PPP Accuracy Enhancement Using GPS/GLONASS Observations in Kinematic Mode

Abstract

Commonly, kinematic PPP techniques employ un-differenced ionosphere-free linear combination of GPS observations. This, however, may not provide continuous solution in urban areas as a result of limited satellite visibility. In this paper, the traditional un-differenced as well as between-satellite single-difference (BSSD) ionosphere-free linear combinations of GPS and GLONASS measurements are developed. Except GLONASS satellite clock products, the final precise GPS and GLONASS satellites clock and orbital products obtained from the multi-GNSS experiment (MGEX) are used. The effects of ocean loading, earth tide, carrier-phase windup, sagnac, relativity, and satellite and receiver antenna phase-center variations are rigorously modeled. Extended Kalman filter (EKF) is developed to process the combined GPS/GLONASS measurements. A comparison is made between three kinematic PPP solutions, namely standalone GPS, standalone GLONASS, and combined GPS/ GLONASS solutions. In general, the results indicate that the addition of GLONASS observations improves the kinematic positioning accuracy in comparison with the standalone GPS PPP positioning accuracy. In addition, BSSD solution is found to be superior to that of the traditional un-diffe- renced model.