非差非组合PPP的广域星间单差天顶电离层模型及其验证

高精度电离层修正是非差非组合精密单点定位(precise point positioning, PPP)加速收敛的重要前提。首先基于参考站网台站观测数据,以非差非组合精密单点定位提取的电离层延迟作为建模数据源,提出一种基于多项式模型的估计天顶电离层延迟参数以及卫星硬件延迟的单差电离层模型。然后开发了服务端和用户端相应软件系统,服务端提取电离层延迟和进行单差建模,并将模型参数播发给用户端作为电离层约束进行非差非组合精密单点定位。最后在欧洲地区通过PPP提取电离层进行拟合实验,结果表明,广域地区GPS和俄罗斯GLONASS(global navigation satellite system)单系统电离层模型内外符合精度分别为1 TECu(total electron content unit)和3 TECu。采用电离层约束的非差非组合动态精密单点定位,统计136个1 h时段的定位结果,发现在附加电离层约束PPP实验中,78个时段(57.35%)收敛时间在5 min内,97个时段(71.32%)在10 min内,122个时段(89.7%)在15 min内,132个时段(97.06%)在25 min内;在无约束PPP实验中,上述收敛时间内结果分别为15个(11.03%)、64个(47.06%)、91个(66.91%)、110个(80.88%)。     

一种区域实时对流层内插模型及其在PPP中的应用

利用反距离加权内插法,对基准站解算的天顶对流层延迟（ZTD）建立了区域实时ZTD模型,评估了该模型内插流动站对流层延迟对PPP定位精度和收敛时间的影响。试验表明：与传统ZTD采用参数估计的处理方法对比,二者解算得到的PPP精度在水平方向上效果相当,但在垂直方向上,模型内插对流层解算的定位精度提高约为5 cm,且能显著提高PPP收敛速度。说明应用本方法建立非气象参数的区域天顶对流层延迟模型能有效加快PPP的收敛速度,且提高定位精度。     

3种PPP模型的统一模糊度固定方法

精密单点定位(PPP)的模糊度经未校准硬件延迟小数部分(FCB)产品改正后,可恢复整周特性,能够显著缩短PPP的初始化时间。然而由于用户端模糊度固定模型需与服务端FCB产品保持一致,不仅造成了用户端面临不同FCB产品无法使用的问题,而且加重了服务端的链路传输压力。本文提出一种基于用户端3种PPP模型(消电离层组合、无电离层约束的非组合以及先验电离层约束的非组合模型)的统一模糊度固定方法,不同用户端可采用同一种FCB产品实现模糊度的快速固定。选取全球116个MGEX测站作为服务端生成3种FCB产品,选取未参与服务端解算的50个测站作为用户端进行验证。试验结果表明,本文方法解决了用户端面临不同FCB产品的PPP模糊度固定问题,在定位精度、收敛时间、固定率方面与传统方法保持一致。     

针对消电离层组合FCB的非组合PPP部分模糊度固定方法

非差模糊度经过未校准硬件延迟小数部分(fractional cycle bias,FCB)产品改正后恢复整周特性,能够显著缩短精密单点定位(precise point positioning,PPP)的初始化时间。服务端采用非组合模型估计FCB产品时,由于电离层误差的影响,原始频点L1和L2的FCB无法准确分离,因此提出一种基于消电离层组合FCB产品的非组合PPP部分模糊度固定方法。由于传统服务端消电离层组合FCB产品算法与用户端非组合模糊度固定算法具有一致性,可采用星间单差的宽巷和原始频点模糊度构建窄巷模糊度,利用消电离层组合FCB产品进行分步模糊度固定。采用全球120个MGEX(multi-GNSS experiment)测站作为服务端生成消电离层组合FCB和非组合FCB产品,再选取全球未参与服务端解算的10个测站进行评估验证。实验结果表明,相对于使用传统非组合FCB的模糊度固定方法,静态情况下,所提方法收敛精度平均提升25.0%,收敛时间缩短21.1%;仿动态条件下,所提方法收敛精度平均提升26.7%,收敛时间缩短17.9%。     

