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The EUREF Permanent Network (EPN) currently consists of more than 300 evenly distributed continuously operating Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) reference stations. As a result of the continuous modernization of GNSS systems, the equipment of reference stations is subject to changes and upgrades. Changes relating to GNSS receiver antenna replacement are considered the main reason for discontinuities noticed in station position time series. It is assumed that resulting offsets are primarily caused by changes in carrier phase multipath effects after antenna replacement. However, the observed position shifts may also indicate the deficiency in the antenna phase center corrections (PCC) models. In this paper, we identified and interpreted the coordinate shifts caused by antenna/radome changes at selected EPN stations. The main objective was to investigate the correlation between the offset occurrence and PCC model type (type mean, individual robot-derived, individual chamber-derived) as well as multipath changes after antenna replacement. For the study, GNSS data from 12 EPN stations covering the years 2017–2019 were analyzed. The results proved that the antenna replacement is critical in the context of station coordinates stability and, in most cases, results in visible shifts in the position component time series. For GPS-only solutions, the most stable results were achieved using robot-derived individual PCC models. On the other hand, in the case of GPS + Galileo processing, the most stable results were obtained using chamber-derived individual PCC models. Furthermore, discontinuities due to the antenna change were noticed in the position time series in 75% of GPS + Galileo solutions. On the other hand, multipath changes arising as the result of antenna replacement were responsible, depending on solution type, for 21–42% of variations in the coordinates.

© 2022 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. In this article, we show the capability of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) precise orbit determination (POD) low Earth orbit (LEO) data to detect anomalous ionospheric disturbances in the spectral range of the signals associated with earthquakes and tsunamis, applied to two of these events in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Solomon Islands during 2016. This is achieved thanks to the new PIES approach (POD-GNSS LEO Detrended Ionospheric Electron Content Significant Deviations). The significance of such ionospheric signals above the swarm LEOs is confirmed with different types of independent data: in situ electron density measurements provided by the Langmuir Probe (LP) onboard swarm LEOs, DORIS, and ground-based GNSS colocated measurements, as it is described in this article. In this way, we conclude the possible detection of the tsunami-related ionospheric gravity wave in PNG 2016 event, consistent with the most-recent theory, which shows that a tsunami (which is localized in space and time) excites a spectrum of gravity waves, some of which have faster horizontal phase speeds than the tsunami. We believe that this work shows as well the feasibility of a future potential monitoring system of ionospheric disturbances, to be made possible by hundreds of CubeSats with POD GNSS receivers among other appropriate sensors, and supported for real-time or near real-time confirmation and characterization by thousands of worldwide existing ground GNSS receivers. This work has been partially supported by the COSTO ESA-funded project (ESA ITT AO/1-9514/18/NL/IA). Also it was partially supported by the 2017 SGR-0851 grant of the Generalitat de Catalunya and by the EU project 101007599 - PITHIA-NRF. The data for this paper are available and they can be requested from H. Yang (h.yang@upc.edu) and M. Hernandez-Pajares (manuel.hernandez@upc.edu).

Ionospheric irregularities impair GNSS signals and, in turn, affect the performance of GNSS positioning. Such effects are especially evident for the high latitudes, which are currently gaining the attention of research and industry branches. These activities should be supported with reliable positioning and navigation services. Such needs motivate us to assess, for the first time, the impact of ionospheric irregularities on GNSS positioning performance in Greenland. We fill the gap and evaluate the performance of positioning methods that were not investigated comprehensively until now but meet the demands of a wide range of users. In this regard, we address the needs of mass-market users that most frequently employ single-frequency receivers and expect a meter to submeter-level accuracy in an absolute mode; and the users who require the highest precision solution based on geodetic-grade dual-frequency receivers. We take advantage of the datasets collected at the GNET permanent network in Greenland during three ionospheric storms, namely the St. Patrick storm of March 17, 2015, June 22, 2015, and August 25–­26, 2018. We discover a significant impact of the ionospheric disturbances on the ambiguity resolution performance and the accuracy of the float solution in RTK positioning. Next, assessing the single-frequency ionospheric-free PPP, we demonstrate that the model is generally unaffected by the ionospheric disturbances. Hence, the model is predestined for the application by the users of single-frequency receivers in the areas of frequent ionospheric disturbances. Finally, based on the observation analyses, we revealed that phase signals on the L2 frequency band are more prone to the cycle slips induced by ionospheric irregularities than those transmitted on the first one.

In this manuscript, we introduce the Ionospheric Tomographic Common Clock (ITCC) model of undifferenced uncombined GNSS measurements. It is intended for improving the Wide Area precise positioning in a consistent and simple way in the multi-GNSS context, and without the need of external precise real-time products. This is the case, in particular, of the satellite clocks, which are estimated at the Wide Area GNSS network Central Processing Facility (CPF) referred to the reference receiver one; and the precise realtime ionospheric corrections, simultaneously computed under a voxel-based tomographic model with satellite clocks and other geodetic unknowns, from the uncombined and undifferenced pseudoranges and carrier phase measurements at the CPF from the Wide Area GNSS network area. The model, without fixing the carrier phase ambiguities for the time being (just constraining them by the simultaneous solution of both ionospheric and geometric components of the uncombined GNSS model), has been successfully applied and assessed against previous precise positioning techniques. This has been done by emulating real-time conditions for Wide Area GPS users during 2018 in Poland., Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. The research has been performed under the support of ATOMIC ESA funded project and the manuscript has been written under PYTHIA EC project support. The ground GNSS network data was provided by Leica in Poland and the position of the GPS transmitters from IGS.

