Global Navigation Satellite System Observations Research Articles

Estimation and Analysis of GNSS Differential Code Biases (DCBs) Using a Multi-Spacing Software Receiver

In the use of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) to monitor ionosphere variations by estimating total electron content (TEC), differential code biases (DCBs) in GNSS measurements are a primary source of errors. Satellite DCBs are currently estimated and broadcast to users by International GNSS Service (IGS) using a network of GNSS hardware receivers which are inside structure fixed. We propose an approach for satellite DCB estimation using a multi-spacing GNSS software receiver to analyze the influence of the correlator spacing on satellite DCB estimates and estimate satellite DCBs based on different correlator spacing observations from the software receiver. This software receiver-based approach is called multi-spacing DCB (MSDCB) estimation. In the software receiver approach, GNSS observations with different correlator spacings from intermediate frequency datasets can be generated. Since each correlator spacing allows the software receiver to output observations like a local GNSS receiver station, GNSS observations from different correlator spacings constitute a network of GNSS receivers, which makes it possible to use a single software receiver to estimate satellite DCBs. By comparing the MSDCBs to the IGS DCB products, the results show that the proposed correlator spacing flexible software receiver is able to predict satellite DCBs with increased flexibility and cost-effectiveness than the current hardware receiver-based DCB estimation approach.

Horizontal displacement of control points using GNSS differential positioning and network adjustment

We compute the horizontal displacement in the first/second-order and Merowe Dam control points in a subset of a hybrid triangulation network in northern Sudan. The Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and least-squares network adjustment are jointly used to determine the horizontal displacement in the control points. The GNSS observations collected by relative positioning are validated over the control points to create a corresponding subnetwork adjusted by the least-squares. The baselines and network loops show good quality through the statistical indicators that measure the ratio, root mean square (RMS), and reference variance. We apply minimum-constrained adjustment (MCA) and zero-constrained adjustment (ZCA) methods on the subnet. After adjustment. The horizontal displacement is determined as the Euclidean norm of the difference between the Easting/Northing components. The comparison shows large displacements in the first-order (0.6 m), second-order (2 m) points and small displacements (15 cm) in Merowe control points.

Development of a New Tabular Zenith Tropospheric Delay Model for Real-Time GNSS Applications

The tropospheric delay is a major error source for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning and navigation, and usually can be corrected by using an empirical model. Due to the small number of parameters and simplified algorithm, the UNB3m model has been widely hardwired in GNSS receivers for real-time applications. However, many studies have noted that the UNB3m model has significant systematic errors in the correction of tropospheric delays, mainly due to the assumption of north-south symmetry. Therefore, considering the realistic atmospheric behavior, we proposed a new tabular zenith tropospheric delay (TZTD) model using 10 years of NCEP (National Centre for Environmental Prediction) data. The performance of the TZTD model was assessed along with the GPT3 and UNB3m models by comparison with ZTDs derived from the fifth-generation European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Re-Analysis (ERA5) data and GNSS observations. The results show that the TZTD model (with a RMSE of 41mm) significantly outperforms the UNB3m model (with a RMSE of 49 mm). Furthermore, the accuracy of the new model is better than that of the GPT3 model in terms of the zenith tropospheric hydrostatic delay (ZHD) prediction, particularly at high altitudes. The TZTD model characterized by simplicity and accuracy, is expected to be a substitute for the UNB3m model in real-time GNSS applications.

Using Kinematic GNSS Data to Assess the Accuracy and Precision of the TanDEM-X DEM Resampled at 1-m Resolution Over the Western Corinth Gulf, Greece

