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PPP-RTK based on undifferenced and uncombined observations: theoretical and practical aspects

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Abstract

A synthesis of two prevailing global navigation satellite system positioning technologies, namely the precise point positioning and the network-based real-time kinematic, results in the emergence of the PPP-RTK, enabling single-receiver users to achieve high positioning accuracy with reasonable timeliness through integer ambiguity resolution. The realization of PPP-RTK needs to accomplish two sequential tasks. The first task is to determine a class of corrections including, among others, the satellite phase biases (SPBs) at the network level. With these corrections, the second task, then, is to solve for the ambiguity-fixed, absolute position at the user level. In this contribution, we revisit three variants (geometry-free, geometry-fixed and geometry-plus-satellite-clock-fixed) of the undifferenced and uncombined PPP-RTK network model and then point out their implications for practical use. We also carry out a case study using multi-day, dual-frequency global positioning system data from the crustal movement observation network of China stations, aiming to figure out what are the most appropriate linear combinations of the SPBs to be transmitted to the users from the viewpoint of decorrelation, and to assess the static and kinematic positioning performance.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41604031, 41774042, 41621091). The first author is supported by the CAS Pioneer Hundred Talents Program. The third author acknowledges LU JIAXI International team program supported by the K.C. Wong Education Foundation and CAS. The GPS data used in this work are kindly provided by Crustal Movement Observation Network of China.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Geodesy and Earth’s Dynamics, Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China

    Baocheng Zhang, Yongchang Chen & Yunbin Yuan

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  1. Baocheng Zhang
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  2. Yongchang Chen
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  3. Yunbin Yuan
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Correspondence to Baocheng Zhang.

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Zhang, B., Chen, Y. & Yuan, Y. PPP-RTK based on undifferenced and uncombined observations: theoretical and practical aspects. J Geod 93, 1011–1024 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-018-1220-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-018-1220-5

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