Improvement of inertial surveys through post-mission network adjustment and self-calibration

Present day inertial surveys are limited to single traverse runs in which the number of unknown system parameters to be determined are few, depending on the number of control points available along the traverse. Further, conventional inertial surveys are generally restricted to the determination of coordinates with no possibility for a rigorous post-mission adjustment of the observations. The consequence is the continued presence of systematic trends in the residuals, even after the use of error models such as those proposed by Ball, Gregerson or Kouba. Future work aiming at higher accuracies obviously requires more comprehensive models and rigorous adjustment procedures. These can be accomplished by the development of such error models and by the use of “area surveys”, instead of the single traverses, together with rigorous adjustment procedures suitable for the network of criss-crossing lines inertially surveyed. In such a network the cross-over points serve as constraints for the geodetic parameters (latitude, longitude, height, gravity anomaly, deflection components) and allow the addition of hardware and software related error parameters. Thus an opportunity is provided to effectively self-calibrate the system—a concept successfully used, for example, in photogrammetry or in satellite tracking. The number and the strength of such parameters depend on the number of control and cross-over points. The adjustment, of course, also provides the necessary statistical information on the adjusted parameters, such as their precision and the correlation between them. The presentation will describe current work at OSU in this area. Presented at the Second International Symposium on Inertial Technology for Surveying and Geodesy, Banff, Canada, June 1–5, 1981.     

On the aliasing problem in the spherical harmonic analysis

To apply the least squares method for the interpolation of harmonic functions is a common practice in Geodesy. Since the method of least squares can be applied only to overdetermined problem, the interpolation problem which is always under-determined, is often reduced to an overdetermined form by truncating a series of spherical harmonics. When the data points are the knots of a regular grid it is easy to see that the estimated harmonic coefficients converge to the correct theoretical values, but when the observation density is not constant a significant bias is introduced. The result is obtained by assuming that the number of observations tends to infinity with points sampled from a given distribution. Under the same conditions it is shown that quadrature and “collocation-like” formulas displays a statistically consistent behaviour.     

CHECKING TRAVERSE COMPUTATIONS

Abstract

Traverse Computations must be Checked.—A traverse is a chain of points connected by angular and linear measurements. The check on observations is provided by the agreement, obtained in computations, between the terminals of the traverse (terminal bearings and terminal co-ordinates) taken as fixed. This check is not sufficient, however, to serve as a check on the computations. As a matter of principle, computations should be free of errors; there are no limits of tolerance in computational work except for discrepancies arising from inaccuracy of last figures. Secondly, errors in computation may occur that are not revealed by the traverse misclosures, not to speak of compensational errors, the field for which is very favourable in traverse work.     

Azimuth by the method of multiple timed observations of a gyrotheodolite without electronic registration

A method of determining azimuth by gyrotheodolite without electronic registration is described. The method requires observations of time at each instant the moving mark passes a scale division. Thus many observations of time may be achieved in a single oscillation of the moving mark. The observations when used in the appropriate observation equation may determine azimuth with a standard error of ±3″ with 2 hours of observations. This assumes knowledge of the additive constant to about 1″.3 and neglects the effects of dislevelment in the prime vertical. For practical application of the method a time recording device and microcomputer, such as the Hewlett Packard HP41CV and HP85, are recommended.     

The determination of potential difference by the joint application of measured and synthetical gravity data: a case study in Hungary

In an elementary approach every geometrical height difference between the staff points of a levelling line should have a corresponding average g value for the determination of potential difference in the Earth’s gravity field. In practice this condition requires as many gravity data as the number of staff points if linear variation of g is assumed between them. Because of the expensive fieldwork, the necessary data should be supplied from different sources. This study proposes an alternative solution, which is proved at a test bed located in the Mecsek Mountains, Southwest Hungary, where a detailed gravity survey, as dense as the staff point density (~1 point/34 m), is available along a 4.3-km-long levelling line. In the first part of the paper the effect of point density of gravity data on the accuracy of potential difference is investigated. The average g value is simply derived from two neighbouring g measurements along the levelling line, which are incrementally decimated in the consecutive turns of processing. The results show that the error of the potential difference between the endpoints of the line exceeds 0.1 mm in terms of length unit if the sampling distance is greater than 2 km. Thereafter, a suitable method for the densification of the decimated g measurements is provided. It is based on forward gravity modelling utilising a high-resolution digital terrain model, the normal gravity and the complete Bouguer anomalies. The test shows that the error is only in the order of 10⁻³mm even if the sampling distance of g measurements is 4 km. As a component of the error sources of levelling, the ambiguity of the levelled height difference which is the Euclidean distance between the inclined equipotential surfaces is also investigated. Although its effect accumulated along the test line is almost zero, it reaches 0.15 mm in a 1-km-long intermediate section of the line.     

