Åland GPS levelling campaign in 1987

In October 1987 a four day satellite GPS campaign was performed over the Åland archipelago to test the possibility of connecting the Swedish and Finnish national height systems. This paper summarizes the gained experiences using 5 WM 101 GPS receivers and the PoPS software.The computing results for the connection between the two height systems are considerably dependent on the choice of geoidal undulation model and systematic error parameter model. Using the NKG Scandinavian geoid 1989, which is probably the most accurate geoid available for the region, and a bias and tilt parameter model the difference between the Swedish RH70 system and the Finnish N60 system is estimated to 11.4 ± 4.0 cm. An independent check is provided by two connecting border bench marks in northern Scandinavia yielding the difference 19.2 ± 4.2 cm. In view of that merely single frequency GPS receivers were used together with the PoPS software, we consider this result most satisfactory.