The GPS Toolbox ITRF Transformations

The GPS Toolbox is dedicated to highlighting algorithms and source code utilized by GPS engineers and scientists. If you have an interesting subroutine or program you would like to share with our readers, please pass it along so that we might continue to bring you this column; e-mail it to us at gps-toolbox@ngs.noaa.gov. To comment on any of the source code discussed here, or to leave a request for a piece of source code you may be looking for, visit our web site at http:/www.ngs.noaa.gov/gps-toolbox. This column is edited by Stephen Hilla, National Geodetic Survey, NOAA, Silver Spring, Maryland, and Mike Craymer, Geodetic Survey Division, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. ? 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The GPSTk: an open source GPS toolkit

Applied Research Laboratories, The University of Texas at Austin (ARL:UT) has established a cross platform open source software project called the GPSTk or the GPS Toolkit. The GPSTk consists of a library and collection of applications that support GPS research, analysis, and development. The code is released under the terms of the Lesser GNU Public License. The GPSTk supports a broad range of functionality. This includes reading and writing observations in standard formats, such as RINEX, BINEX, and SP3, ephemeris evaluation, position determination, receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM), atmospheric delay modeling, cycle slip detection and correction, and P-code generation. The GPSTk provides the core set of functionality that is used for GPS research and development at ARL:UT. ARL:UT has been involved with satellite navigation since Transit (the precursor to GPS) in the 1960s and is currently conducting research in a wide variety of GPS-related fields, including precise surveys, monitor station networks, and ionospheric studies. The GPSTk is a community-wide resource for all users of GPS and GNSS technology. Participation is welcomed in all areas including: bug reports, new algorithms, suggestions for improvement, and contributions of additional functionality or applications. ARL:UT continually improves the library, shepherds community participation, and is committed to the project’s development and maintenance. The GPS Toolbox is a column dedicated to highlighting algorithms and source code utilized by GPS Engineers and scientists. If you have an interesting program or software package you would like to share with our readers, please pass it along; e-mail it to us at gps-toolbox@ngs.noaa.gov. To comment on any of the source code discussed here, or to download source code, visit our website at . This column is edited by Stephen Hilla, National Geodetic Survey, NOAA, Silver Spring, Maryland, and Mike Craymer, Geodetic Survey Division, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.     

MATLAB Tools for viewing GPS velocities and time series

Over the past decade, many Global Positioning System (GPS) networks have been installed to monitor tectonic motions around the world. Some of these networks contain hundreds of sites spread across active tectonic margins where the differences in velocities across the network can be 50–100 mm/year. For networks that have been running for a number of years, the uncertainty in the velocity estimates can be less than 1 mm/year. In some cases the vertical motions can also be significant and of importance. Often, the time series of the motions of the GPS sites show complex non-linear behavior, and in all cases the statistical model of the time series is more complex than simple white noise. In this article, we describe a set of Matlab tools developed for use with the GAMIT/GLOBK GPS data analysis system (King 2002; King and Herring 2002) that allow interactive viewing and manipulation of GPS velocities and time series with a Matlab-based graphical user interface (GUI). The formats of the data files used by the tools are specific to GAMIT/GLOBK, but they are simple ASCII files that can be generated from other file formats. The tools are referred to as GGMatlab.The GPS Toolbox is a column dedicated to highlighting algorithms and source code utilized by GPS Engineers and scientists. If you have an interesting program or software package you would like to share with our readers, please pass it along; e-mail it to us at gps-toolbox@ngs.noaa.gov/. To comment on any of the source code discussed here, or to download source code, visit our website at . This column is edited by Stephen Hilla, National Geodetic Survey, NOAA, Silver Spring, Maryland, and Mike Craymer, Geodetic Survey Division, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. For the sidebar, see the Volume 6, Number 4, 2003 issue of the GPS Toolbox column.     