We assess the accuracy and the precision of the TanDEM-X digital elevation model (DEM) of the western Gulf of Corinth, Greece. We use a dense set of accurate ground coordinates obtained by kinematic Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) observations. Between 2001 and 2019, 148 surveys were made, at a 1 s sampling rate, along highways, roads, and tracks, with a total traveled distance of ∼25 000 km. The data are processed with the online Canadian Spatial Reference System precise point positioning software. From the output files, we select 885 252 coordinates from epochs with theoretical uncertainty below 0.1 m in horizontal and 0.2 m in vertical. Using specific calibration surveys, we estimate the mean vertical accuracy of the GNSS coordinates at 0.2 m. Resampling the DEM by a factor of 10 allows one to compare it with the GNSS in pixels of metric size, smaller than the width of the roads, even the small trails. The best fit is obtained by shifting the DEM by 0.47 ± 0.03 m upward, 0.10 ± 0.1 m westward, and 0.36 ± 0.1 m southward. Those values are 20 times below the nominal resolution of the DEM. Once the shift is corrected, the root mean square deviation between TanDEM-X DEM and GNSS elevations is 1.125 m. In forest and urban areas, the shift between the DEM and the GNSS increases by ∼0.5 m. The metric accuracy of the TanDEM-X DEM paves the way for new applications for long-term deformation monitoring of this area.

ASSESSMENT OF ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR REMOTE SENSING USING GPS SIGNALS BY RADIOSONDE AND MODIS SATELLITE IMAGES

This paper is an evaluation of the atmospheric water vapor remote sensing by GPS signals. The integrated water vapor (IWV) is calculated based on the measurement of the tropospheric zenith total delay (ZTD) effects on the microwave signals emitted by GPS satellites. The methodology proposed in this work is based on the combination of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) observations and navigation data from the international GNSS service (IGS) products with meteorological data, measured at the stations level, to calculate the ZTD delay and estimate the integrated water vapor value. This work was carried out using data records from12 IGS stations distributed in seven countries in the four seasons of the year. The obtained results are compared with the values generated by Radiosonde measurement and MODIS satellite images level 2 (Water Vapor data product). In more than 90% of cases, the difference between the GPS and Radiosonde solutions is less than 3 mm with a monthly RMS less than 1.6 and a correlation of about 95%. The comparison between the GPS and MODIS shows that in more than 65 % of the time, the difference between the two solutions is less than 4 mm with amonthly RMS less than 2.3, and the correlation is about 73%.

Intrinsic Identification and Mitigation of Multipath for Enhanced GNSS Positioning.

In global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-based positioning and applications, multipath is by far the most obstinate impact. To overcome paradoxical issues faced by current processing approaches for multipath, this paper employs an intrinsic method to identify and mitigate multipath based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and Hilbert–Huang transform (HHT). Frequency spectrum and power spectrum are comprehensively employed to identify and extract multipath from complex data series composed by combined GNSS observations. To systematically inspect the multipath from both code range and carrier phase, typical kinds of combinations of the GNSS observations including the code minus phase (CMP), differential correction (DC), and double differential (DD) carrier phase are selected for the suggested intrinsic approach to recognize and mitigate multipath under typical positioning modes. Compared with other current processing algorithms, the proposed methodology can deal with multipath under normal positioning modes without recourse to the conditions that satellite orbits are accurately repeated and surrounding environments of observing sites remain intact. The method can adaptively extract and eliminate multipath from solely the GNSS observations using intrinsic decomposition mechanism. From theoretical discussions and validating tests, it is found that both code and carrier phase multipath can be identified and distinguished from ionospheric delay and other impacts using the EMD based techniques. The resultant positioning accuracy is therefore improved to an obvious extent after the removal of the multipath. Overall, the proposed method can form an extensive and sound technical frame to enhance localization accuracy under typical GNSS positioning modes and harsh multipath environments.

Monitoring the Vertical Land Motion of Tide Gauges and Its Impact on Relative Sea Level Changes in Korean Peninsula Using Sequential SBAS-InSAR Time-Series Analysis