Possible improvement of Earth orientation forecast using autocovariance prediction procedures

 Autocovariance prediction has been applied to attempt to improve polar motion and UT1-UTC predictions. The predicted polar motion is the sum of the least-squares extrapolation model based on the Chandler circle, annual and semiannual ellipses, and a bias fit to the past 3 years of observations and the autocovariance prediction of these extrapolation residuals computed after subtraction of this model from pole coordinate data. This prediction method has been applied also to the UT1-UTC data, from which all known predictable effects were removed, but the prediction error has not been reduced with respect to the error of the current prediction model. However, the results show the possibility of decreasing polar motion prediction errors by about 50 for different prediction lengths from 50 to 200 days with respect to the errors of the current prediction model. Because of irregular variations in polar motion and UT1-UTC, the accuracy of the autocovariance prediction does depend on the epoch of the prediction. To explain irregular variations in x, y pole coordinate data, time-variable spectra of the equatorial components of the effective atmospheric angular momentum, determined by the National Center for Environmental Prediction, were computed. These time-variable spectra maxima for oscillations with periods of 100–140 days, which occurred in 1985, 1988, and 1990 could be responsible for excitation of the irregular short-period variations in pole coordinate data. Additionally, time-variable coherence between geodetic and atmospheric excitation function was computed, and the coherence maxima coincide also with the greatest irregular variations in polar motion extrapolation residuals. Received: 22 October 1996 / Accepted: 16 September 1997     

Changes of spheroid and of datum

Summary A datum change between two geodetic systems with points in common may be derived in three stages; slight adjustments of coordinates to make the networks of common points geometrically similar in the two systems; a scale factor to make them geometrically congruent; finally, an orthogonal transformation to swing them into coincidence. The geometrical concept is developed of a “datum screw”, not arbitrarily chosen as is the “origin” or “datum point” of a geodetic survey, but intrinsic to the geometry. The conditions under which it degenerates to a simple “datum shift” are discussed. Differential and other formulae for changes of spheroid and of datum are given, together with a set of tables of coefficients.     

The corridor correction concept

Atmospheric delays are contributors to the GNSS error budget in precise GNSS positioning that can reduce positioning accuracy considerably if not compensated appropriately. Both ionospheric and tropospheric delay corrections can be determined with help of reference stations in active GNSS networks. One approach to interpolate these error terms to the user’s location that is employed in Germany’s SAPOS network is the determination of area correction parameters (ACP, German: “Fl?chenkorrekturparameter—FKP”). A 2D interpolation scheme using data from at least 3 reference stations surrounding the rover is employed. A modification of this method was developed which only makes use of as few as 2 reference stations and provides 1D linear correction parameters along a “corridor” in which the user’s rover is moving. We present the results of a feasibility study portraying results from use of corridor correction parameters for precise RTK-like positioning. The differences to the reference coordinates (3D) attained in average for 1 h of data employing selected network nodes in Germany are between 0.8 and 2.0 cm, which compares well with the traditional area correction method that yields an error of 0.7 up to 1.1 cm.     

Time transfer using GPS carrier phase: error propagation and results

 A joint time-transfer project between the Astronomical Institute of the University of Berne (AIUB) and the Swiss Federal Office of Metrology and Accreditation (METAS) was initiated to investigate the power of the time transfer using GPS carrier phase observations. Studies carried out in the context of this project are presented. The error propagation for the time-transfer solution using GPS carrier phase observations was investigated. To this purpose a simulation study was performed. Special interest was focussed on errors in the vertical component of the station position, antenna phase-center variations and orbit errors. A constant error in the vertical component introduces a drift in the time-transfer results for long baselines in east–west directions. The simulation study was completed by investigating the profit for time transfer when introducing the integer carrier phase ambiguities from a double-difference solution. This may reduce the drift in the time-transfer results caused by constant vertical error sources. The results from the present time-transfer solution are shown in comparison to results obtained with independent time-transfer techniques. The interpretation of the comparison benefits from the investigations of the error propagation study. Two types of solutions are produced on a regular basis at AIUB: one based on the rapid orbits from CODE, the other on the CODE final orbits. The rapid solution is available the day after the observations and has nearly the same quality as the final solution, which has a latency of about one week. The differences between these two solutions are below the nanosecond level. The differences from independent time-transfer techniques such as TWSTFT (two-way satellite time and frequency transfer) are a few nanoseconds for both products. Received: 15 November 2001 / Accepted: 6 September 2002 Correspondence to:R. Dach     