Ionosphere Associate Analysis Centers (IAACs) of the International GNSS Service (IGS) independently produce global ionosphere maps (GIMs) of the total electron content (TEC). The GIMs are based on different modeling techniques, resulting in different TEC levels and accuracies. In this study, we evaluated the accuracy and consistency of the IAAC GIMs during high (2014) and low (2018) solar activity periods of the 24th solar cycle. In our study, we applied two different evaluation methods. First, we carried out a comparison of the GIM-derived slant TEC (STEC) with carrier phase geometry-free combination of GNSS signals obtained from 25 globally distributed stations. Second, vertical TEC (VTEC) from GIMs was compared to altimetry-derived VTEC obtained from the Jason-2 and Jason-3 satellites and complemented for plasmaspheric TEC. The analyzed GIMs obtained STEC RMS values reaching from 1.98 to 3.00 TECU and from 0.96 to 1.29 TECU during 2014 and 2018, respectively. The comparison to altimetry data resulted in VTEC STD values that varied from 3.61 to 5.97 TECU and from 1.92 to 2.78 TECU during 2014 and 2018, respectively. The results show that among the IAACs, the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe global maps performed best in low and high solar activity periods. However, the highest accuracy was obtained by a non-IGS product—UQRG GIMs provided by Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. It was also shown that the best results were obtained using a modified single layer model mapping function and that the map time interval has a relatively small influence on the resulting map accuracy.

The study investigates Swarm data including in-situ electron density (ED) measured by Langmuir Probes (LP) and total electron content (TEC) from precise orbit determination (POD) GNSS receivers in time of Chile-Illapel earthquake (EQ) and tsunami in 2015. The research is based on the symbiosis of Swarm data, ground GNSS data and seismic records combined with the information on EQs and tsunamis. The FFT-based filtering and short-term Fourier transform (STFT) analysis are used in detection of seismic ionospheric disturbances (SID) in ED from LP and POD TEC data. The classification of the spectral characteristics of disturbing along-track signals is supported by their simultaneous search in ground GNSS observations, which gives an opportunity for the validation of the spectral recognition. Ground GNSS data, due to several tens of satellites and thousands of stations, provide the only full spatiotemporal view on SIDs and enable the inspection of their spatial shapes, spatial relations and speeds. The location of dense ground GNSS networks is however limited to selected places. Swarm and other LEO satellite data, in turn, are globally distributed, but they are dense only along the orbital tracks. Therefore, 1D nature of Swarm along-track observations, fast satellite movement and limited chance for spatiotemporal correlation due to the non-repeating orbits, strongly require spectral analysis for better recognition of the signals. The detection of SIDs from along-track Swarm data is also complicated due to the variety of disturbing signals occurring in the ionosphere, and the spectral analysis is also crucial there. STFT spectral approach to along-track Swarm data gives an opportunity for distinguishing the signals of different origin. The analyses of Swarm data provide interesting observations of ionospheric disturbances not only directly related with the largest EQ events and tsunami, but also occurring during entire periods of enhanced seismic activity and at larger distances from EQ epicenter. The disturbing signals triggered by the largest EQs and tsunami were also observed. However their amplitude in the ionosphere is not always such dominating as the amplitude of some other, associated disturbances on the neighboring days. This difference in scale can suggest that the electron disturbances in the ionosphere are rather more generally related to the crustal motion and seismic activity, than solely correlated with large EQs.

The study intercompares three stochastic interpolation methods originating from the same geostatistical family: least-squares collocation (LSC) known from geodesy, as well as ordinary kriging (OKR) and universal kriging (UKR) known from geology and other geosciences. The objective of this work is to assess advantages and drawbacks of fundamental differences in modeling between these methods in imperfect data conditions. These differences primarily refer to the treatment of the reference field, commonly called ‘mean value’ or ‘trend’ in geostatistical language. The trend in LSC is determined globally before the interpolation, whereas OKR and UKR detrend the observations during the modeling process. The approach to detrending leads to the evident differences between LSC, OKR and UKR, especially in severe conditions such as far from the optimal data distribution. The theoretical comparisons of LSC, OKR and UKR often miss the numerical proof, while numerical prediction examples do not apply cross-validation of the estimates, which is proven to be a reliable measure of the prediction precision and a validation of empirical covariances. Our study completes the investigations with precise parametrization of all these methods by leave-one-out validation. It finds the key importance of the detrending schemes and shows the advantage of LSC prior global detrending scheme in unfavorable conditions of sparse data, data gaps and outlier occurrence. The test case is the modeling of vertical total electron content (VTEC) derived from GNSS station data. This kind of data is a challenge for precise covariance modeling due to weak signal at higher frequencies and existing outliers. The computation of daily set of VTEC maps using the three techniques reveals the weakness of UKR solutions with a local detrending type in imperfect data conditions.

