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GPS receiver phase biases estimable in PPP-RTK networks: dynamic characterization and impact analysis

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Abstract

The integer ambiguity resolution enabled precise point positioning (PPP-RTK) has been proven advantageous in a wide range of applications. The realization of PPP-RTK concerns the isolation of satellite phase biases (SPBs) and other corrections from a network of Global Positioning System (GPS) reference receivers. This is generally based on Kalman filter in order to achieve real-time capability, in which proper modeling of the dynamics of various types of unknowns remains crucial. This paper seeks to gain insight into how to reasonably deal with the dynamic behavior of the estimable receiver phase biases (RPBs). Using dual-frequency GPS data collected at six colocated receivers over days 50–120 of 2015, we analyze the 30-s epoch-by-epoch estimates of L1 and wide-lane (WL) RPBs for each receiver pair. The dynamics observed in these estimates are a combined effect of three factors, namely the random measurement noise, the multipath and the ambient temperature. The first factor can be overcome by turning to a real-time filter and the second by considering the use of a sidereal filtering. The third factor has an effect only on the WL, and this effect appears to be linear. After accounting for these three factors, the low-pass-filtered, sidereal-filtered, epoch-by-epoch estimates of L1 RPBs follow a random walk process, whereas those of WL RPBs are constant over time. Properly modeling the dynamics of RPBs is vital, as it ensures the best convergence of the Kalman-filtered, between-satellite single-differenced SPB estimates to their correct values and, in turn, shortens the time-to-first-fix at user side.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Pioneer Hundred Talents Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41604031, 41774042, 41574015), the National key Research Program of China “Collaborative Precision Positioning Project” (No. 2016YFB0501900) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (No. 20161BAB213087). The GPS data are available from Curtin University’s local data center (http://saegnss2.curtin.edu.au/ldc/). Our special thanks go to Professor Peter Teunissen for his thoughtful suggestions and extensive discussions. The third author acknowledges LU JIAXI International team program supported by the K.C. Wong Education Foundation and CAS.

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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, Teng Liu & Yunbin Yuan

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  1. Baocheng Zhang
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  2. Teng Liu
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  3. Yunbin Yuan
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Correspondence to Baocheng Zhang.

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Zhang, B., Liu, T. & Yuan, Y. GPS receiver phase biases estimable in PPP-RTK networks: dynamic characterization and impact analysis. J Geod 92, 659–674 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-017-1085-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-017-1085-z

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