BDS中长距离非差实时动态厘米级定位算法

针对BDS常规实时动态定位(RTK)中,随着流动站与参考站间的距离增加,大气延迟误差的空间相关性大大降低,影响了整周模糊度的快速解算和流动站位置信息的解算精度问题。该文研究了一种基于非差观测误差的BDS中长距离常规RTK定位算法,采用非差误差改正方法为流动站提供误差改正,利用参考站的非差误差改正数以单颗卫星为对象进行误差改正。对电离层延迟误差和相对天顶对流层延迟误差进行参数估计,处理电离层延迟误差和对流层延迟误差的影响。最后通过BDS实测数据对该算法进行了算法验证和结果分析。实验结果表明,该算法可以实现BDS中长距离常规RTK的快速定位,并获得厘米级定位精度。     

非差非组合精密单点定位提取区域电离层延迟及精度评定

电离层延迟是GNSS定位中最难处理,也是很重要的的误差来源之一,目前常用线性组合的方式处理电离层延迟,这些方法都会引入多余噪声,在不同程度上影响了模糊度的整数特性,同时也造成了某些有用数据丢失。本文提出了一种基于非差非组合精密单点定位的方式提取区域参考站电离层延迟的方法,再将提取得到的区域电离层延迟内插至仿用户站,在仿用户站实施单频PPP,最后检验得到定位的精度。实验结果表明:仿用户站单频PPP的定位精度平面方向约为4—5 cm,在高程方向低于1 dm,与全球电离层格网模型和半和改正等模型相比,采用非差非组合的方法提取电离层延迟后的定位精度更高。     

CDMA+FDMA非差非组合区域PPP-RTKEI北大核心CSCD

为顺应多频多模发展趋势,PPP-RTK技术正逐步由传统的消电离层组合数据处理模式发展为非差非组合模式。现有非差非组合PPP-RTK研究多针对码分多址(CDMA)系统,而频分多址(FDMA)PPP-RTK受频率间偏差的影响难以实现。本文针对区域参考网,提出了一种CDMA+FDMA多系统非差非组合PPP-RTK模型,该模型能灵活处理多频多模两类信号体制的数据。为了实现FDMA PPP-RTK,本文利用整数可估理论保证了模糊度固定的严密性,该FDMA PPP-RTK模型适用于同款接收机的参考网。本文采集了香港地区连续运行参考网的GPS、BDS、Galileo、GLONASS数据进行试验,数据采样率为30 s。服务端结果表明,由于各产品之间高度相关,对组合产品进行精度评估是有必要的。组合卫星钟差、卫星相位偏差和电离层产品后,精度达到毫米级,满足用户精密改正的要求。用户端仿动态定位结果表明,GPS、BDS和Galileo单系统PPP-RTK分别在5、1和3 min实现了模糊度首次固定,定位误差收敛至厘米级。GLONASS组合GPS实现了首历元模糊度固定,定位精度比GPS单系统提升了9%、12%、14%(东、北、天3个方向)。BDS组合GPS同样能实现首历元模糊度固定,定位精度比GPS单系统提升了29%、22%、18%,额外加入Galileo观测值,定位精度进一步提升了12%、8%、16%。再加入GLONASS观测值,定位精度仍有小幅提升(4%、3%、8%)。     

基于CORS的区域大气增强产品对实时PPP的影响

精密单点定位（precise point positioning，PPP）的初始化速度是制约PPP实时应用的主要因素。基于连续运行参考系统（continuously operating reference system，CORS）获取大气改正产品可以改善非组合PPP收敛时间，同时可定量探究各类大气产品对实时PPP浮点解的影响，并评估产品的精度与有效性。实时PPP实验结果表明，相对于传统PPP模式，引入电离层产品使PPP东方向收敛时间显著改善，北方向与高程方向次之，且基于非组合PPP方法获取的区域PPP电离层产品（分别改善85%、61%、18%）优于无几何距离组合相位平滑伪距方法获取的区域平滑电离层产品；引入对流层产品对高程方向的收敛时间有显著改善（52%）。而相较于单一产品和其他产品组合约束，区域PPP电离层产品和区域对流层产品组合约束PPP拥有更好的性能，对东、北、高程方向分别改善85%、63%、69%。     

