Evaluation of code and phase solutions for multi-reference base stations on GPS measurements accuracy

Abstract EN

The standard scenario of global positioning system (GPS) surveying is to use two carrier phase-tracking GPS receivers.

the first receiver should be located at a reference station with known coordinates; while the second one is placed at another station whose coordinates need to be determined.

the use of two GPS receivers and the relevant software package is costly and time consuming.

hence, it is simply to carry out the conventional differential global positioning system (DGPS) for navigation over a medium scale.

the developed approach aimed at providing sufficient accuracy of point coordinates measurements by using a minimum number of reference stations.

GPS errors have been modeled and tested over the selected study area.

this study compared DGPS against code and phase solutions and discussed pros and cons of single and multi-references on GPS observations.

the test results demonstrated that using multi-reference stations are capable of improving the root mean square error (RMS) of the coordinate differences by 11% to 33% in the 3D position accuracy, as opposed for single reference station scenario.

the RMS values can be further improved by 13.5% and 7.94% in plan coordinates and height respectively, when the modeling of atmospheric delay is applied to the differential corrections based on the pseudo-range observations collected from the multi-reference stations.

research outcomes prove that, the multi-reference GPS observations scenario increases performance, efficiency, and flexibility compared to the standard single reference station scenario.