Impact of different GNSS antenna calibration models on height determination in the ASG-EUPOS network: a case study

Abstract

Before 6 November 2006, the International global navigation satellite system (GNSS) Service used relative phase centre models for GNSS antenna receivers. When absolute calibration models were introduced, it resulted in significant differences in the scale of GNSS networks compared to the very long baseline interferometry and side-looking radar measurements. The differences were due to the lack of the GNSS satellite antenna calibration models. This problem was sufficiently resolved and the International GNSS Service decided to switch from relative to absolute models for both satellites and receivers. This decision caused some variations in the results of the GNSS network solutions – especially in the vertical component. To date, the problem of switching from relative to absolute antenna phase centre variations has been mainly considered for global or continental networks using relatively long observation sessions. The aim of this paper was to study the height differences caused by using different calibration models in GNSS observation processing done in the national GBAS network (ASG-EUPOS). The analysis was done using 3 days of GNSS data, collected with four different receivers and antennas, divided by 1 h observation sessions. The results of the calculations show that switching from relative to absolute phase centre variation models may have a significant effect on height determination in the ASG-EUPOS network, particularly in high accuracy applications.