Modeling GPS multipath effect based on spherical cap harmonic analysis

Most GPS positioning errors can be eliminated or removed by the differential technique or the modeling method,but the multipath effect is a special kind of system or gross error,so it is difficult to be simulated or eliminated.In order to improve the accuracy of GPS positioning,the single-epoch pseudorange multipath effects at GPS station were calculated,and firstly modeled based on the spherical cap harmonic（SCH）,which is the function of satellite longitude and latitude with the robust method.The accuracy of the kinematic point positioning technique was improved by correcting pseudorange observations with the multipath effect calculated by the SCH model,especially in the elevation direction.The spherical cap harmonic can be used to model the pseudorange multipath effect.

PRINCIPLE,SOFTWARE AND EXPERIMENT OF GPS-SUPPORTED AEROTRIANGULATION

In conventional aerial photogrammetry, the high accurate photogrammetric point determination is always carried out by aerotriangulation using a great deal of ground control points around the perimeter and in the center of block area because the exterior orien- tation parameters of aerial photographs are unknown. A technological revolution in pho- togrammetry has taken place since Navstar global positioning system (GPS) was applied to determine the 3D coordinates of exposure station positions during the photo flight missions. GPS-supported aerotriangulation is conducted by a combined bundle adjustment for pho- togrammetric observations and the camera orientation data. In this case, the essential ground control points are replaced by GPS-determined camera positions. Recent investigations show this method is coming to the practice. We have been engaged in the theoretical studies, soft- ware development, and related experiments and production in the field since 1990. So far the abundant research achievements are obtained in terms of the theory and application. In this paper,we first derives the mathematical model of GPS-supported aerotriangulation from the geometry between camera and airborne GPS antenna, then describes briefly a software pack- age WuCAPS (Wuhan combined adjustment program system) developed newly by the au- thor,which serves the purpose of the combined bundle adjustment for photogrammetric and non-photogrammetric observations. At the end of the present work, a set of actual aerial pho- tographs,at the image scale of 1: 34 000, with airborne GPS data taken from Tianjing site, China were processed by WuCAPS. The empirical results have verified that the accuracy of the combined bundle adjustment with 4 XYZ ground control points around the corners of block area is very close to that of the conventional bundle adjustment with 3 additional pa- rameters, that leads to reduce 88% field survey and 75% production cost, and can meet the specification of topographic mapping at small or medium scale by GPS-supported aerotriangu- lation without ground control. This shows the ample applicability and the economic benefit of kinematic GPS relative positioning in high accurate photogrammetric point determination.

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.

GPS Rapid Static and Kinematic Positioning Based on GPS Active Network

This paper presents a data processing strategy for GPS kinematic positioning by using a GPS active network to model the GPS errors in double difference observable.Firstly,the double difference residuals are estimated between the reference stations in the active network.Then the errors at a user station are predicted as the network corrections to user measurements,based on the location of the user.Finally conventional kinematic positioning algorithms can be applied to determine the position of the user station.As an example,continuous 24_hour GPS data in March 2001 has been processed by this method.It clearly demonstrates that,after applying these corrections to a user within the network,both the success rate for ambiguity resolution and the positioning accuracy have been significantly improved.

An improved adaptive Sage filter with applications in GEO orbit determination and GPS kinematic positioning

The shortcomings of an adaptive Sage filter are analyzed in this paper.An improved adaptive Sage filter is developed by using a weighted average quadratic form of the historical residuals of observations and predicted states to evaluate the covariance matrices of observations and dynamic model errors at the present epoch.The weight function is constructed based on the variances of observational residuals or predicted state residuals and the space distance between the previous and the present epoch.In order to balance the contributions of the measurements and the dynamic model information,an adaptive factor is applied by using a two-segment function and predicted state discrepancy statistics.Two applications,orbit determination of a maneuvered GEO satellite and GPS kinematic positioning,are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed method.

