A Procedure for Estimating the Variance Function of Linear Models and for Checking the Appropriateness of Estimated Variances: A Case Study of GPS Carrier-phase Observations

In many applications of linear model theory, homogeneous variances are assumed. In practice, however, the variances are frequently heterogeneous. Therefore, to improve the results, the unknown variances have to be estimated. The appropriateness of the estimated variances has then to be checked by a suitable statistical test procedure. Such a procedure is also useful to study models of global positioning system (GPS) carrier-phase observations. While the functional model of GPS carrier-phase observations is widely accepted, the stochastic model is still under development. As well as the neglected correlations of GPS observations, a homogenous variance function is frequently assumed. In Bischoff et al. (J Geod 78:397–404, 2005), we showed by statistical testing that the assumption of constant variances is not appropriate. In this paper, we give a procedure to estimate an individual variance function for a pair of satellites and a procedure to check the appropriateness of the estimated variances. As an example, the approach is applied to double-differenced carrier-phase GPS observations.     

Accurate absolute GPS positioning through satellite clock error estimation

 An algorithm for very accurate absolute positioning through Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite clock estimation has been developed. Using International GPS Service (IGS) precise orbits and measurements, GPS clock errors were estimated at 30-s intervals. Compared to values determined by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the agreement was at the level of about 0.1 ns (3 cm). The clock error estimates were then applied to an absolute positioning algorithm in both static and kinematic modes. For the static case, an IGS station was selected and the coordinates were estimated every 30 s. The estimated absolute position coordinates and the known values had a mean difference of up to 18 cm with standard deviation less than 2 cm. For the kinematic case, data obtained every second from a GPS buoy were tested and the result from the absolute positioning was compared to a differential GPS (DGPS) solution. The mean differences between the coordinates estimated by the two methods are less than 40 cm and the standard deviations are less than 25 cm. It was verified that this poorer standard deviation on 1-s position results is due to the clock error interpolation from 30-s estimates with Selective Availability (SA). After SA was turned off, higher-rate clock error estimates (such as 1 s) could be obtained by a simple interpolation with negligible corruption. Therefore, the proposed absolute positioning technique can be used to within a few centimeters' precision at any rate by estimating 30-s satellite clock errors and interpolating them. Received: 16 May 2000 / Accepted: 23 October 2000     

Instantaneous Precise GPS Positioning under Geomagnetic Storm Conditions

Due to the maximum of the solar cycle, ionospheric activity increased considerably last year. At frequent times warning were sent out announcing geomagnetic storms disturbing the ionospheric electron content. In this article the influence of such geomagnetic storms on fast and precise GPS positioning (for surveying applications at midlatitude regions) is studied. And here with “fast” it is aimed at the shortest observation time possible: carrier ambiguity resolution and position estimation using only one single epoch of data. To apply this instantaneous data processing technique successfully to GPS baselines of medium length (up to 50 km), additional ionospheric information is inevitable, not only under geomagnetic storm but also under more quiet conditions. However, in this article it will be shown that under geomagnetic storm conditions, even for rather short baselines (<10 km), for which the ionospheric delays under more quiet conditions could be neglected, one has to account for significant relative ionospheric delays. Therefore an important facet of this contribution is the investigation of how to process baselines of varying length in a more uniform way, making use of a permanent GPS network (if available in the surveying area) and a stochastic modeling technique of the ionospheric delays. ? 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Single receiver phase ambiguity resolution with GPS data

