Absolute field calibration for multi-GNSS receiver antennas at ETH Zurich

Abstract

ETH Zurich developed an absolute GNSS antenna calibration system based on measurements taken in the field. An industrial robot is used to rotate and tilt the antenna to be calibrated. This procedure ensures good coverage of the antenna hemisphere and reduces systematic errors. The calibration system at ETH Zurich is validated by a direct comparison of the obtained calibrations with calibrations from the anechoic chamber method (University of Bonn) and from another absolute field calibration method (Geo++® GmbH). Calibrations by ETH Zurich agree on the sub-millimeter level with both reference calibrations. A second validation was conducted using real measurements on short baselines. Data were acquired on four stations in direct vicinity and processed using different phase center correction models. The experiment shows that individual corrections of ETH Zurich reduce the residuals in the coordinate domain when compared to type-mean calibrations of the International GNSS Service (IGS). However, residual biases between GPS and Galileo coordinates remain. These biases are efficiently reduced when using the new type-mean calibrations from the IGS that include calibration values for all GNSS, including Galileo. The ETH Zurich calibration system is proven to deliver meaningful calibrations that agree with other calibrations on the millimeter level in the azimuth and elevation domain. The field validation shows evidence that the consistency of the Galileo and GPS calibration should be further enhanced by performing a combined GPS and Galileo analysis, which is not yet implemented.