Since 1998 Ionosphere Associate Analysis Centers (IAAC) of the International GNSS Service (IGS) routinely provide global ionosphere maps (GIMs). They are used for a wide range of geophysical applications, including supporting precise positioning and improving space weather analysis. These GIMs are generated by different analysis centers with the use of different modelling techniques. Therefore they have different accuracy levels, which has already been evaluated in several studies. Until 2014 all GIMs were provided with 2-hour temporal resolution, and since 2015 some of the IAACs have started to provide their products with higher resolutions, up to 30 - 60 minutes. Since GIMs have different temporal resolutions, we investigated whether map interval affected their accuracies.In this study we carried out IAAC GIM accuracy analysis for years 2014 and 2018, corresponding to high and low solar activity periods, respectively. Since in 2014 IAAC GIMs had 2-hour resolution, we also evaluated UQRG maps supplied with 15-minute interval. For low solar activity period (2018) we evaluated 4 models: CASG, CODG, EMRG and UQRG. In addition, we studied ionosphere map performance during two selected geomagnetic storms: on 19 February 2014 and 17 March 2015. Our accuracy evaluation was based on GIM-TEC comparisons to differential STEC derived from GNSS data and VTEC derived from altimetry measurements.The results show that temporal interval has no significant impact on the overall, annual map RMS during both high and low solar activity periods. However, during geomagnetic storms, when reducing map interval, the map accuracy improves by almost 25%.

Three Swarm satellites are equipped with Langmuir Probes (LP) measuring in-situ electron density of Earth electric field and POD GNSS receivers determining topside total electron content (TEC) in the upper ionosphere. It is proved that different events on the Earth and in its atmopshere have their own impact on Earth electric field, and the earthquakes are in this group. Many strong earthquakes induce tsunamis, which are also suspected as contributing to the gravity waves having an impact on the ionospheric TEC. These reasons encourage to the study on the sensitivity of Swarm LP and POD GNSS data to the abovementioned phenomena. Referring to the sensitivity of TEC data derived from GNSS stations to Earthquakes, sensitivity of GNSS and LP data at around 500 km high orbit is analyzed here. A similar orbital height can be found in case of many LEO missions equipped at least with GNSS POD receivers, which makes Swarm especially interesting data acquisition platforms.The investigation of Swarm data in view of Tsunamis and earthquakes is difficult due to several factors. There are only three satellites, the two of which fly almost together, which gives in fact only two points of the survey. The orbital repetition period is long, which seriously limits the number of comparable observations in terms of the location and time of the day. Finally, the number of large earthquakes and tsunami events in time of Swarm science mission is low, and many Earthquakes do not coincide sufficiently with Swarm passes in time and space. All these factors, however, doesn’t exclude an opportunity of analyzing of Swarm data passes above the earthquakes of magnitude nearby 8, linked with the tsunamis reaching several decimeters.Swarm LP data is detrended and analyzed before the earthquakes and also during the earthquakes and resulting tsunami events. The GNSS POD topside TEC from Swarm is analyzed together as a background for LP data. In-situ electron density disturbances occurring during a pass close to the earthquake is compared to selected STEC measurements between LEO and GNSS satellites. Additionally absolute STEC values from selected nearby ground stations are analyzed in order to find existing correlations for detected disturbances in the electric and magnetic fields. All the observations are sparse in time and space, and therefore, leave some unanswered questions and uncertainties. However, several interesting perturbations over earthquake/tsunami events are observable in both Swarm LP data and GNSS TEC data.

Ionospheric irregularities impair Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals and, in turn, affect the performance of GNSS positioning. Such effects are especially evident at low and high latitudes, which are currently gaining the attention of research and industry sectors. This study evaluates the impact of ionospheric irregularities on GNSS positioning in Greenland. We assess the performance of positioning methods that meet the demands of a wide range of users. In particular, we address the needs of the users of mass-market single-frequency receivers and those who require a solution of high precision provided by geodetic dual-frequency receivers. We take advantage of the datasets collected during three ionospheric storms: the St. Patrick’s Day storm of March 17, 2015, the storm on June 22, 2015, and another on August 25–26, 2018. We discover a significant impact of the ionospheric disturbances on the ambiguity resolution performance and the accuracy of the float solution in Real Time Kinematics (RTK) positioning. Next, assessing the single-frequency ionosphere-free Precise Point Positioning (PPP), we demonstrate that the model is generally unaffected by ionospheric disturbances. Hence, the model is predestined for the application by the users of single-frequency receivers in the areas of frequent ionospheric disturbances. Finally, based on the observation analyses, we reveal that phase signals on the L2 frequency band are more prone to cycle slips induced by ionospheric irregularities than those transmitted on the L1. Such signal properties explain a noticeable decline in the dual-frequency RTK performance during the ionospherically disturbed period and merely no effect for the single-frequency ionosphere-free PPP model.

