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GPS and Galileo Triple-Carrier Ionosphere-Free Combinations for Improved Convergence in Precise Point Positioning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2020

Francesco Basile ,
Terry Moore Open the ORCID record for Terry Moore [Opens in a new window] ,
Chris Hill  and
Gary McGraw
Francesco Basile
Affiliation:
(Nottingham Geospatial Institute, University of Nottingham)
Terry Moore*
Affiliation:
(Nottingham Geospatial Institute, University of Nottingham)
Chris Hill
Affiliation:
(Nottingham Geospatial Institute, University of Nottingham)
Gary McGraw
Affiliation:
(Collins Aerospace)
*
(E-mail: terry.moore@nottingham.ac.uk)
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Abstract

In recent years, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) precise point positioning (PPP) has become a standard positioning technique for many applications with typically favourable open sky conditions, e.g. precision agriculture. Unfortunately, the long convergence (and reconvergence) time of PPP often significantly limits its use in difficult and restricted signal environments typically associated with urban areas. The modernisation of GNSS will positively affect and improve the convergence time of the PPP solutions, thanks to the higher number of satellites in view that broadcast multifrequency measurements. The number and geometry of the available satellites is a key factor that impacts on the convergence time in PPP, while triple-frequency observables have been shown to greatly benefit the fixing of the carrier phase integer ambiguities. On the other hand, many studies have shown that triple-frequency combinations do not usefully contribute to a reduction of the convergence time of float PPP solutions.

This paper proposes novel GPS and Galileo triple-carrier ionosphere-free combinations that aim to enhance the observability of the narrow-lane ambiguities. Tests based on simulated data have shown that these combinations can reduce the convergence time of the float PPP solution by a factor of up to 2·38 with respect to the two-frequency combinations. This approach becomes effective only after the extra wide-lane and wide-lane ambiguities have been fixed. For this reason, a new fixing method based on low-noise pseudo-range combinations corrected by the smoothed ionosphere correction is presented. By exploiting this algorithm, no more than a few minutes are required to fix the WL ambiguities for Galileo, even in cases of severe multipath environments.

Keywords

GNSSPrecise point positioning (PPP)GPSGalileoAmbiguity resolution
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 74 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 5 - 23
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Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 2020

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