The relative sea-level changes from tide gauges in the Korean peninsula provide essential information to understand the regional and global mean sea-level changes. Several corrections to raw tide gauge records are required to account for coastal vertical land motion (VLM), regional and local coastal variability. However, due to the lack of in-situ measurements such as leveling data and the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), making precise assessments of VLM at the tide gauges is still challenging. This study aims to address the above limitation to assess the VLM in the Korean tide gauges using the time-series Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technique. For 10 tide gauges selected in the Korean peninsula, we applied the Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers (StaMPS)—Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) method to C-band Sentinel-1 A/B Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data acquired during 2014/10–2020/05, with the novel sequential interferograms pair selection approach to increase the slowly decorrelating filtered phase (SDFP) pixels density near the tide gauges. Our findings show that overall the tide gauges in the Korean peninsula are stable, besides the largest VLM observed at Pohang tide gauge station (East Sea) of about −26.02 mm/year; also, higher rates of uplift (>1 mm/year) were observed along the coast of Yellow Sea (Incheon TG and Boryeong TG) and higher rates of subsidence (<−2 mm/year) were observed at Jeju TG and Seogwipo TG. Our approach estimates the rate of VLM at selected tide gauges with an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution and is applicable when the in-situ and GNSS observations are not available.

Web tabanlı CSRS-PPP uygulamasının farklı uydu sistemleri üzerindeki performansı

Küresel Navigasyon Uydu Sistemleri’nden (Global Navigation Satellite Systems, GNSS) elde edilen veriler değerlendirilirken bilimsel/akademik, ticari yazılımlar ve kullanımı gittikçe artan web tabanlı uygulamalar kullanılmaktadır. GNSS veri değerlendirme stratejisi mutlak ve bağıl olarak temelde ikiye ayrılmaktadır. Kullanımı artan web tabanlı servisler temelde mutlak yöntemi kullanan ya da bağıl yöntemi kullananlar olarak ayrılmaktadır. Hassas mutlak nokta konumlama (Precise Point Positioning, PPP) yöntemi tek bir alıcı ile cm mertebesinde konum belirlemeyi mümkün kılmakta ve kullanıcılar açısından oldukça pratik olarak konum belirleme imkânı sunmaktadır. PPP yönteminin gerçek zamanlı uygulamaları da gittikçe yaygınlaşmakta, bu durum kullanıcılar açısından hem zaman hem de maliyet tasarrufu imkânları sunmaktadır. Konum belirleme tarafında bu gelişmeler yaşanırken, ilk ortaya çıktığı günden bu yana askeri amacının yanında insanoğlunun hayatına her alanda giren Küresel Konumlama Sistemi (GPS), diğer sistemlerin de (GLONASS, BeiDou, QZSS, IRNSS vb.) devreye alınması ile oldukça yaygınlaşmıştır. Bugün artık GNSS olarak hayatımızın içinde daha fazla var olmaya devam etmektedir. Çeşitli ülkeler tarafından geliştirilen ve kullanılan uydu sistemlerinin dünya üzerine yayılmış bulunan Uluslararası GNSS Servisi (International GNSS Service, IGS) istasyonlarında veri toplanarak, konum belirleme sürecine dahil edilmesi ile The Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) projesi geliştirilmiş ve belirlenen istasyonlarda, tüm uydu sistemlerinden veri toplanmasına başlanılmıştır. Bu çalışmada, web tabanlı CSRS-PPP uygulaması ile dünya üzerinde dağılmış 5 MGEX istasyonunda toplanan 10 günlük GNSS gözlem verileri değerlendirilmiştir. MGEX projesi kapsamında istasyonlardan gözlem verileri 1 saniyeden 30 saniyeye kadar gözlem aralığında ve çoklu uydu sistemlerinden (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC, BeiDou, SBAS) veri toplama imkânı bulunmaktadır. CSRS-PPP uygulamasının değerlendirme stratejisinde kullandığı GPS ve GLONASS (GPS, GLONASS ve GPS+GLONASS) uydu sistemleri ile 1 ile 30 saniye aralıklı toplanmış gözlem verilerinin en az 15 dakikadan 24 saate kadar gözlem aralığında ve farklı iyonosferik koşullardaki performansı değerlendirilmiş ve yorumlanmıştır.