Software tools for accessing the GPS Seamless Archive

The Scripps Orbit and Permanent Array Center (SOPAC) has completed development for the UNAVCO community of first-generation GPS Seamless Archive (GSAC) software. The GSAC is a virtual archive composed of an assembly of agencies and investigators exchanging information about their respective GPS-related data holdings in a well defined, cohesive manner. The superset of this published information is collected and ingested into centralized databases administered currently by two data brokers (Retailers), who make the data available to the public in a seamless manner. There are three user interfaces available: the interactive GSAC Wizard, a command-line Unix-style executable called gsac-client, and a front door HTTP service called the GSAC Retailer Service Interface. Each user interface provides access to the data collections of 6 different GPS archives (GSAC Wholesalers) in North America. Together these archives have published more than 2 million GPS data files pertaining to over 10,000 different geodetic monuments. These datasets are composed in large part of data collected by US scientists and their collaborators over the period 1986 to the present in Western North America and other tectonically active regions around the globe, as well as the holdings of two IGS global data centers. In this article, we describe how the three GSAC user interfaces provide the community a powerful set of tools for seamlessly mining information and collecting data files from a distributed network of GPS archives.The GPS Toolbox is a column dedicated to highlighting algorithms and source code utilized by GPS Engineers and scientists. If you have an interesting program or software package you would like to share with our readers, please pass it along; e-mail it to us at gps-toolbox@ngs.noaa.gov. To comment on any of the source code discussed here, or to download source code, visit our website at . This column is edited by Stephen Hilla, National Geodetic Survey, NOAA, Silver Spring, Maryland, and Mike Craymer, Geodetic Survey Division, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.     

Local deformation monitoring using GPS in an open pit mine: initial study

High-performance GPS RTK software has been developed within the Geodetic Research Laboratory (GRL) at the University of New Brunswick (UNB). This software was initially designed for gantry crane auto-steering. Due to limitations with classical geodetic deformation monitoring techniques, the Canadian Centre for Geodetic Engineering (CCGE) at UNB has decided to augment its fully automated deformation monitoring system with GPS. As a result, the GRL and CCGE have combined efforts to achieve the required precision. As a first step, tests of the GPS real-time kinematic (RTK) software have been carried out at Highland Valley Copper Mine in British Columbia, Canada. An open-pit mine environment places certain constraints on the achievable accuracies attainable with GPS. Consequently, the software has been modified to meet the needs of this particular project and data have been post-processed for analysis. This paper describes the approach taken at UNB to address high precision requirements in a constrained signal availability environment. Technical and scientific aspects of the UNB software, especially in handling two predominant errors (residual tropospheric zenith delay and multipath) at the mine, are discussed. Results of tests that have been carried out at the mine are presented.     

Analysis of tropospheric delay prediction models: comparisons with ray-tracing and implications for GPS relative positioning

Ray-tracing is used to examine the accuracy of several well known models for tropospheric delay prediction under varying atmospheric conditions. The models considered include the Hopfield zenith delay model and related mapping functions, the Saastamoinen zenith delay model and mapping function, and three empirical mapping functions based upon the Marini continued fraction form. Modelled delays are benchmarked against ray-tracing solutions for representative atmospheric profiles at various latitudes and seasons. Numerical results are presented in light of the approximations inherent in model formulation. The effect of approximations to the temperature, pressure and humidity structure of the neutral atmosphere are considered; the impact of surface layer anomalies (i.e., inversions) on prediction accuracy is examined; and errors resulting from the neglect of ray bending are illustrated. The influence of surface meteorological parameter measurement error is examined. Finally, model adaptability to local conditions is considered. Recommendations concerning the suitability of the models for GPS relative positioning and their optimal application are made based upon the results presented.     

GPS对流层延迟改正UNB3模型及其精度分析

就GPS对流层延迟改正UNB3模型的天顶延迟模型和Niell映射函数模型进行了详细的探讨,采用C 语言编程,建立了相应的程序模块;在GPS普通单点定位中,比较分析了UNB3模型的修正精度;通过IGS跟踪站的大量数据分析计算表明,UNB3天顶延迟模型的修正精度在平面x、y方向上与Saastamoinen天顶延迟模型相当,在高程H方向上优于Saastamoinen天顶延迟模型.     