High precision Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) positioning and time transfer require correcting signal delays, in particular higher-order ionospheric (I2+) terms. We present a consolidated model to correct second- and third-order terms, geometric bending and differential STEC bending effects in GNSS data. The model has been implemented in an online service correcting observations from submitted RINEX files for I2+ effects. We performed GNSS data processing with and without including I2+ corrections, in order to investigate the impact of I2+ corrections on GNSS products. We selected three time periods representing different ionospheric conditions. We used GPS and GLONASS observations from a global network and two regional networks in Poland and Brazil. We estimated satellite orbits, satellite clock corrections, Earth rotation parameters, troposphere delays, horizontal gradients, and receiver positions using a global GNSS solution, Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) and Precise Point Positioning (PPP) techniques. The satellite-related products captured most of the impact of I2+ corrections, with the magnitude up to 2 cm for clock corrections, 1 cm for the along- and cross-track orbit components, and below 5 mm for the radial component. The impact of I2+ on troposphere products turned out to be insignificant in general. I2+ corrections had limited influence on the performance of ambiguity resolution and the reliability of RTK positioning. Finally, we found that I2+ corrections caused a systematic shift in the coordinate domain that was time- and region-dependent, and reached up to -11 mm for the North component of the Brazilian stations during the most active ionospheric conditions. .

In this paper, the authors summarize a simple and efficient approach developed to mitigate the problem in precise Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) positioning originated by the most frequent ionospheric wave signatures: the medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs). The direct GNSS Ionospheric Interferometry technique (hereinafter dGII), presented in this paper, is applied for correcting MSTID effects on precise Real Time Kinematic (RTK) and tropospheric determination. It consists of the evolution of the former climatic Differential Delay Mitigation Model for MSTIDs (DMTID), for real-time conditions, using ionospheric data from a single permanent receiver only. The performance is demonstrated with networks of GNSS receivers in Poland, treated as users under real-time conditions, during two representative days in winter and summer seasons (days 353 and 168 of year 2013). In range domain, dGII typically reduces the ionospheric delay error up to 10–90% of the value when the MSTID mitigation model is not applied. The main dGII impact on precise positioning is that we can obtain reliable RTK position faster. In particular, the ambiguity success rate parameter increases, from 74% to 83%, with respect to the original uncorrected observations. The average of time to first fix is shortened from 30 s to 13 s. The improvement in troposphere estimaton, due to any potential impact of the MSTID mitigation model, was most difficult to demonstrate.

In recent years, the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have been intensively modernized, resulting in the introduction of new carrier frequencies for GPS and GLONASS and the development of new satellite systems such as Galileo and BeiDou (BDS). For this reason, the absolute field antenna calibrations performed so far for the two legacy carrier frequencies, the GPS and GLONASS, seem to be insufficient. Hence, all antennas will require a re-calibration of their phase center variations for the new signals to ensure the highest measurement accuracy. Currently, two absolute calibration methods are used to calibrate GNSS antennas: field calibration using a robot and calibration in an anechoic chamber. Unfortunately, differences in these methodologies also result in a disparity in the obtained antenna phase center corrections (PCC). Therefore, we analyze the differences between individual PCC obtained with these two methods, specifically for the Leica AR-25 antenna model (LEIAR25). In addition, the influence of PCC differences on the GNSS-derived position time series for 19 EUREF Permanent GNSS Network (EPN) stations was also assessed. The results show that the calibration method has a noticeable impact on PCC models. PCC differences determined for the ionosphere-free combination may reach up over 20 mm and can be transferred to the position domain. Further tests concerning the positioning accuracy showed that for horizontal coordinates differences between solutions were mostly below 1 mm, exceeding 2 mm only at two stations for the GLONASS solution. However, the height component differences exceeded 5 mm for four, six and six stations out of 19 for the GPS, GLONASS and Galileo solutions, respectively. These differences are strongly dependent on large L2 calibration differences.

There is a noticeable number of studies carried out on both the operational parameters of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and the satellite signal itself. Researchers look for, inter alia, proven sources of errors affecting the integrity of the satellite signal because this parameter determines the approval of the system’s operational use. It also seems of key importance that the atmospheric conditions, in any area of satellite signal usage, should not be underestimated due to their extensive impact. As the ionospheric refraction seriously limits the operational use of the satellite navigation signal, in this article, the authors attempted to quantify the effect of solar activity (expressed by sunspots) on the signal integrity using fuzzy logic. Fuzzy reasoning is used when information is inaccurate or incomplete and necessitates making decisions under conditions of uncertainty. Thanks to fuzzy sets, there are no obstacles to characterize the degree of intensity of a given phenomenon. In order to look at the problem more broadly, attention was also paid to the tropospheric conditions, and it was verified whether, against the background of cloudiness, precipitation, humidity, pressure and temperature, solar activity affects the integrity to the greatest extent. The integrity measurements from the EGNOS system (PRN120 and PRN126) collected at the monitoring station in Warsaw, Poland in 2014 were used.

