Response of Global Navigation Satellite System receivers to known shaking between 0.2 and 20 Hertz

Abstract

With the capability to record Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) data at high-rate, at sampling rates typical for seismological applications, experiments are needed to quantify the response of GNSS to shaking from earthquakes. There have been a few studies that examine the response of GNSS to strong shaking. Recently, Ebinuma and Kato (2012) used a global positioning system (GPS) simulator to electronically test several GNSS receivers and obtain the receiver characteristics at three frequencies: 1, 2, and 5 Hz. The results showed that the amplitude of 5-Hz displacements recorded by the GPS was, depending on the receiver model, between 30 and 125 percent more than the displacement input to the simulator. At low frequencies, the GPS displacement was nearly equal to the input displacement. In addition, Ebinuma and Kato (2012) examined how each receiver model amplified an earthquake displacement record in the 2–8 Hz band. The study discussed here builds on the tests by Ebinuma and Kato (2012), but rather than using electronic simulation, the tests are setup outdoors and closer to actual field installations of GNSS equipment. The authors used a one-dimensional shake table capable of 400 mm of displacement and high acceleration; the shake table also is constrained by a precision linear slider to have very low tilt that would affect inertial sensors. In addition, the stage position can be accurately monitored independent of the GNSS hardware and, importantly, provides a reference to compare with the estimated displacements from the GNSS data. The tests spanned a greater frequency range from 0.2 to 20 Hz and used equipment from three different manufacturers covering five different combinations of receivers and antennas. In addition, the authors have been able to simulate the frequency response of the GNSS equipment using a simple, causal filter. The quality of the filter was tested using additional test data where a step function in displacement was applied to the shake table. The observed displacements from the GNSS data show an overshoot in displacement at the time of the step or transition of the stage. That overshoot was accurately predicted using the filter design derived from the sinusoidal displacement tests.