GNSS precise point positioning :the enhancement with GLONASS

Precise Point Positioning (PPP) provides GNSS navigation using a stand-alone receiver with no base station. As a technique PPP suffers from long convergence times and quality degradation during periods of poor satellite visibility or geometry. Many applications require reliable real time centimetre level positioning with worldwide coverage, and a short initialisation time. To achieve these goals, this thesis considers the use of GLONASS in conjunction with GPS in kinematic PPP. This increases the number of satellites visible to the receiver, improving the geometry of the visible satellite constellation. To assess the impact of using GLONASS with PPP, it was necessary to build a real time mode PPP program. pppncl was constructed using a combination of Fortran and Python to be capable of processing GNSS observations with precise satellite ephemeris data in the standardised RINEX and SP3 formats respectively. pppncl was validated in GPS mode using both static sites and kinematic datasets. In GPS only mode, one sigma accuracy of 6.4mm and 13mm in the horizontal and vertical respectively for 24 h static positioning was seen. Kinematic horizontal and vertical accuracies of 21mm and 33mm were demonstrated. pppncl was extended to assess the impact of using GLONASS observations in addition to GPS in static and kinematic PPP. Using ESA and Veripos Apex G2 satellite orbit and clock products, the average time until 10 cm 1D static accuracy was achieved, over a range of globally distributed sites, was seen to reduce by up to 47%. Kinematic positioning was tested for different modes of transport using real world datasets. GPS/GLONASS PPP reduced the convergence time to decimetre accuracy by up to a factor of three. Positioning was seen to be more robust in comparison to GPS only PPP, primarily due to cycle slips not being present on both satellite systems on the occasions when they occurred, and the reduced impact of undetected outliers.

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