Global positioning system (GPS) data processing algorithms typically improve positioning solution accuracy by fixing double-differenced phase bias ambiguities to integer values. These “double-difference ambiguity resolution” methods usually invoke linear combinations of GPS carrier phase bias estimates from pairs of transmitters and pairs of receivers, and traditionally require simultaneous measurements from at least two receivers. However, many GPS users point position a single local receiver, based on publicly available solutions for GPS orbits and clocks. These users cannot form double differences. We present an ambiguity resolution algorithm that improves solution accuracy for single receiver point-positioning users. The algorithm processes dual- frequency GPS data from a single receiver together with wide-lane and phase bias estimates from the global network of GPS receivers that were used to generate the orbit and clock solutions for the GPS satellites. We constrain (rather than fix) linear combinations of local phase biases to improve compatibility with global phase bias estimates. For this precise point positioning, no other receiver data are required. When tested, our algorithm significantly improved repeatability of daily estimates of ground receiver positions, most notably in the east component by approximately 30% with respect to the nominal case wherein the carrier biases are estimated as real values. In this “static” test for terrestrial receiver positions, we achieved daily repeatability of 1.9, 2.1 and 6.0 mm in the east, north and vertical (ENV) components, respectively. For kinematic solutions, ENV repeatability is 7.7, 8.4, and 11.7 mm, respectively, representing improvements of 22, 8, and 14% with respect to the nominal. Results from precise orbit determination of the twin GRACE satellites demonstrated that the inter-satellite baseline accuracy improved by a factor of three, from 6 to 2 mm up to a long-term bias. Jason-2/Ocean Surface Topography Mission precise orbit determination tests results implied radial orbit accuracy significantly below the 10 mm level. Stability of time transfer, in low-Earth orbit, improved from 40 to 7 ps. We produced these results by applying this algorithm within the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL’s) GIPSY/OASIS software package and using JPL’s orbit and clock products for the GPS constellation. These products now include a record of the wide-lane and phase bias estimates from the underlying global network of GPS stations. This implies that all GIPSY–OASIS positioning users can now benefit from this capability to perform single-receiver ambiguity resolution.     

Stochastic assessment of GPS carrier phase measurements for precise static relative positioning

 Global positioning system (GPS) carrier phase measurements are used in all precise static relative positioning applications. The GPS carrier phase measurements are generally processed using the least-squares method, for which both functional and stochastic models need to be carefully defined. Whilst the functional model for precise GPS positioning is well documented in the literature, realistic stochastic modelling for the GPS carrier phase measurements is still both a controversial topic and a difficult task to accomplish in practice. The common practice of assuming that the raw GPS measurements are statistically independent in space and time, and have the same accuracy, is certainly not realistic. Any mis-specification in the stochastic model will inevitably lead to unreliable positioning results. A stochastic assessment procedure has been developed to take into account the heteroscedastic, space- and time-correlated error structure of the GPS measurements. Test results indicate that the reliability of the estimated positioning results is improved by applying the developed stochastic assessment procedure. In addition, the quality of ambiguity resolution can be more realistically evaluated. Received: 13 February 2001 / Accepted: 3 September 2001     

Comparing DGPS corrections prediction using neural network, fuzzy neural network, and Kalman filter

Position information obtained from standard global positioning system (GPS) receivers has time variant errors. For effective use of GPS information in a navigation system, it is essential to model these errors. A new approach is presented for improving positioning accuracy using neural network (NN), fuzzy neural network (FNN), and Kalman filter (KF). These methods predict the position components’ errors that are used as differential GPS (DGPS) corrections in real-time positioning. Method validity is verified with experimental data from an actual data collection, before and after selective availability (SA) error. The result is a highly effective estimation technique for accurate positioning, so that positioning accuracy is drastically improved to less than 0.40 m, independent of SA error. The experimental test results with real data emphasize that the total performance of NN is better than FNN and KF considering the trade-off between accuracy and speed for DGPS corrections prediction.     

GPS常用水准方法研究及精度分析

GPS全球定位系统是随着现代科技发展而建立起来的高精密卫星导航定位系统。GPS测量具有很多传统测量方式所不具备的优点,如无须通视、高精度、全天候、操作简便、自动化高等,因此GPS测量可以极大地提高生产效率。水准测量是GPS应用的一个重要方面,用水准拟合方法将GPS测量所得到的大地高转化为我国所通用的正常高已经成为我国GPS研究的重要方面。本文通过实验来比较GPS水准不同的拟合方法和拟合点的分布对GPS水准面拟合精度的影响。     

基于伪卫星的改善GPS几何精度因子的研究

随着人们活动范围的日益扩大和周边环境的日益复杂,高精度GPS导航技术逐渐成为国内外研究的重点。GPS系统的定位精度在很大程度上取决于参与定位卫星的数目和几何布局,而几何精度因子(GDOP)正是衡量定位卫星几何布局优劣的量度。文章从几何精度因子着手,从理论上证明了伪卫星对GPS系统GDOP的改善,分析了伪卫星数量对GPS系统定位精度的影响。借助于仿真实验,结果表明,在GPS导航定位中,伪卫星能够显著增强卫星几何图形结构、提高测量精度、改善精度因子从而提高定位精度。     

Precision real-time navigation of LEO satellites using global positioning system measurements