不同对流层改正方法对 PPP 定位效果影响的对比分析

对流层延迟是影响精密单点定位效果的一项重要误差源,不同的对流层改正方法直接影响PPP的定位结果。对比分析采用UNB3模型、Saastamoinen模型、ZTD参数估计3种方法对PPP定位精度和收敛时间的影响。实验结果表明:3种模型平面改正精度和收敛时间基本一致。天顶方向改正精度UNB3模型与ZTD参数估计法基本相当,但两者优于Saastamoinen模型;收敛速度UNB3模型与Saastamoinen模型基本一致,ZTD参数估计法收敛速度较慢。     

BDS-3 PPP-B2b精密轨道辅助非差非组合PPP-RTK

BDS-3通过其高轨道卫星的B2b信号向亚太地区用户免费提供了标准精密单点定位服务,但PPP近半小时的收敛时间和分米级的实时定位精度不利于其后续应用推广。因此,本文提出了融合PPP-B2b精密卫星轨道产品与区域稀疏参考站观测数据的增强定位方法,即基于PPP-B2b的非差非组合精密单点实时动态定位技术,并采用站间单差电离层伪观测值对其进行约束,以实现电离层延迟等参数的严密估计。此外,本文还重点设计了区域电离层斜延迟及其精度信息的单星实时建模方案,有效压缩播发数据量的同时提高了PPP-RTK的应用性能。在此基础上,利用京津区域参考网对上述方法进行了近实时验证。结果表明：本文方法提供的电离层斜延迟修正精度可达2.2 cm(BDS-3)/2.4 cm(GPS);超95%BDS-3+GPS定位样本的绝对误差可在2 s内收敛到水平2 cm与垂直5 cm,而且定位误差收敛后可实现水平毫米级与垂直厘米级的定位精度。     

Ray-traced slant factors for mitigating the tropospheric delay at the observation level

Three-dimensional ray tracing through a numerical weather model has been applied to a global precise point positioning (PPP) campaign for modeling both the elevation angle- and azimuth-dependence of the tropospheric delay. Rather than applying the ray-traced slant delays directly, the delay has been parameterized in terms of slant factors, which are applied in a similar manner to traditional mapping functions, but which can account for the azimuthal asymmetry of the delay. Five strategies are considered: (1) Vienna Mapping Functions 1 (VMF1) and estimation of a residual zenith delay parameter; (2) VMF1, estimation of a residual zenith delay and estimation of two tropospheric gradient parameters; (3) three-dimensional ray-traced slant factors and estimation of a residual zenith delay; (4) using only ray-traced slant factors and no estimation of any tropospheric parameters and; (5) using both ray-traced slant factors and estimating a residual zenith delay and two tropospheric gradient parameters. The use of the ray-traced slant factors (solution 3) showed a 3.8% improvement in the repeatability of the up component when compared to the assumption of a symmetric atmosphere (solution 1), while the estimation of two tropospheric gradient parameters gave the best results showing an 7.6% improvement over solution 1 in the up component. Solution 4 performed well in the horizontal domain, allowing for sub-centimeter repeatability but the up component was degraded due to deficiencies in the modeling of the zenith delay, particularly for stations located at equatorial latitudes. The magnitude of the differences in the mean coordinates between solution 2 and solution 3, and the strong correlation with the differences between the north component and the ray-traced gradients (coefficient of correlation of 0.83), as well as the impact of observation geometry on the gradient solution indicate that the use of the ray-traced slant factors could have an implication on the realization of reference frames. The estimated tropospheric products from the PPP solutions were compared to those derived from ray tracing. For the zenith delay, a root mean square (RMS) of 5.4 mm was found, while for the gradient terms, a correlation coefficient of 0.46 for the N–S and 0.42 for the E–W was found for the north–south and east–west components, suggesting that there are still important differences in the gradient parameters which could be due to either errors in the NWM or to non-tropospheric error sources leaking into the PPP-estimated gradients.     