It is clear that we can benefit from multi-constellation GNSS in precise relative positioning. On the other hand, it is still an open problem how to combine multi-GNSS signals in a single functional model. This study presents methodology and quality assessment of selected methods allowing for multi-GNSS observations combining in relative kinematic positioning using baselines up to tens of kilometers. In specific, this paper characterizes loose and tight integration strategies applied to the ionosphere and troposphere weighted model. Performance assessment of the established strategies was based on the analyses of the integer ambiguity resolution and rover coordinates’ repeatability obtained in the medium range instantaneous RTK positioning with the use of full constellation dual frequency GPS and Galileo signals. Since full constellation of Galileo satellites is not yet available, the observational data were obtained from a hardware GNSS signal simulator using regular geodetic GNSS receivers. The results indicate on similar and high performance of the loose, and tight integration with calibrated receiver ISBs strategies. These approaches have undeniable advantage over single system positioning in terms of reliability of the integer ambiguity resolution as well as rover coordinate repeatability.

The continuous progress in GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) has led to considering this measurement technique as a powerful tool for the detection of the displacement response on seismic events and a source of comprehensive information on seismic wave propagation. Hence, as a natural consequence of the significant performance of high-rate GNSS measurements, a lot of effort has been made to develop dedicated algorithms for the GNSS-seismology. At present, the relative positioning mode is considered as the most accurate method for coordinate displacement determination with GNSS measurements. This holds true providing that all errors are carefully modelled or significantly reduced, which is not a trivial task in a wide area scenario. In this paper we validate the algorithms and the system developed for an automatic Galileo and GPS (Global Positioning System) high-rate signals processing over medium-length baselines. The system aims at the characterisation of the displacement response to seismic events, which are induced by mining exploitation. Addressing the requirements of the monitoring network, the system takes advantage of a ionosphere-weighted positioning model and a multi-baseline solution, which may be considered as superior with respect to the commonly employed single-baseline mode. The validation of the system feasibility was performed in two manners: by processing the data collected during actual MW 3.8 seismic event and with the use of single-axis shake table. The results of the former experiment showed a high agreement between the GNSS and accelerometer-derived results in a frequency domain. The latter proved that the system is capable of detecting the dynamic displacements with a millimetre-level precision at distances of over 30 km from the reference stations.

The paper presents national report of Poland for IAG on positioning and applications. The selected research presented was carried out at leading Polish research institutions and concern precise multi-GNSS satellite positioning - relative and absolute - and also GNSS-based ionosphere and troposphere modelling and studies. The research resulted in noticeable advancements in these subjects confirmed by the development of new algorithms and methods. New and improved methods of precise GNSS positioning were developed, and also GNSS metrology was studied. New advanced troposphere models were presented and tested. In particular, these models allowed testing IPW variability on regional and global scales. Also, new regional ionosphere monitoring web-based services were developed and launched.

GNSS antenna electrical phase center variability is a source of errors in precise geodetic measurements, particularly in reference frame maintenance, satellite precise levelling, deformation monitoring, the establishment of geodetic control networks, geodynamic research, etc. It has a considerable influence on the precision and accuracy of the resulting coordinates. Previous research shows that changing the antenna on the monitored point often results in a considerable bias in the derived height coordinate component. In theory, if electrical phase center is sufficiently modeled, antenna changes should have negligible effect on coordinates. We present the analysis of the influence of the GPS antenna models on the resulting marker position. Numerical tests are based on field measurements. The GPS data collected at the test baseline were processed using Bernese GPS Software Version 5.0. The research shows that the IGS and NGS phase center variation models for some types of the surveying (rover) antennas are still imperfect and are contaminated by constant errors, which may exceed even ± 5 mm for horizontal coordinates components and ± 25 mm for vertical ones.

The ionosphere can be modeled and studied using multi-frequency GNSS signals and their geometry-free linear combination. Therefore, a number of GNSS-derived ionospheric models have been developed and applied in a broad range of applications. However, due to the complexity of estimating the carrier phase ambiguities, most of these models are based on low-accuracy carrier phase smoothed pseudorange data. This, in turn, critically limits their accuracy and applicability. Therefore, we present a new methodology of estimating the phase bias of the scaled L1 and L2 carrier phase difference which is a function of the ambiguities, the ionospheric delay, and hardware delays. This methodology is suitable for ionospheric modeling at regional and continental scales. In addition, we present its evaluation under varying ionospheric conditions. The test results show that the carrier phase bias of geometry-free linear combination can be estimated with a very high accuracy, which consequently allows for calculating ionospheric TEC with the uncertainty lower than 1.0 TECU. This high accuracy makes the resulting ionosphere model suitable for improving GNSS positioning for high-precision applications in geosciences.

