数据验证PPP/INS模型的定位测速精度,并分析全球定位系统(GPS)/INS松、紧组合,GPS+伽利略卫星导航系统(Galileo)/INS松、紧组合和GPS+格洛纳斯卫星导航系统(GLONASS)+Galileo/INS松、紧组合的定位、测速性能。结果表明,PPP/INS的定位精度在观测卫星数目较多的情况下可达到厘米级,测速精度可达到亚厘米级;在城市环境中采用多卫星系统组合是改善精度的一个重要途径,在观测卫星数目较多的情况下松组合与紧组合精度基本相当,全球卫星导航系统(GNSS)观测状况不佳时,紧组合与松组合模式相比精度可有明显提高;不同卫星系统下,紧组合较松组合的测速精度均能有所提高。

Galileo三频非组合PPP相位小数偏差估计与模糊度解算

欧洲的Galileo目前已经有28颗在轨可用卫星,具备全球精密定位能力,并且所有卫星均能够播发多频信号,多频信号融合有望进一步改善精密单点定位(precise point positioning,PPP)模糊度固定解性能.本文研究了Galileo三频非组合PPP相位小数偏差(fractional cycle bias,FCB)估计与模糊度解算(ambiguity resolution,AR)方法,并将其结果同双频非组合PPP模糊度固定解与浮点解结果进行了对比分析.结果表明:利用155个全球分布的地面跟踪站数据进行FCB估计,单个频率上的FCB估值序列标准差(standard deviation,STD)优于0.04周;双频PPP浮点解在E、N、U方向收敛时间分别为32.0 min、10.0 min、43.5 min,双频PPP固定解收敛时间分别减少到30.5 min、8.5 min、32.0 min,三频PPP固定解收敛时间分别进一步缩短到16.5 min、8.0 min、32.0 min.