Continued advancements in remote sensing technology along with a trend towards highly autonomous spacecraft provide a strong motivation for accurate real-time navigation of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) sensors nowadays enable a continuous tracking and provide low-noise radiometric measurements onboard a user spacecraft. Following the deactivation of Selective Availability a representative real-time positioning accuracy of 10 m is presently achieved by spaceborne global positioning system (GPS) receivers on LEO satellites. This accuracy can notably be improved by use of dynamic orbit determination techniques. Besides a filtering of measurement noise and other short-term errors, these techniques enable the processing of ambiguous measurements such as carrier phase or code-carrier combinations. In this paper a reference algorithm for real-time onboard orbit determination is described and tested with GPS measurements from various ongoing space missions covering an altitude range of 400–800 km. A trade-off between modeling effort and achievable accuracy is performed, which takes into account the limitations of available onboard processors and the restricted upload capabilities. Furthermore, the benefits of different measurements types and the available real-time ephemeris products are assessed. Using GPS broadcast ephemerides a real-time position accuracy of about 0.5 m (3D rms) is feasible with dual-frequency carrier phase measurements. Slightly inferior results (0.6–1 m) are achieved with single-frequency code-carrier combinations or dual-frequency code. For further performance improvements the use of more accurate real-time GPS ephemeris products is mandatory. By way of example, it is shown that the TDRSS Augmentation Service for Satellites (TASS) offers the potential for 0.1–0.2 m real-time navigation accuracies onboard LEO satellites.     

整周模糊度去相关的两种实现方法

整周模糊度搜索一直是GPS快速精确定位的关键问题。短时间的观测会导致观测方程和整周模糊度方差、协方差矩阵的高相关性，因而急剧增大整周模糊度的搜索空间，对整周模糊度未知数方差、协方差矩阵进行去相关性处理，可以有效地压缩搜索空间。本文对整周模糊度去相关的迭代法和联合变换法从原理上进行了阐述，并结合实际算倒进行了分析和比较。     

改进的遗传算法在GPS基线解算上的研究

遗传算法(GA)处理数值优化计算问题具有的简单通用、并行、稳健等特点,因此应用于高精度GPS定位的基线解算过程。针对双差模糊度的整数域和基线向量的实数域解的特性,进行了GA算法改进,包括实数编码的改进、遗传算子及其控制参数等算法设计,提出了基于非线性最小二乘准则的GPS相对定位同步解算基线向量和双差模糊度的优化搜索新方法,避免了分步解算模糊度中对浮点解的依赖性,首次实现了大范围、高精度、整数实数不同域上的同步求解,提高了GPS相对定位的稳定性,也体现了遗传算法的优越性。算例表明改进的实数编码遗传算法对同步解算GPS相对定位是可行有效的。     

A combined algorithm of improving INS error modeling and sensor measurements for accurate INS/GPS navigation

Although the integrated system of a differential global positioning system (DGPS) and an inertial navigation system (INS) had been widely used in many geodetic navigation applications, it has sometimes a major limitation. This limitation is associated with the frequent occurrence of DGPS outages caused by GPS signal blockages in certain situations (urban areas, high trees, tunnels, etc.). In the standard mechanization of INS/DGPS navigation, the DGPS is used for positioning while the INS is used for attitude determination. In case of GPS signal blockages, positioning is provided using the INS instead of the GPS until satellite signals are obtained again with sufficient accuracy. Since the INS has a very short-time accuracy, the accuracy of the provided INS navigation parameters during these periods decreases with time. However, the obtained accuracy in these cases is totally dependent on the INS error model and on the quality of the INS sensor data. Therefore, enhanced navigation parameters could be obtained during DGPS outages if better inertial error models are implemented and better quality inertial measurements are used. In this paper, it will be shown that better INS error models are obtained using autoregressive processes for modeling inertial sensor errors instead of Gauss–Markov processes that are implemented in most of the current inertial systems and, on the other hand, that the quality of inertial data is improved using wavelet multi-resolution techniques. The above two methods are discussed and then a combined algorithm of both techniques is applied. The performance of each method as well as of the combined algorithm is analyzed using land-vehicle INS/DGPS data with induced DGPS outage periods. In addition to the considerable navigation accuracy improvement obtained from each single method, the results showed that the combined algorithm is better than both methods by more than 30%.     