Estimating the motion of atmospheric water vapor using the Global Positioning System

Water vapor is both an important component in the atmosphere for the transport of energy and a noise source for space geodetic observations of the Earth's surface, such as from GPS and interferometric SAR (InSAR) measurements. GPS data collected from ground receivers are sensitive to the total amount of water vapor above the antenna and data from continuously operating GPS receivers are routinely used to estimate delays caused by atmospheric water vapor. Using these time series of atmospheric delay, we have estimated the motion of atmospheric water vapor above GPS networks. The motion above each site is determined by comparing the time series from different sites and estimating relative time offsets in these time series. These are then used to determine the velocity field of the atmospheric delays as they move across the network. We have compared the results with similar estimates inferred from geostationary satellite data and found clear correlation on several occasions. Such results can be useful for improving the understanding of the energy transport in the atmosphere, the spatial interpolation of water vapor, and for calibrating InSAR observations for delays caused by water vapor. Electronic Publication     

高纬度BDS/GPS PPP中的对流层延迟改正模型优选

由于高纬度地区气温气压值及变化率与中低纬度地区有较大差异,因此目前发布的多种对流层延迟模型在高纬度地区使用的精度会不同。为了给高纬度地区BDS/GPS用户提供更好的对流层延迟模型选择,文中采用UNB3,EGNOS和GPT2模型,以IGS发布的ZPD产品和SINEX文件作为参考,对比基于这三种对流层延迟模型计算的天顶对流层总延迟量以及精密单点定位精度,可知GPT2较UNB3和EGNOS在高纬度地区定位中有更好的精度表现。     

基于GPS双频P码伪距进行单点定位研究

主要研究GPS单点定位中减弱电离层延迟和对流层延迟的方法,基于双频精码伪距观测值P1和P2的组合来消除电离层延迟,采用对流层模型UNB3来计算对流层延迟,并通过实例来验证这种方法的定位精度。     

Adaptive mapping functions to the azimuthal anisotropy of the neutral atmosphere

The anisotropy of propagation of radio waves used by global navigation satellite systems is investigated using high-resolution observational data assimilations produced by the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecast. The geometry and the refractivity of the neutral atmosphere are built introducing accurate geodetic heights and continuous formulations of the refractivity and its gradient. Hence the realistic ellipsoidal shape of the refractivity field above the topography is properly represented. Atmospheric delays are obtained by ray-tracing through the refractivity field, integrating the eikonal differential system. Ray-traced delays reveal the anisotropy of the atmosphere. With the aim to preserve the classical mapping function strategy, mapping functions can evolve to adapt to high-frequency atmospheric fluctuations and to account for the anisotropy of propagation by fitting at each site and time the zenith delays and the mapping functions coefficients. Adaptive mapping functions (AMF) are designed with coefficients of the continued fraction form which depend on azimuth. The basic idea is to expand the azimuthal dependency of the coefficients in Fourier series introducing a multi-scale azimuthal decomposition which slightly changes the elevation functions with the azimuth. AMF are used to approximate thousands of atmospheric ray-traced delays using a few tens of coefficients. Generic recursive definitions of the AMF and their partial derivatives lead to observe that the truncation of the continued fraction form at the third term and the truncation of the azimuthal Fourier series at the fourth term are sufficient in usual meteorological conditions. Delays’ and elevations’ mapping functions allow to store and to retrieve the ray-tracing results to solve the parallax problem at the observation level. AMF are suitable to fit the time-variable isotropic and anisotropic parts of the ray-traced delays at each site at each time step and to provide GPS range corrections at the measurement level with millimeter accuracy at low elevation. AMF to the azimuthal anisotropy of the neutral atmosphere are designed to adapt to complex weather conditions by adaptively changing their truncations.     

