Vertical GPS

heights.
A Progression dissertation report
Victoria hardy.
Introduction

• 3rd Year Hydrography.

• Advisor: Victor Abbott,

Project title
An investigation into the accuracy of vertical
static GPS
Why?
• Placement. June 04 - June 05.
• Gardline Surveys.
• Tides Survey, MBES survey, Debris search
Background Theory.
History of positioning.

• Old techniques e.g. level

and theodlitie
• Less accurate.
• Vast improvements in
positioning since 1960s

Source Marek Zeibart

2003
Why is accurate height important?

Air craft
Postioning
flight

Why

Allows
Accurate
precision
mapping
building
Reference frames

• Accurate height needs an accurate datum

• Ordnance datum Liverpool 19th century
• Ordnance datum Newlyn 20th century
 More accurate
 Used as national vertical reference frame
 Creation of national wide bench mark system
Development of positioning.
• WW2 – V2 rocket.
• Satellite technology develops
• Transit system 1964
 Used Doppler effect
 Magnitude change in frequency
+ S.V orbit info+ time =
position

Source Space policy

project 2005
Global Positioning System

Beginnings
•Global Positioning System
• Established 1980s
• Completed in March 1994.
• 24 hour position:
Position = signal time x speed of light
GPS- Set up.
• Constellation 24
satellites
• Orbit 10,898 km above
earth.
• 6 evenly spaced planes
• Inclined at 55’ to
equator
Source Garmin 2005 • Orbital period 11 hours
56 minutes
Signal.
• Pure sinusoidal wave
• Two signals: L1 1575.42 MHz
L2 1227.60
• Use L1 or both L1 and L2
• Codes added to signal with info for a
fix
 C/A Coarse acquisition code. 300m
wavelength
 (P) Precise Code: 30m wavelength
GPS Monitoring.
 Positioning

• Capable of horizontal
and vertical positioning
• Vertical 1.5 times poorer
than horizontal.
• Due to poor angle of cut
Uses range circles from
each satellite.
 4 required for a fix.
• Plots position on an
earth centred spheroid.

Source uk telemactic 2005

Errors

• Receiver errors
 Clock error
• Human error
• Multipath
• Atmospheric
 Tropospheric
 Ionospheric
GPS Modernisation
• Galileo.
 European system. Launch 2008
 30 SV
 Civilian system
 5 signals
• GPS III
 Jan 1999 new signal L5
 More SV
 4000 billon dollar investment
 SV talk to themselves
Source ESA 2004
Experiment

• Initial experiment at Eyemouth.

 Data not compatible with software
• New survey at Yarmouth using
company base station
 Unable to process data
 Problems with data collection
 Problems

Set up Processing Poor survey

records

cant process spilt 24 hour not enough

cable thru matlab not lack of antenna
hourly using file by rinex onfo for
window work height
trimble program not processing
work

email trimble

program cant
do this
Solution

• Email experts.
• Talk to lecturer
 Manually spilt the files in RINEX form.
 Use AUSPOS to process
 Australian free GPS processing online
software
 Allows triple differencing with base station
data from Europe
GPS vertical heights survey
• Survey location:
Plymouth university
Fitzroy building
• Weather and
ionospheric data
recorded.
• Details noted on
prepared survey
sheets
Source Ordnance Survey
2004
Equipment
• Trimble 4000 SSC
• Receiver height
108.522m
• Log data every 5
sec for 24 hours

Source Author All images

Processing

• Dat to RINEX
• RINEX spilt into hourly segments
• Segments upload into AUSPOS
• Final results and report downloaded and
saved
• Data put into tables and graphs
Results- data collected
ellipsoid
height

spilt into
base stations
progressive Data
used
time segments

longitude latitude
Latitude

32.734

32.7338
Longitude

19.8

19.7995
Ellipsoid height

108.6

108.58
Discussion-Ellipsoid height

• Increasing accuracy
• No predictable trend in data set
• No identifiable point where accuracy increase is
minimal.
• Final solution 108.512m
 20cm difference
• University base station 108.532m
Factors which could have
affected results
Satellite
Processing
geometry
software

factors Ionosphere
Troposphere affecting
results

Line of sight
Receiver
model

Long baseline
Project improvements

• Different receiver types.

• New systems. E.g. Galileo
• Various locations
• Different processing software.
• Local base stations
Conclusion

• No defined trend in 24 hour set

• Not possible to state a time in 24
hours when accuracy change
minimal
• Further in depth study required
References.
• AUSPOS(2005) RINEX processing service available at
www.ga.gov.au/geodesy/sgc/wwwgps
• Bannister A, Raymond S, Baker R (1998) Surveying 7th
edition Edinburgh Pearson education limited.
• B.Hoffman_Wellenhof, H.Lichtenegger and J Collins
(2001) GPS theory and practice 5th revised edition
New York Springerwein
• C. A, Erickson. P, Foster. J (2003) monitoring the
ionosphere with GPS. GPS world V14 N5 May 2003
• C Tiberius and K de Jong (2002) Developments in
global navigation satellite systems- GPS
modernisation, Galileo launched. N 104 hydrographic
society
• Garmin (2005) What is GPS. Available
• http://www.garmin.com/aboutGPS/ accessed
November 5th 2005
Reference
• Mohinder G, Andrew A (2001) global positioning
system inertial navigation and integration London
john Wiley and sons
• Ordnance Survey (2004) questions on GPS
available at www.gps.gov.uk/faq.asp#faq14
Accessed June 30th 2004
• Zilkoski , D, B and Hotheun D L (1989) GPS
satellite surveys and vertical control Journal of
surveying engineering. Vol 115 N2 Available at
www.ngs.noaa.gov/intiatives/heightmod/articles/jour.s
• (Accessed October 27th 2005)