Interferometric Baseline Performance Estimations for Multistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar Configurations Derived from GRACE GPS Observations

Recent studies have demonstrated the usefulness of global positioning system (GPS) receivers for relative positioning of formation-flying satellites using dual-frequency carrier-phase observations. The accurate determination of distances or baselines between satellites flying in formation can provide significant benefits to a wide area of geodetic studies. For spaceborne radar interferometry in particular, such measurements will improve the accuracy of interferometric products such as digital elevation models (DEM) or surface deformation maps. The aim of this study is to analyze the impact of relative position errors on the interferometric baseline performance of multistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites flying in such a formation. Based on accuracy results obtained from differential GPS (DGPS) observations between the twin gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) satellites, baseline uncertainties are derived for three interferometric scenarios of a dedicated SAR mission. For cross-track interferometry in a bistatic operational mode, a mean 2D baseline error (1σ) of 1.4 mm is derived, whereas baseline estimates necessary for a monostatic acquisition mode with a 50 km along-track separation reveal a 2D uncertainty of approximately 1.7 mm. Absolute orbit solutions based on reduced dynamic orbit determination techniques using GRACE GPS code and carrier-phase data allows a repeat-pass baseline estimation with an accuracy down to 4 cm (2D 1σ). To assess the accuracy with respect to quality requirements of high-resolution DEMs, topographic height errors are derived from the estimated baseline uncertainties. Taking the monostatic pursuit flight configuration as the worst case for baseline performance, the analysis reveals that the induced low-frequency modulation (height bias) fulfills the relative vertical accuracy requirement (σ<1 m linear point-to-point error) according to the digital terrain elevation data level 3 (DTED-3) specifications for most of the baseline constellations. The use of a GPS-based reduced dynamic orbit determination technique improves the baseline performance for repeat-pass interferometry. The problem of fulfilling the DTED-3 horizontal accuracy requirements is still an issue to be investigated. DGPS can be used as an operational navigation tool for high-precision baseline estimation if a geodetic-grade dual-frequency spaceborne GPS receiver is assumed to be the primary instrument onboard the SAR satellites. The possibility of using only single-frequency receivers, however, requires further research effort.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) research fellow until Sept. 2004 at the Microwaves and Radar Institute, Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) e.V., 82234 Weßling, Germany     

An intelligent and autonomous MEMS IMU/GPS integration scheme for low cost land navigation applications

An intelligent scheme to integrate inertial navigation system/global positioning system (GPS) is proposed using a constructive neural network (CNN) to overcome the limitations of current schemes, namely Kalman filtering (KF). The proposed CNN technique does not require prior knowledge or empirical trials to implement the proposed architecture since it is able to construct its architecture “on the fly,” based on the complexity of the vehicle dynamic variations. The proposed scheme is implemented and tested using Micro-electro-mechanical systems inertial measurement unit data collected in a land-vehicle environment. The performance of the proposed scheme is then compared with the multi-layer feed-forward neural networks (MFNN) and KF- based schemes in terms of positioning accuracy during GPS signal outages. The results are then analyzed and discussed in terms of positioning accuracy and learning time. The preliminary results presented in this article indicate that the positioning accuracy were improved by more than 55% when the MFNN and CNN-based schemes were implemented. In addition, the proposed CNN was able to construct the topology by itself autonomously on the fly and achieve similar prediction performance with less hidden neurons compared to MFNN-based schemes.     

An Alternative Orbit Integration Algorithm for GPS-Based Precise LEO Autonomous Navigation

Single-epoch point positioning with the global positioning system (GPS) is as accurate in low orbit as it is on the ground: typically a three-dimensional rms accuracy of 20 to 30 m as the selective availability turns to zero. This is achieved at any observation epoch without orbit dynamic information. With sophisticated models and filtering techniques onboard the spacecraft, the orbit accuracy of a Low Earth Orbiter (LEO) can be improved to a few meters using the civilian broadcast GPS signals. To achieve this accuracy autonomously in real time, an efficient onboard computing processor is required to carry out the sophisticated orbit integration and filtering process. In this paper, a new orbit integrator is presented that computes the nominal orbit states (the position and velocity) and the state transition equations with numerical methods of integral equation, instead of differential equation usually used for orbit computation. The algorithm is simple, and can be easily embedded in an onboard processor. The numerical results demonstrate that the proposed method of the integral equation provides precise orbit predictions over several orbits. The sequential filter based on the above integrator allows the use of simple orbit state equations to efficiently correct dynamical model errors with precise GPS measurements or improve the orbits using GPS navigaion solutions from the 3D rms accuracy of 26 m to 3.7 m within a few hours of tracking. ? 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