Interpolating atmospheric water vapor delay by incorporating terrain elevation information

In radio signal-based observing systems, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), the water vapor in the atmosphere will cause delays during the signal transmission. Such delays vary significantly with terrain elevation. In the case when atmospheric delays are to be eliminated from the measured raw signals, spatial interpolators may be needed. By taking advantage of available terrain elevation information during spatial interpolation process, the accuracy of the atmospheric delay mapping can be considerably improved. This paper first reviews three elevation-dependent water vapor interpolation models, i.e., the Best Linear Unbiased Estimator in combination with the water vapor Height Scaling Model (BLUE + HSM), the Best Linear Unbiased Estimator coupled with the Elevation-dependent Covariance Model (BLUE + ECM), and the Simple Kriging with varying local means based on the Baby semi-empirical model (SKlm + Baby for short). A revision to the SKlm + Baby model is then presented, where the Onn water vapor delay model is adopted to substitute the inaccurate Baby semi-empirical model (SKlm + Onn for short). Experiments with the zenith wet delays obtained through the GPS observations from the Southern California Integrated GPS Network (SCIGN) demonstrate that the SKlm + Onn model outperforms the other three. The RMS of SKlm + Onn is only 0.55 cm, while those of BLUE + HSM, BLUE + ECM and SKlm + Baby amount to 1.11, 1.49 and 0.77 cm, respectively. The proposed SKlm + Onn model therefore represents an improvement of 29–63% over the other known models.     

VLBI中性大气折射延迟的研究进展——映射函数的改正模型

大气传播延迟是空间大地测量技术的主要误差源之一。在射电波段中性大气延迟的影响可从几米到几十米变化 ,即使通过目前某些模型的修正 ,也不能完全消除大气的影响 ,特别是湿大气部分由于变化随机性强 ,很难用模型估计。本文研究了在球对称大气模式下 ,与余误差函数形式相联系的中性大气折射延迟的母函数 ,讨论了与其有关的一些展开式 ,并对各种映射函数进行了比较。     

中性大气对非差伪距定位的影响及其模型改正分析

中性大气包括对流层和平流层,它们对GPS信号造成的延迟影响是GPS定位的一个主要误差源。与电离层的影响相比,消除中性大气的延迟影响更复杂,只能用经验模型进行改正。本文就中性大气对GPS定位的影响进行详细地分析和说明,对中性大气改正模型及其相关问题进行明确地论述。最后以中国IGS跟踪站一年中不同季节的观测数据为基础,通过对相同的数据采用不同的中性大气改正模型分别进行相同的定位解算,并对不同模型的定位结果进行分析,得出有关中性大气模型改正与GPS定位之间及改正模型间的定性和定量的关系。     

基于MODIS与GPS的D-InSAR大气延迟改正量提取

受GPS站点密度的限制,利用GPS数据改正D-InSAR中大气延迟误差往往达不到很好的效果。为此,研究了GPS与MODIS联合实现大气延迟改正量提取方法,利用两期GPS观测数据及相应时间的MODIS数据分析GPS-PWV与MODIS-PWV的关系,进一步得到MODIS水汽的校正模型。经过GPS+MODIS算法改正后,大气延迟改正精度为3.618mm,满足形变测量的要求。实验结果表明:在大气状态变化缓慢时,利用GPS结合MODIS数据对D-InSAR大气延迟改正有一定的效果。     

Tropospheric delay gradients from numerical weather prediction models: effects on GPS estimated parameters

Several numerical weather prediction (NWP) models provide information on the 3D state of the neutral atmosphere which has enabled GNSS researchers to have improved a priori information of the delay induced in the GNSS signals. However, the quality of weather models on the one hand and computational difficulties on the other, are motivations to develop an algorithm based partly on NWP models, while still estimating the remaining residual delay through GNSS processing strategies. An algorithm has been developed to estimate horizontal delay gradients from Meteorological Service of Canada NWP models. The GNSS software “Bernese” has also been modified to handle these gradients, as well as zenith delay and mapping functions based on NWP models in phase and code observation equations. Month-long precise point positioning results show strong correlation between north–south hydrostatic gradients and latitude differences, with significant but less strong correlation with the height and zenith total delay parameters. The longitude components were not sensitive to the implementation of gradients. High precision GNSS applications such as long term geodynamics studies, realization of terrestrial reference frames and climatology and consequential interpretations may be affected by ignoring the asymmetry of the neutral atmosphere. In addition to estimating the gradients, implementing a priori information on gradients in the processing software may have an impact on estimated results and consequential interpretations.