Removing attitude-related variations in the line-of-sight for kinematic GPS positioning
Résumé
We are presenting a method for removing attitude-related variations (ATTRVs) in dynamic 1 Hz GPS positioning. The ATTRVs are separated into vertical and horizontal components. These result from the translational and rotational motions of the vehicle, which is a marine research vessel in our case. We have developed new observation equations that use corrected pseudoranges and carrier phases to account for ATTRVs. In the present contribution, we are only focusing on the vertical signals. These modeled ATTRVs are included as corrections in the line-of-sight (LoS) to each GPS satellite in the RINEX data sets using a new software called RNXATTCOR. Precise IGS sp3-orbits are used as inputs together with precise lever arm coordinates of the onboard GPS antennas, observations from the marine inertial navigation system and a priori 3D position of the vessel. The corrected RINEX data sets are then processed using kinematic processing or sequential processing in Precise Point Positioning (PPP) mode. The reduction of the standard deviation from a running mean in the final processed GPS time series is about 95%. The current method is being proposed for marine geodesy science applications such as along-track calibration/validation of altimetry products, and also for applications related to offshore kinematic high precision GPS positioning such as drilling, offshore platforms stability, marine pipeline positioning, earthquake monitoring and tsunami detection.