Assessing the benefits of Galileo to high-precision GNSS positioning – RTK, PPP and post-processing

Abstract

Abstract On February 11, 2019, the latest batch of four Galileo satellites has been commissioned for operational use, accelerating the evolution of the Galileo system toward Full Operational Capability (FOC). To exploit the advantages of the European GNSS constellation, all the Galileo signals in the E1 and E5 frequency band have been successfully integrated in Leica GNSS positioning technologies, with the expectation of improved availability, accuracy and reliability. From the user’s perspective, this paper assesses the benefits of Galileo to high-precision GNSS in the real-time kinematic (RTK), real-time precise point positioning (PPP) and post-processing scenarios. Representative measuring conditions, such as open sky, multipath environments and tree canopy, are considered. The RTK results show that in challenging environments, the integration of Galileo significantly improves the RTK fix availability and effectively reduces decimeter-to-meter-level position errors caused by incorrect ambiguity fixes. To characterize the RTK performance of individual GNSS systems, Galileo-only positions are compared with GPS-only and GLONASS-only solutions. The PPP results demonstrate how Galileo benefits the convergence time and positioning accuracy. The post-processing studies show that the inclusion of Galileo provides more accurate solutions for short data durations and long baselines, particularly for data collected under strong multipath conditions.