Characterization of biases between BDS-3 and BDS-2, GPS, Galileo and GLONASS observations and their effect on precise time and frequency transfer

With the development of the Chinese BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), from a regional system BDS-2 to a global system BDS-3, more satellites can now be employed in the domain of globally precise time and frequency transfer. However, if the current BDS-3 and BDS-2, Global Positioning System (GPS), Galileo and GLObal NAvigation satellite system (GLONASS) are combined for multi-global navigation satellite system (multi-GNSS) time transfer, the characteristics of inter-system biases (ISBs) remain unclear. In this study, we analyzed the characteristics of ISBs between BDS-3 and BDS-2, GPS, Galileo and GLONASS, and revealed that their ISB series is not constant and that all the daily ISB series of the multi-GNSS show some systematic characteristics among different stations. Therefore, three stochastic models for ISBs of white noise process, random constant process and random walk process expressed as ‘White’, ‘Hour’ and ‘Walk’, respectively, were employed to assess the performance of the time and frequency transfer using the time link accuracy and frequency stability indicators. The results show that the models for the ‘Hour’ and ‘Walk’ schemes are notably better than that for the ‘White’ scheme by 10.4% and 16.8%, respectively, for the least noisy time link of WTZZ-BRCH. Furthermore, the improvements in the ‘Hour’ and ‘Walk’ schemes are 2.1% and 3.5%, respectively, for the TP01-BRCH time link, when compared with that of the ‘White’ scheme. With respect to frequency stability, the ‘Hour’ and ‘Walk’ schemes also perform better in terms of frequency stability than the ‘White’ scheme at different time intervals. Similarly, the improvements over the ‘White’ scheme are 5.05% and 4.97% for the TP01-BRCH time link and are 24.01% and 32.48% for the WTZZ-BRCH time link.

Paleo-Seismicity in the Euganean Hills Province (Northeast Italy): Constraints From Geomechanical and Geophysical Tests in the Schio-Vicenza Fault Area

Gouges and cataclasites within exhumed fault zones are valuable indicators of past seismic events. Gouge layers, 40- to 100-cm-thick and decameters long, have been found within uplifted Cretaceous limestones in the Euganean Hills (SW of Padova, NE Italy), Cenozoic subvolcanic chambers intruded within a Meso-Cenozoic sequence. The main tectonic lineament in the area is the Schio-Vicenza Fault that bounds the Euganean Hills to the East. Micropaleontological analyses reveal that the gouges derive from the fragmentation and pulverization of the adjacent pristine carbonatic rocks. Stress tests on specimens from bedrock associated with gouges yielded a minimum dissipated strain energy of 0.3–0.5 MJ/m3to shatter them. Henceforth, additional strain energy was necessary to pulverize these rocks within the gouge zones. Global navigation satellite system observations show that the present deformation pattern in this region of Italy is a few tens of nanostrain (10–30 1/y), not enough to generate such gouge layers. Therefore, the seismicity of the Euganean Hills (currently M ≤5) must be reconsidered in the light of the Schio-Vicenza Fault past activity. The gouges may imply that the Schio-Vicenza Fault had a more intense activity in the past, or this area was affected by remote events or tectonic structures. This article provides new clues on the evolution of the tectonic and morphological setting of the area, with relevant consequences on seismic risk assessment of the nearby urbanized area, including the cities of Padova and Vicenza.

Assessment of GNSS PPP-Based Zenith Tropospheric Delay

Abstract This study assesses the precision of zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD) obtained through triple-constellation global navigation satellite system (GNSS) precise point positioning (PPP). Various ZTD estimates are obtained as by-products from GPS-only, GPS/Galileo, GPS/BeiDou, and triple-constellation GPS/Galileo/BeiDou PPP solutions. Triple-constellation GNSS observations from a number of globally distributed reference stations are processed over a period of seven days in order to investigate the daily performance of the ZTD estimates. The estimated ZTDs are then validated by comparing them with the International GNSS Service (IGS) tropospheric products and the University of New Brunswick (UNB3m) model counterparts. It is shown that the ZTD estimates agree with the IGS counterparts with a maximum standard deviation (STD) of 2.4 cm. It is also shown that the precision of estimated ZTD from the GPS/Galileo and GPS/Galileo/BeiDou PPP solutions is improved by about 4.5 and 14%, respectively, with respect to the GPS-only PPP solution. Moreover, it is found that the estimated ZTD agrees with the UNB3m model with a maximum STD of 3.1 cm. Furthermore, the GPS/Galileo and GPS/Galileo/BeiDou PPP enhance the precision of the ZTD estimates by about 6.5 and 10%, respectively, in comparison with the GPS-only PPP solution.

