Frequency Structures Vibration Identified by an Adaptative Filtering Techiques Applied on GPS L1 Signal

Abstract

This paper is part of a research under enhancement since 2001, in which the main objective is to measure small dynamic displacements by analysis of L1 GPS carrier frequency with 1575.42 MHz—wavelength 19.05 cm, under an adaptive method for collecting data and filtering techniques. This method, named Phase Residual Method (PRM) is based on the frequency domain analysis of the phase residuals resulted from the L1 double difference static data processing of two satellites in almost orthogonal elevation angle. In this work it is proposed to obtain the phase residuals directly from the raw phase observable collected in a short baseline during a limited time span, in lieu of obtaining the residual data file from regular GPS processing programs. In order to improve the ability to detect millimetric displacements, two filtering techniques are introduced. The first one is the autocorrelation that reduces the phase noise with random time behavior. The other one is the running mean to separate low frequency from the high frequency phase sources. Two trials are presented to verify the proposed method and filtering techniques applied. One simulates a 2.5 millimeter vertical GPS antenna displacement and the second using the data collected during a bridge dynamic load test. The results show a good consistency to detect millimetric oscillations from L1 frequency and filtering techniques.