Though Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data processing has been significantly improved over years it is still commonly observed that Zenith Tropospheric Delay (ZTD) estimates contain many outliers which are detrimental to meteorological and climatological applications. In this paper, we show that ZTD outliers in double difference processing are most of the time caused by sub-daily data gaps at reference stations which cause disconnections of clusters of stations from the reference network and common–mode biases due to the strong correlation between stations in short baselines. They can reach a few centimetres in ZTD and coincide usually with a jump in formal errors. The magnitude and sign of these biases are impossible to predict because they depend on different errors in the observations and on the geometry of the baselines. We elaborate and test a new baseline strategy which solves this problem and significantly reduces the number of outliers compared to the standard strategy commonly used for positioning (e.g. determination of national reference frame) in which the pre-defined network is composed of a skeleton of reference stations to which secondary stations are connected in a star-like structure. The new strategy is also shown to perform better than the widely-used strategy maximising the number of observations which available in many GNSS software. The reason is that observations are maximised before processing whereas the final number of used observations can be dramatically lower because of data rejection (screening) during the processing. The study relies on the analysis of one year of GPS (Global Positioning System) data from a regional network of 136 GNSS stations processed using Bernese GNSS Software v.5.2. A post-processing screening procedure is also proposed to detect and remove a few outliers which may still remain due to short data gaps. It is based on a combination of range checks and outlier checks of ZTD and formal errors. The accuracy of the final screened GPS ZTD estimates is assessed by comparison to ERA-Interim reanalysis.

GNSS is an important source of meteorological data. GNSS measurements can provide tropospheric Zenith Wet Delays (ZWD) over wide area covered with permanent stations. In addition, when using surface synoptical data, GNSS can provide Integrated Water Vapor (IWV) which is very valuable information utilized in weather forecasts and severe weather monitoring. Hence, there is a need to test and validate various algorithms and software used for ZWD estimation. In this research, the accuracy of the ZWD estimates was tested using two different software packages: Bernese GNSS Software v.5.2 and G-Nut/Tefnut. In addition, their computational load was evaluated. The GNSS data were obtained from POTS permanent station, which is located in Potsdam, Germany. To validate the estimation results, the derived ZWD was transformed into the IWV, and afterwards compared to the reference IWV measured by the collocated Microwave Radiometer. In addition, the ZWD estimates were also compared to the EUREF final solution. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3846/enviro.2017.193

Basically, there are two main methods for estimation of tropospheric delays based on GNSS data. First, the relative technique, relying on creating double-differences (DD) of the observations and processing baselines connecting GNSS stations. The second method from undifferenced measurements is the Precise Point Positioning (PPP). These techniques differ in terms of processing complexity, handling of error sources and required geodetic products.In this research, GNSS-derived tropospheric parameters were computed for selected EUREF stations located in Poland and Europe using both approaches. For DD approach the Bernese v.5.2 software was applied, while the PPP solution was executed with the G-Nut/Tefnut software and with the Bernese v.5.2 software as well. The IGS final products were used. The resulting time series were compared in terms of quality and accuracy. In addition, both solutions were compared to the final EUREF solution. It was concluded that both approaches allow generation high-quality tropospheric delay estimates.

GNSS signals have become a valuable tool in studying the Earth's ionosphere as their dual-frequency observables allow for calculation ionospheric total electron content (TEC). Recent studies estimated relative error of popular GNSS-TEC maps at the level of 20-30 %. This motivates research community to develop new modelling and interpolation methods. In this paper, we demonstrate new approach to GNSS-TEC estimation. In the new approach we use solely carrier phase multi-GNSS observables and thin plate splines (TPS) for accurate ionosphere modeling. The model allows for providing TEC maps for Europe with high spatial and temporal resolutions - 0.2x0.2 degrees and 2.5 minutes, respectively. In addition, we present the performance of our approach during one the most intense ionospheric storms of 24th Solar cycle that took place in March 2015. The results showed that the accuracy of our maps was better with residuals lower by at least 50 % comparing the widely used product.

Availability of two overlapping frequencies L1/E1 and L5/E5a of the signals transmitted by GPS and Galileo systems offers the possibility of tightly combining observations from both systems in a single observational model. A tightly combined observational model assumes a single reference satellite for all observations from both Galileo and GPS systems. However, when inter-system double-differenced observations are created, receiver inter-system bias is introduced. This study presents the results and the methodology for estimation and accounting for phase and code GPS-Galileo inter-system bias in precise relative positioning. The research investigates the size and temporal stability of the estimated bias for different receiver pairs as well as examines the influence of accounting for the inter-system bias on the user position solution. The obtained numerical results are based on four experiments carried out at different locations and time periods using both real and simulated GNSS data.

