Application of LAMBDA Method to the Calculation of Slant Path Wet Vapor Content of GPS Signals

Abstract

With the improvement of the GPS data processing techniques and calculating accuracy, the GPS has been increasingly and widely applied to atmospheric science. In the research on GPS meteorology the slant path wet vapor content (SWV) is one of the significant parameters. In the light of the problem of poorer real time, which existed in the method proposed by Song Shuli et al. in 2004, for directly calculating the SWV by means of the precise ephemeris, IGS clock error and observed value of the LC combination after the cycle skip processing, the LAMBDA method which has more mature application to the city virtual reference station (VRS) is applied to the problem of the processing of ambiguity search. Through the trial calculation of data, it is tested and verified that the method is feasible and there is a better uniformity when the calculated result is projected into the zenith direction. The atmospheric delay in the vertical direction obtained by using this method is compared with the result of the GAMIT or the BERNESE, with the result showing that the accuracy of the coincidence of the result of the method with that of the BERNESE is generally smaller than 1.5 cm and the accuracy of the coincidence of the result of the method with that of the GAMIT is generally smaller than 10 cm.