Modeling tropospheric wet delays with national GNSS reference network in China for BeiDou precise point positioning

During past decades, precise point positioning (PPP) has been proven to be a well-known positioning technique for centimeter or decimeter level accuracy. However, it needs long convergence time to get high-accuracy positioning, which limits the prospects of PPP, especially in real-time applications. It is expected that the PPP convergence time can be reduced by introducing high-quality external information, such as ionospheric or tropospheric corrections. In this study, several methods for tropospheric wet delays modeling over wide areas are investigated. A new, improved model is developed, applicable in real-time applications in China. Based on the GPT2w model, a modified parameter of zenith wet delay exponential decay wrt. height is introduced in the modeling of the real-time tropospheric delay. The accuracy of this tropospheric model and GPT2w model in different seasons is evaluated with cross-validation, the root mean square of the zenith troposphere delay (ZTD) is 1.2 and 3.6 cm on average, respectively. On the other hand, this new model proves to be better than the tropospheric modeling based on water-vapor scale height; it can accurately express tropospheric delays up to 10 km altitude, which potentially has benefits in many real-time applications. With the high-accuracy ZTD model, the augmented PPP convergence performance for BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) and GPS is evaluated. It shows that the contribution of the high-quality ZTD model on PPP convergence performance has relation with the constellation geometry. As BDS constellation geometry is poorer than GPS, the improvement for BDS PPP is more significant than that for GPS PPP. Compared with standard real-time PPP, the convergence time is reduced by 2–7 and 20–50% for the augmented BDS PPP, while GPS PPP only improves about 6 and 18% (on average), in horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. When GPS and BDS are combined, the geometry is greatly improved, which is good enough to get a reliable PPP solution, the augmentation PPP improves insignificantly comparing with standard PPP.     

Real-Time Precise Point Positioning (RTPPP) with raw observations and its application in real-time regional ionospheric VTEC modeling

Precise Point Positioning (PPP) is an absolute positioning technology mainly used in post data processing. With the continuously increasing demand for real-time high-precision applications in positioning, timing, retrieval of atmospheric parameters, etc., Real-Time PPP (RTPPP) and its applications have drawn more and more research attention in recent years. This study focuses on the models, algorithms and ionospheric applications of RTPPP on the basis of raw observations, in which high-precision slant ionospheric delays are estimated among others in real time. For this purpose, a robust processing strategy for multi-station RTPPP with raw observations has been proposed and realized, in which real-time data streams and State-Space-Representative (SSR) satellite orbit and clock corrections are used. With the RTPPP-derived slant ionospheric delays from a regional network, a real-time regional ionospheric Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) modeling method is proposed based on Adjusted Spherical Harmonic Functions and a Moving-Window Filter. SSR satellite orbit and clock corrections from different IGS analysis centers are evaluated. Ten globally distributed real-time stations are used to evaluate the positioning performances of the proposed RTPPP algorithms in both static and kinematic modes. RMS values of positioning errors in static/kinematic mode are 5.2/15.5, 4.7/17.4 and 12.8/46.6 mm, for north, east and up components, respectively. Real-time slant ionospheric delays from RTPPP are compared with those from the traditional Carrier-to-Code Leveling (CCL) method, in terms of function model, formal precision and between-receiver differences of short baseline. Results show that slant ionospheric delays from RTPPP are more precise and have a much better convergence performance than those from the CCL method in real-time processing. 30 real-time stations from the Asia-Pacific Reference Frame network are used to model the ionospheric VTECs over Australia in real time, with slant ionospheric delays from both RTPPP and CCL methods for comparison. RMS of the VTEC differences between RTPPP/CCL method and CODE final products is 0.91/1.09 TECU, and RMS of the VTEC differences between RTPPP and CCL methods is 0.67 TECU. Slant Total Electron Contents retrieved from different VTEC models are also validated with epoch-differenced Geometry-Free combinations of dual-frequency phase observations, and mean RMS values are 2.14, 2.33 and 2.07 TECU for RTPPP method, CCL method and CODE final products, respectively. This shows the superiority of RTPPP-derived slant ionospheric delays in real-time ionospheric VTEC modeling.     