Ground deformation monitoring at the open pit mine Koźmin has been conducted since 2008. The principles and results of the precise determination of the three dimensional displacements using GPS technology has been presented in this paper. In specific, establishment of the control network, patented technology of the field measurements, the strategy of GPS data postprocessing, as well as the obtained displacements in the control network with their accuracy analysis have been presented. The research conducted with the developed technology indicates a high accuracy and reliability of the determined displacements of the controlled points. ARTICLE INFO

W pracy prezentowane są badania dotyczące dokładności i wiarygodności pozycji wyznaczanej z wykorzystaniem nowego modułu ultra-szybkiego pozycjonowania - POZGEO-2 opracowanego dla systemu ASG-EUPOS. Przedstawione testy obliczeniowe dotyczą szczególnego przypadku wyznaczania pozycji, gdy użytkownik znajduje się poza granicami sieci stacji referencyjnych. W takich warunkach wymagana jest ekstrapolacja sieciowych poprawek atmosferycznych. Wpływa to negatywnie na dokładność tych poprawek i może doprowadzić do sytuacji, w której wyznaczenie nieoznaczoności będzie niemożliwe. Prezentowane badania oparte są na pięciominutowych sesjach obserwacyjnych i pokazują, że poprawki mogą być ekstrapolowane dla obszarów położonych do około 35 km od granic sieci ASG-EUPOS. Oznacza to, że w praktyce precyzyjne pozycjonowanie ultra-szybkie z użyciem modułu POZGEO-2 może być zapewnione dla niemal całego obszaru Polski

This research evaluates the potential benefits of the tightly combined processing of a global navigation satellite system together with the additional ranging observations from a satellite based augmentation system. In specific, the experiment presents performance of precise instantaneous single-frequency positioning based on European Galileo and EGNOS navigation systems. Due to currently low number of Galileo satellites, the test observational data were obtained with hardware GNSS signal simulator. All calculations were performed with in-house developed software - GINPOS. The results show that it is possible to obtain improvement in the accuracy and reliability of single-frequency precise positioning when including observations from SBAS systems. However, one must take into account that at middle latitudes EGNOS satellites are observed at low elevations what results in higher atmospheric errors affecting its signals.

The aim of this study was to assess the performance of several approximation techniques for ionospheric total electron content (TEC) mapping. Approximation techniques based on data-fitting with local or general two-dimensional polynomials, local planes or distance-dependent interpolation were applied and tested. For the ionosphere modeling, dual-frequency GPS data from Polish GBAS system (ASG-EUPOS) were used, and TEC was estimated together with hardware delays from phasesmoothed pseudoranges. Next, grids of vertical TEC values with spatial resolution of 0.25 degrees in both latitude and longitude were generated using the evaluated approximation techniques. Subsequently the grids were used to create regional TEC maps with 5-minute temporal resolution, and also to create ionospheric delay corrections for GPS positioning. The quality of the resulting ionospheric maps was tested twofold, firstly by comparison to high-quality CODE global ionosphere maps (GIM), which were generated using data from about 150 GPS sites of the International GNSS Service (IGS). Secondly, by creating double-differenced ionospheric delay corrections and comparing them to reference values derived from the reference network data processing. For the correction tests, two perpendicular baselines directed North-South (N-S) and West-East (W-E) and reaching up to 100 km were selected. The approximation methods were analyzed with a special emphasis on the diverse ionospheric conditions. For the testing, a quiet ionosphere day of 20 March 2012 and an active ionosphere day of 9 March 2012 were selected. The results show that the regional models properly represent the changing ionosphere, with the best results provided by data-fitting into local functions.

The paper presents the foundations of MAFA method, as well as its application to the processing of new GPS and Galileo signals. The presented numerical tests have been carried out on the basis of data obtained from a hardware GNSS signal simulator as there are currently too few Galileo satellites on orbit. In the proposed methodology, first linear combinations have been formed using new GNSS signals. These linear combinations constitute a data set for a cascade adjustment algorithm employing extended MAFA method. Feasibility of a single-epoch precise positioning has been tested. The singleepoch positioning is particularly important for reliable real-time landslide and deformation monitoring. The obtained test results show a high success rate of the extended MAFA method. The number of the correct single-epoch solutions varied from 85 % to over 99 % depending on the baseline length and accuracy of an a priori position. Thus, the MAFA method may be successfully used with new GPS and Galileo signals, even for the processing of single-epoch data.

GPS (Global Positioning System) technique has become a major tool in contemporary surveying and geodesy. This concerns mostly measurements of horizontal point coordinates, where centimeter-level accuracies are usually required and easily achievable. For the height component, however, these requirements are higher and millimeter-level accuracy is necessary. On the other hand, the intrinsic precision of GPS-derived heights is clearly lower comparing to the horizontal components. This is due to unfavorable satellite geometry, adverse effects of the troposphere or GPS antenna phase center offset and variations. In order to overcome these effects one has to carefully model all the error sources and rigorously process the GPS data. This paper presents studies on the optimal GPS data processing strategy suitable for precise leveling. This was done through the extensive testing and selection of the most appropriate observational session duration, ambiguity resolution strategy, network geometry, troposphere and ionospheric delay reduction methods, signal linear combination, elevation angle cut-off, etc. The analyzed processing strategies were evaluated through the processing of a test network. The test network consisted of 19 monitored points and 5 control points, and covered the area of 20 km x 60 km. The obtained results show that the precise GPS leveling with the selected optimal processing strategy allows for about 3 mm repeatability of height measurements when processing 4-hour long sessions. In our opinion GPS leveling may serve as fast and cost-effective replacement of classic geometric leveling, especially in applications where the heights in orthometric or normal height systems are not necessary. This is the case in, e.g., ground deformation studies.