附有约束条件的GPS模糊度快速解算

采用GPS相位观测值进行快速定位时,由于坐标与模糊度参数间的强共线性,造成浮点模糊度最小二乘解的精度很差,整周模糊度难以正确固定。在GPS的实际应用中,可以利用坐标参数与模糊度参数的约束条件,改善浮点模糊度的解算精度,减小整数模糊度的搜索空间。首先给出了这两类约束的通用模型,然后给出了不同情况下约束条件的具体形式,并导出了相应的GPS模糊度快速解算公式。用实例验证了算法的有效性。结果表明,采用约束条件,可排除大量错误的模糊度备选组合,从而提高模糊度的解算效率和成功率。因此,在GPS定位时,应尽可能利用各种约束条件。     

Quality assessment of GPS rapid static positioning with weighted ionospheric parameters in generalized least squares

Precise GPS positioning requires the processing of carrier-phase observations and fixing integer ambiguities. With increasing distance between receivers, ambiguity fixing becomes more difficult because ionospheric and tropospheric effects do not cancel sufficiently in double differencing. A popular procedure in static positioning is to increase the length of the observing session and/or to apply atmospheric (ionospheric) models and corrections. We investigate the methodology for GPS rapid static positioning that requires just a few minutes of dual-frequency GPS observations for medium-length baselines. Ionospheric corrections are not required, but the ionospheric delays are treated as pseudo-observations having a priori values and respective weights. The tropospheric delays are reduced by using well-established troposphere models, and satellite orbital and clock errors are eliminated by using IGS rapid products. Several numerical tests based on actual GPS data are presented. It is shown that the proposed methodology is suitable for rapid static positioning within 50–70 km from the closest reference network station and that centimeter-level precision in positioning is feasible when using just 1 min of dual-frequency GPS data.     

Access to the EGNOS signal in space over mobile-IP

The EGNOS service will provide better positioning availability and accuracy than that from the standalone GPS solutions. However, in order to access the EGNOS service, the end user needs to access the corresponding GEO satellites that broadcast the augmentation information for the region. This is not a problem normally for aviation and maritime applications because an open sky is always available for such applications. However, an open sky is not always available for land applications because of the obstacles in the vicinity of the end users, for example, in the city canyons. The situation gets worse for the regions at high latitudes because the elevation angles to the GEO satellites are rather low (e.g. 4–22° in Finland). This article describes briefly the SISNeT technology, designed and developed by the European Space Agency, which allows accessing the EGNOS SIS via the Internet. It will describe in detail the handheld SISNeT receiver, designed and developed by the Finnish Geodetic Institute under ESA contract. The SISNeT data server is an IP-based server that acquires the EGNOS messages from an EGNOS receiver, and broadcasts them over the Internet in real-time. The handheld receiver consists of a GPS PC-card receiver, a GPRS (or GSM) card phone, and a pocket PC as the host platform. The receiver software is a Windows CE-based package with a multi-process and multi-thread architecture. It simultaneously receives: (1) the EGNOS SIS over a GPRS wireless connection and the Internet and (2) the NMEA messages from a serial connection to a GPS receiver. It decompresses and decodes the EGNOS messages, and utilizes the information in the messages to estimate the EGNOS-corrected coordinates, which are finally delivered to the end user via a virtual COM port. The virtual COM port has been implemented as a stream interface driver in the Pocket PC. It can be accessed in the same way as the physical COM port in a GPS receiver is accessed. Therefore, it is easy to interface to any third-party applications. The test results show that the handheld SISNeT receiver can provide a positioning accuracy of about 1–2 m for the horizontal components, and 2–3 m for the vertical component in real time. Due to the poor performance of the wireless connection, 10–30% of the EGNOS messages can be lost depending on the services provided by the wireless network operators. The impact of the messages lost on the positioning accuracy is about 0.5 m in both the horizontal and vertical components. Electronic Publication     

GPS/GLONASS组合单点定位及精度分析

介绍了基于广播星历的GPS/GLONASS组合导航单点定位的数学模型,分析了组合导航的技术难点。在GPS伪距法单点定位的基础上进行组合导航定位,其中GLONASS卫星坐标运用四阶龙格—库塔(Runge-Kutta)数值积分方法求得,利用一种新的不需要进行轨道拟合的编程方法来进行计算。以IGS跟踪站提供的观测数据为例,分别采用GPS、GLO-NASS和GPS/GLONASS三种方式组合进行伪距法单点定位,同时比较分析了不同权重选择对组合定位精度的影响。