区域电离层建模的单频伪距定位验证

针对电离层单层模型无法满足单频用户定位精度要求的问题,该文建立了区域电离层斜路径模型和单星多项式函数模型。基于河北省区域CORS站的实验结果表明:该文建立的区域电离层模型的拟合精度比CODE中心的格网电离层模型提高了近80%。并将其应用于北斗、GPS单频伪距单点定位,得出北斗的单点定位高程和平面定位精度分别优于3和2m,GPS的单点定位高程和平面定位精度分别优于1.5和1m;相对于CODE,GPS和北斗在平面及高程方向的定位精度均提高了50%左右。结果证明,采用斜路径电离层模型和多项式函数模型,可以较好地反映区域电离层的精细结构。     

Tropospheric parameters: combination studies based on homogeneous VLBI and GPS data

The combination of tropospheric parameters derived from different space-geodetic techniques has not been of large interest in geodesy so far. However, due to the high correlation between station coordinates and tropospheric parameters, the latter should not be neglected in combinations. This paper deals with the comparison and combination of tropospheric parameters derived from global positioning system (GPS) and very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations stemming from a 15-day campaign of continuous VLBI observations in 2002 (CONT02). The observation data of both techniques were processed homogeneously to avoid systematic differences between the solutions. We compared the tropospheric estimates of GPS and VLBI at eight co-location sites and found a very good agreement in the temporal behavior of the tropospheric zenith path delays (ZPD), reflected by correlation factors up to 0.98. Following this, a combination of the tropospheric parameters was performed. We demonstrate that the combination of tropospheric parameters leads to a stabilization of combined station networks. This becomes visible in the improvement of the repeatabilities of the station height components. Furthermore, the potential use of independent data from water vapor radiometers (WVRs) to validate space-technique-derived tropospheric parameters was investigated. Correlation coefficients of 0.95 or better were estimated between the tropospheric parameters of WVR and GPS or VLBI. Additionally, the utility of the tropospheric parameters for validation of local tie vectors was investigated. Both tropospheric zenith delays and tropospheric gradients were found to be very suitable to validate the height component and the horizontal components of the local tie, respectively.     

A method for improving uncalibrated phase delay estimation and ambiguity-fixing in real-time precise point positioning

In order to improve the performance of precise point positioning (PPP), this paper presents a new data processing scheme to shorten the convergence time and the observation time required for a reliable ambiguity-fixing. In the new scheme, L1 and L2 raw observations are used and the slant ionospheric delays are treated as unknown parameters. The empirical spatial and temporal constraints and the ionospheric delays derived from a real-time available ionospheric model are all considered as pseudo-observations into the estimation for strengthening the solution. Furthermore, we develop a real-time computational procedure for generating uncalibrated phase delays (UPDs) on L1 and L2 frequencies. The PPP solution is first carried out on all reference stations based on the proposed scheme, undifferenced float ambiguities on L1 and L2 frequencies can be directly obtained from the new scheme. The L1 and L2 UPDs are then generated and broadcasted to users in real-time. This data product and also the performance of the new PPP scheme are evaluated. Our results indicate that the new processing scheme considering ionospheric characteristics can reduce the convergence time by about 30 % for float kinematic solutions. The observation time for a reliable ambiguity-fixing is shortened by 25 % compared to that of the traditional ambiguity-fixed kinematic solution. When the new method is used for static reference stations, the observation time for ambiguity-fixing is about 10 min in static mode and only 5  min if the coordinates are fixed to well-known values.     