The accuracy of astronomic azimuth determinations

Astronomic azimuths are used in classical geodesy, through the Laplace equation, to control the orientation of geodetic networks. The method most commonly used by the United States National Geodetic Survey for the determination of astronomic azimuth is often referred to as the “direction method”, and is based on observations of Polaris at any hour angle. We have analyzed repeat determinations, by analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques, to derive realistic estimates of the expected accuracy of typical astronomic azimuths to be used in the readjustment of the North American Datum. We found that the dominant errors are systematic in nature, with a very important source being observer bias, or “personal equation”. We were unable to decompose the remaining systematic error, which presumably consists primarily of instrument biases, anomalous refraction, and setup errors. We found, from an analysis of determinations that were first corrected for observer bias, an increase in the variance of repeat azimuth determinations as a function of latitude that agrees reasonably well with theoretical expectations.     

Applications of graph theory to gross error detection for GPS geodetic control networks

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高分辨率卫星遥感影像的姿态角常差检校

简要叙述高分辨率卫星遥感影像的严格几何模型,建立影像姿态角常差检校模型。通过对来自SPOT-5, QuickBird两种不同卫星遥感影像的试验,验证影像姿态角常差的存在。利用单个控制点检校出的常差值对角元素进行补偿后,明显提高卫星遥感影像的对地目标定位精度,目标点平面位置可达到4 pixels的精度水平。     

Diurnal atmospheric forcing and temporal variations of the nutation amplitudes

A 29-year time-series of four-times-daily atmospheric effective angular momentum (EAM) estimates is used to study the atmospheric influence on nutation. The most important atmospheric contributions are found for the prograde annual (77 μas), retrograde annual (53 as), prograde semiannual (45 as), and for the constant offset of the pole (δψsinɛ₀=−86 as, δɛ=77 as). Among them only the prograde semiannual component is driven mostly by the wind term of the EAM function, while in all other cases the pressure term is dominant. These are nonnegligible quantities which should be taken into account in the new theory of nutation. Comparison with the VLBI corrections to the IAU 1980 nutation model taking into account the ocean tide contribution yields good agreement for the prograde annual and semiannual nutations. We also investigated time variability of the atmospheric contribution to the nutation amplitudes by performing the sliding-window least-squares analysis of both the atmospheric excitation and VLBI nutation data. Almost all detected variations of atmospheric origin can be attributed to the pressure term, the biggest being the in-phase annual prograde component (about 30 as) and the retrograde one (as much as 100200 as). These variations, if physical, limit the precision of classical modeling of nutation to the level of 0.1 mas. Comparison with the VLBI data shows significant correlation for the retrograde annual nutation after 1989, while for the prograde annual term there is a high correlation in shape but the size of the atmospherically driven variations is about three times less than deduced from the VLBI data. This discrepancy in size can be attributed either to inaccuracy of the theoretical transfer function or the frequency-dependent ocean response to the pressure variations. Our comparison also yields a considerably better agreement with the VLBI nutation data when using the EAM function without the IB correction for ocean response, which indicates that this correction is not adequate for nearly diurnal variations. Received: 10 September 1997 / Accepted: 5 March 1998     

On outlier-hiding effects in specific Gauss–Markov models: geodetic examples

 A specific subclass of Gauss–Markov models has been defined as containing the models for which the disturbance/response matrix, determined under the assumption of uncorrelated observations, consists of independent diagonal blocks. A proposed modification of reliability assessment procedure for such models is presented By the appropriate reduction of a given full covariance matrix for the observations, the proposal allows the assessment to be made in the resulting model which, in contrast to the initial model, is free from outlier-hiding effects of the type not occurring in ordinary models. The theoretical findings are demonstrated using simple numerical examples. All the proofs supporting the proposal are gathered in Appendixes. The proposal, which is not without its own weak points, is an attempt to associate the reliability assessment in specific Gauss–Markov models with effective outlier detection. Received: 23 June 1998 / Accepted: 5 July 2000     