GNSS clock corrections densification at SHAO:from 5 min to 30 s

High frequency multi-GNSS zero-difference applications like Precise Orbit Determination （POD） for Low Earth Orbiters （LEO） and high frequency kinematic positioning require corresponding high-rate GNSS clock corrections. The determination of the GNSS clocks in the orbit determination process is time consuming, especially in tile combined GPS/GLONASS pro- cessing. At present, a large number of IGS Analysis Centers （AC） provide clock corrections in 5-rain sampling and only a few ACs provide clocks in 30-s sampling for both GPS and GLONASS. In this paper, an efficient epoch-difference GNSS clock determination algorithm is adopted based on the algorithm used by the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe （CODE）. The clock determination procedure of the GNSS Analysis Center at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory （SHAO） and the algorithm is described in detail. It is shown that the approach greatly speeds up the processing, and the densified 30-s clocks have the same quality as the 5-rain clocks estimated based on a zero-difference solution. Comparing the densified 30-s GNSS clocks provided by SHAO with that of IGS and its ACs, results show that our 30-s GNSS clocks are of the same quality as that of 1GS. Allan deviation also gives the same conclusion. Further validation of the SHAO 30-s clock product is performed in kine- matic PPP and LEO POD. Results indicate that the positions have the same accuracy when using SHAO 30-s GNSS clocks or IGS （and its AC） finals. The robustness of the algorithm and processing approach ensure its extension to provide clocks in 5-s or even higher frequencies. The implementation of the new approach is simple and it could be delivered as a black-box to the current scientific software packages.

GNSS smartphones positioning: advances, challenges, opportunities, and future perspectives

Starting from 2016,the raw Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)measurements can be extracted from the Android Nougat(or later)operating systems.Since then,GNSS smartphone positioning has been given much attention.A high number of related publications indicates the importance of the research in this field,as it has been doing in recent years.Due to the cost-effectiveness of the GNSS smartphones,they can be employed in a wide variety of applications such as cadastral surveys,mapping surveying applications,vehicle and pedestrian navigation and etc.However,there are still some challenges regarding the noisy smartphone GNSS observations,the environment effect and smartphone holding modes and the algorithm development part which restrict the users to achieve high-precision smartphone positioning.In this review paper,we overview the research works carried out in this field with a focus on the following aspects:first,to provide a review of fundamental work on raw smartphone observations and quality assessment of GNSS observations from major smart devices including Google Pixel 4,Google Pixel 5,Xiaomi Mi 8 and Samsung Ultra S20 in terms of their signal strengths and carrier-phase continuities,second,to describe the current state of smartphone positioning research field until most recently in 2021 and,last,to summarize major challenges and opportunities in this filed.Finally,the paper is concluded with some remarks as well as future research perspectives.

A method of improving ambiguity fixing rate for post-processing kinematic GNSS data

Global Navigation Satellite System precise positioning using carrier phase measurements requires reliable ambiguity resolution.It is challenging to obtain continuous precise positions with a high ambiguity fixing rate under a wide range of dynamic scenes with a single base station,thus the positioning accuracy will be degraded seriously.The Forward-Backward Combination(FBC),a common post-processing smoothing method,is simply the weighted average of the positions of forward and backward filtering.When the ambiguity fixing rate of the one-way(forward or backward)filter is low,the FBC method usually cannot provide accurate and reliable positioning results.Consequently,this paper proposed a method to improve the accuracy of positions by integrating forward and backward AR,which combines the forward and backward ambiguities instead of positions-referred to as ambiguity domain-based integration(ADBI).The purpose of ADBI is to find a reliable correct integer ambiguities by making full use of the integer nature of ambiguities and integrating the ambiguities from the forward and backward filters.Once the integer ambiguities are determined correctly and reliably with ADBI,then the positions are updated with the fixing ambiguities constrained,in which more accurate positions with high confidence can be achieved.The effectiveness of the proposed approach is validated with airborne and car-borne dynamic experiments.The experimental results demonstrated that much better accuracy of position and higher ambiguity-fixed success rate can be achieved than the traditional post-processing method.

Applying Global Positioning System Real-Time Kinematic Technology to Collection and Analysis of Rowing Information

To obtain higher accuracy of information concerning boat motion, the use of global positioning system (GPS) real-time kinematic (RTK) technology was investigated. Through RTK technology, a measurement precision of the ±1 cm range can be achieved. The research equipment included a GPS receiver and a personal digital assistant as a data control and processing unit. Real-time GPS data was captured and processed to acquire various parameters, including the boat track, velocity curve, stroke rate, and stroke distance. Using this data, the quantitative information related to rowing training can be achieved. The results are helpful for analyzing the biomechanical parameters of rowing techniques and for evaluating training efficiency.