GPS超长基线解算的误差特性与精度分析

基于单基站的超长基线定位技术在地壳形变监测、高精度授时等领域具有广泛应用,但仍有诸多因素制约着超长基线解算精度。从观测方程出发,利用单差观测值对长（超长）基线(146～1 724 km)解算中的卫星轨道误差、对流层延迟误差、地球潮汐误差和相位缠绕误差等误差特性进行了详细分析。分析结果表明,当基线小于500 km时广播星历误差可忽略不计;超过500 km时需要采用精密星历,同时需要考虑地球潮汐误差的影响;利用参数估计法同时估计基线两端的天顶对流层延迟误差可获得1～2 cm精度;相位缠绕误差对基线小于2 000 km的解算影响可忽略。基于估计天顶对流层延迟的方法解算了5条长(超长)基线（146 km、491 km、837 km、 1 043 km和1 724 km）。实验结果表明,当基线小于500 km时,采用广播星历可获得水平方向优于0.05 m、高程方向优于0.08 m的定位精度;当基线小于2 000 km时,采用超快速精密星历可获得水平方向优于0.025 m、高程方向优于0.055 m的定位精度。解算的初始收敛时间随着基线长度增加而缩短。     

A first look at the effects of ionospheric signal bending on a globally processed GPS network

This study provides a first attempt at quantifying potential signal bending effects on the GPS reference frame, coordinates and zenith tropospheric delays (ZTDs). To do this, we homogeneously reanalysed data from a global network of GPS sites spanning 14 years (1995.0–2009.0). Satellite, Earth orientation, tropospheric and ground station coordinate parameters were all estimated. We tested the effect of geometric bending and dTEC bending corrections, which were modelled at the observation level based, in part, on parameters from the International Reference Ionosphere 2007 model. Combined, the two bending corrections appear to have a minimal effect on site coordinates and ZTDs except for low latitude sites. Considering five days (DOY 301–305, 28 October–1 November 2001) near ionospheric maximum in detail, they affect mean ZTDs by up to ~1.7 mm at low latitudes, reducing to negligible levels at high latitudes. Examining the effect on coordinates in terms of power-spectra revealed the difference to be almost entirely white noise, with noise amplitude ranging from 0.3 mm (high latitudes) to 2.4 mm (low latitudes). The limited effect on station coordinates is probably due to the similarity in the elevation dependence of the bending term with that of tropospheric mapping functions. The smoothed z-translation from the GPS reference frame to ITRF2005 changes by less than 2 mm, though the effect combines positively with that from the second order ionospheric refractive index term. We conclude that, at the present time, and for most practical purposes, the geometric and dTEC bending corrections are probably negligible at current GPS/reference frame precisions.     

Comparison of GMF/GPT with VMF1/ECMWF and implications for atmospheric loading

This paper compares estimates of station coordinates from global GPS solutions obtained by applying different troposphere models: the Global Mapping Function (GMF) and the Vienna Mapping Function 1 (VMF1) as well as a priori hydrostatic zenith delays derived from the Global Pressure and Temperature (GPT) model and from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) numerical weather model data. The station height differences between terrestrial reference frames computed with GMF/GPT and with VMF1/ECMWF are in general below 1 mm, and the horizontal differences are even smaller. The differences of annual amplitudes in the station height can also reach up to 1 mm. Modeling hydrostatic zenith delays with mean (or slowly varying empirical) pressure values instead of the true pressure values results in a partial compensation of atmospheric loading. Therefore, station height time series based on the simple GPT model have a better repeatability than those based on more realistic ECMWF troposphere a priori delays if atmospheric loading corrections are not included. On the other hand, a priori delays from numerical weather models are essential to reveal the full atmospheric loading signal.