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A Troposphere Constraint Method To Improve PPP Ambiguity-Resolved Height Solution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2013

Junbo Shi*
Affiliation:
(School of Geodesy and Geomatics, Wuhan University, China) (Department of Geomatics Engineering, University of Calgary, Canada)
Yang Gao
Affiliation:
(Department of Geomatics Engineering, University of Calgary, Canada) (School of Geomatics, Liaoning Technical University, China)

Abstract

Integer ambiguity resolution is able to improve positioning accuracy and reduce convergence time in Precise Point Positioning (PPP). Although significantly improved horizontal positioning accuracy has been demonstrated, the height solution improvement is found to be less significant, and improving this requires further investigation. In this paper, a troposphere constraint method using precise troposphere corrections is proposed to improve the PPP ambiguity-resolved height solution. This is different from the conventional approach that typically applies meteorological data to calculate the a priori troposphere delay and estimates the residual troposphere delay. The effects of the troposphere delay on PPP ambiguity-resolved height solutions are first studied. Numerical analysis is conducted to ambiguity-resolved positioning results based on the decoupled clock model and hourly Global Positioning System (GPS) observations from a Canadian PPP-inferred troposphere precipitable water vapour system. The results show that by using the proposed method the PPP ambiguity-resolved height accuracy can be further improved to 3·86 cm compared to 5·32 cm using the conventional approach.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 2013 

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