GPS measurements obtained by the global IGS network were used to study the occurrence of TEC fluctuations in the northern and southern high-latitude ionosphere during severe geomagnetic storms. In the northern hemisphere, GPS stations located higher than 55N Corrected Geomagnetic Latitude (CGL) at different longitudes were selected. In the southern hemisphere, Antarctic permanent GPS stations were used. Dual-frequency GPS measurements for individual satellite passes served as raw data. As a measure of fluctuation activity the rate of TEC (ROT) was used, and the fluctuation intensity was evaluated using the ROTI index. Using daily GPS measurements from all selected stations, images of the spatial and temporal behavior of TEC fluctuations were formed (in Corrected Geomagnetic Coordinates—CGC and geomagnetic local time—GLT). Similarly to the auroral oval, these images demonstrate an irregularity oval. The occurrence of the irregularity oval relates to the auroral oval, cusp and polar cap. During a storm, the intensity of TEC fluctuations essentially increased. The irregularity oval expands equatorward with an increase of magnetic activity. The study showed that the existing high-latitude GPS stations can provide a permanent monitoring tool for the irregularity oval in near real-time. In this paper, the features of the development of phase fluctuations at the geomagnetic conjugate points, and inter-hemispheric differences and similarities during winter and summer conditions, are discussed.

In many surveying applications, determination of accurate heights is of significant interest. The delay caused by the neutral atmosphere is one of the main factors limiting the accuracy of GPS positioning and affecting mainly the height coordinate component rather than horizontal ones. Estimation of the zenith total delay is a commonly used technique for accounting for the tropospheric delay in static positioning. However, in the rapid static positioning mode the estimation of the zenith total delay may fail, since for its reliable estimation longer observing sessions are required. In this paper, several troposphere modeling techniques were applied and tested with three processing scenarios: a single baseline solution with various height differences and a multi-baseline solution. In specific, we introduced external zenith total delays obtained from Modified Hopfield troposphere model with standard atmosphere parameters, UNB3m model, COAMPS numerical weather prediction model and zenith total delays interpolated from a reference network solution. The best results were obtained when tropospheric delays derived from the reference network were applied.

This research is motivated by the recent IGS Ionosphere Working Group recommendation issued at the IGS 2010 Workshop held in Newcastle, UK. This recommendation encourages studies on the evaluation of the application of COSMIC radio occultation profiles for additional IGS global ionosphere map (GIM) validation. This is because the reliability of GIMs is crucial to many geodetic applications. On the other hand, radio occultation using GPS signals has been proven to be a promising technique to retrieve accurate profiles of the ionospheric electron density with high vertical resolution on a global scale. However, systematic validation work is still needed before using this powerful technique for sounding the ionosphere on a routine basis. In this paper, we analyze the properties of the ionospheric electron density profiling retrieved from COSMIC radio occultation measurements. A comparison of radio occultation data with ground-based measurements indicates that COSMIC profiles are usually in good agreement with ionosonde profiles, both in the F2 layer peak electron density and the bottom side of the profiles. For this comparison, ionograms recorded by European ionospheric stations (DIAS network) in 2008 were used.

Precise GPS positioning requires the processing of carrier-phase observations and fixing integer ambiguities. With increasing distance between receivers, ambiguity fixing becomes more difficult because ionospheric and tropospheric effects do not cancel sufficiently in double differencing. A popular procedure in static positioning is to increase the length of the observing session and/or to apply atmospheric (ionospheric) models and corrections. We investigate the methodology for GPS rapid static positioning that requires just a few minutes of dual-frequency GPS observations for medium-length baselines. Ionospheric corrections are not required, but the ionospheric delays are treated as pseudo-observations having a priori values and respective weights. The tropospheric delays are reduced by using well-established troposphere models, and satellite orbital and clock errors are eliminated by using IGS rapid products. Several numerical tests based on actual GPS data are presented. It is shown that the proposed methodology is suitable for rapid static positioning within 50---70 km from the closest reference network station and that centimeter-level precision in positioning is feasible when using just 1 min of dual-frequency GPS data.

This paper presents a new strategy for GPS carrier phase data processing. The classic approach generally consists of three steps: a float solution, a search for integer ambiguities, and a fixed solution. The new approach is based on certain properties of ambiguity function method and ensures the condition of integer ambiguities without the necessity of the additional step of the integer search. The ambiguities are not computed explicitly, although the condition of “integerness” of the ambiguities is ensured in the results through the least squares adjustment with condition equations in the functional model. An appropriate function for the condition equations is proposed and presented. The presented methodology, modified ambiguity function approach, currently uses a cascade adjustment with successive linear combinations of L1 and L2 carrier phase observations to ensure a correct solution. This paper presents the new methodology and compares it to the three-stage classic approach which includes ambiguity search. A numerical example is provided for 25 km baseline surveyed with dual-frequency receivers. All tests were performed using an in-house developed GINPOS software and it has been shown that the positioning results from both approaches are equivalent. It has also been proved that the new approach is robust to adverse effects of cycle slips. In our opinion, the proposed approach may be successfully used for carrier phase GPS data processing in geodetic applications.