Results of the application of tropospheric corrections from different troposphere models for precise GPS rapid static positioning

Abstract

In many surveying applications, determination of accurate heights is of significant interest. The delay caused by the neutral atmosphere is one of the main factors limiting the accuracy of GPS positioning and affecting mainly the height coordinate component rather than horizontal ones. Estimation of the zenith total delay is a commonly used technique for accounting for the tropospheric delay in static positioning. However, in the rapid static positioning mode the estimation of the zenith total delay may fail, since for its reliable estimation longer observing sessions are required. In this paper, several troposphere modeling techniques were applied and tested with three processing scenarios: a single baseline solution with various height differences and a multi-baseline solution. In specific, we introduced external zenith total delays obtained from Modified Hopfield troposphere model with standard atmosphere parameters, UNB3m model, COAMPS numerical weather prediction model and zenith total delays interpolated from a reference network solution. The best results were obtained when tropospheric delays derived from the reference network were applied.