The Abel-Poisson kernel and the Abel-Poisson integral in a moving tangent space

The upward-downward continuation of a harmonic function like the gravitational potential is conventionally based on the direct-inverse Abel-Poisson integral with respect to a sphere of reference. Here we aim at an error estimation of the “planar approximation” of the Abel-Poisson kernel, which is often used due to its convolution form. Such a convolution form is a prerequisite to applying fast Fourier transformation techniques. By means of an oblique azimuthal map projection / projection onto the local tangent plane at an evaluation point of the reference sphere of type “equiareal” we arrive at a rigorous transformation of the Abel-Poisson kernel/Abel-Poisson integral in a convolution form. As soon as we expand the “equiareal” Abel-Poisson kernel/Abel-Poisson integral we gain the “planar approximation”. The differences between the exact Abel-Poisson kernel of type “equiareal” and the “planar approximation” are plotted and tabulated. Six configurations are studied in detail in order to document the error budget, which varies from 0.1% for points at a spherical height H=10km above the terrestrial reference sphere up to 98% for points at a spherical height H = 6.3×10⁶km. Received: 18 March 1997 / Accepted: 19 January 1998     

GPS precision as a function of session duration and reference frame using multi-point software

As an aid to survey design, we used data acquired from three European continuous GPS networks to test the precision of position estimates from static observations as a function of the length of the observing session and the number and distribution of reference stations. Our criterion was the weighted RMS of estimates over 31 days with respect to coordinates determined from 24-h sessions over a 2-year period. With a single reference station, a precision of 3 mm horizontal and 10 mm vertical could be achieved reliably only for session lengths of 3 h or longer and baselines less than 200 km. If four or more reference stations are used, these levels of precision were usually achieved with sessions as short as 2 h. With sessions 6 h or longer and four or more reference stations, the precision is typically 1–2 mm in horizontal and about 3–5 mm in vertical. Increasing the number of reference stations further provides only marginal improvement. Although there is some variation in precision in 4-station networks with the choice of reference stations, the dependence on distance and geometric distribution is weak.     

Improved GRACE science results after adjustment of geometric biases in the Level-1B K-band ranging data

The GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite mission relies on the inter-satellite K-band microwave ranging (KBR) observations. We investigate systematic errors that are present in the Level-1B KBR data, namely in the geometric correction. This correction converts the original ranging observation (between the two KBR antennas phase centers) into an observation between the two satellites’ centers of mass. It is computed from data on the precise alignment between both satellites, that is, between the lines joining the center of mass and the antenna phase center of either satellite. The Level-1B data used to determine this alignment exhibit constant biases as large as 1–2 mrad in terms of pitch and yaw alignment angles. These biases induce non-constant errors in the Level-1B geometric correction. While the precise origin of the biases remains to be identified, we are able to estimate and reduce them in a re-calibration approach. This significantly improves time-variable gravity field solutions based on the CNES/GRGS processing strategy. Empirical assessments indicate that the systematic KBR data errors have previously induced gravity field errors on the level of 6–11 times the so-called GRACE baseline error level. The zonal coefficients (from degree 14) are particularly affected. The re-calibration reduces their rms errors by about 50%. As examples for geophysical inferences, the improvement enhances agreement between mass variations observed by GRACE and in-situ ocean bottom pressure observations. The improvement also importantly affects estimates of inter-annual mass variations of the Antarctic ice sheet.     

Lasers and satellites: A geodetic application

Experiments photographing satellite reflected laser pulses have been made to demonstrate the feasibility of using an earth-based light source to illuminate satellites. The reflection was also recorded photoelectrically for range information. The reflections are photographed against stellar backgrounds from which the angular positions of the satellites relative to the laser site can be determined. With the angular information and the range data from the laser-illuminator, the position of the satellite in space is uniquely determined. When other widely separated laser-camera sites make simultaneous observations, the location of these sites relative to the “control” site can be found.     

控制网连接点坐标值粗差的可定位性研究

在原有测量控制网(称旧网)的基础上建立同级扩大网或低级加密网(称新网)时,新旧网之间的重合点(称连接点)坐标值粗差的检验是平差前的一个重要环节。本文将连接点坐标视为带协方差阵的观测值,采用数据探测法定位其粗差。借助于 Gauss-Markov模型下两个备选假设检验的理论,推导了连接点相关坐标观测值粗差可定位性基本公式,讨论了各类平面网中连接点坐标观测值粗差的可发现性和可区分性。     

Improved second order design and the datum choice

It is shown that also in a rank deficient Gauss-Markov model higher weights of the observations automatically improve the precision of the estimated parameters as long as they are computed in thesame datum. However, the amount of improvement in terms of the trace of the dispersion matrix isminimum for the so-called “free datum” which corresponds to the pseudo-inverse normal equations matrix. This behaviour together with its consequences is discussed by an example with special emphasis on geodetic networks for deformation analysis.