The Realization and Evaluation of PPP Ambiguity Resolution with INS Aiding in Marine Survey

The tightly coupled global navigation satellite system (GNSS) precise point positioning (PPP) and inertial navigation system (INS) can provide high-precision position, velocity and attitude information. The coupled system utilizes single receiver, which is particularly suitable for the environment without reference station, such as marine survey. In the former works, the integer ambiguity resolution of PPP/INS in terrestrial environment is researched. However, the GNSS observation is severely affected by the multipath effect in marine environment. In addition, the sideslip caused by wind and sea wave also impact float ambiguity estimation, consequently introducing difficulty for PPP ambiguity fixing. Therefore, the PPP/INS tightly coupled model with fixed ambiguity is proposed for marine survey. The correction model of INS gyroscope bias in closed-loop is deduced in detail. The influence of ship motion noise and multipath in marine environment is reduced by introducing the robust factor to the Kalman filter. The feasibility of the method is verified in a real marine experiment, with a detail evaluation of the data quality and positioning accuracy. The results show that the accuracy of PPP/INS can reach centimeter level after fixing the ambiguity in marine environment. Furthermore, the precise INS-predicted position can significantly shorten the re-fixed time of PPP/INS, which proves the efficiency of the proposed approach.

Simultaneous estimation of GPS P1-P2 differential code biases using low earth orbit satellites data from two different orbit heights

Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) differential code bias (DCB) is a significant error source in ionosphere modeling that uses GNSS observation data. Given that the orbit altitudes of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites are above the F layer of ionosphere, ionized electrons come from the upper ionosphere or plasmasphere, so observations suffer from small signal delays. DCBs can be estimated using LEO data instead of that from ground stations. In most studies, LEO-based DCB estimation employs onboard data from either a single LEO or from two that are at the same orbit height. In our study, we applied four LEO satellites data from two different orbit heights to estimate GPS satellite DCBs, receiver DCBs and LEO-based vertical total electron content (VTEC) parameters simultaneously. Before DCB estimation, a data preprocessing strategy suitable for LEO onboard data was applied to obtain clear pseudorange data. We developed a processing method for the upper ionosphere using LEO onboard data from different orbit heights, by introducing LEO-based VTEC models in advance to remove its effects; two introduced VTEC models were derived from modeling results using paired data from the same orbital height, respectively. We draw some conclusions as follows. For the LEO satellites at different orbit heights, the more the number of LEO satellites involved, the more stable estimation results achieved. We also noted that the GPS satellite DCBs stability and accuracy with established LEO-based VTEC models, using multi-LEOs data from different orbit heights, were better than the achievable results using onboard data from the same orbital height or using single LEO satellite schemes. Compared with the estimation results of single LEO solutions, the monthly stabilities and accuracies for multi-LEOs solutions from different orbit heights are improved by 25–35% approximately. Among all the tested schemes, superior stability derived from simultaneous estimation using four LEO data at different orbit heights is 0.064 ns; the optimal accuracies for DCB estimation for different GPS satellites are the scheme GRACE-A and JASON-2 (two LEOs) of 0.146 ns, approximately, compared with Center of Orbit Determination of Europe products, respectively. The stability and accuracy of LEO-based DCB estimations were approximately similar to those achieved using ground solutions.

A Model-based Tightly Coupled Architecture for Low-Cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Real-Time Applications

This paper investigates the navigation performance of a vehicle dynamic model-based (VDM-based) tightly coupled architecture for a fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) during a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) outage for real-time applications. Unlike an Inertial Navigation System (INS) which uses inertial sensor measurements to propagate the navigation solution, the VDM uses control inputs from either the autopilot system or direct pilot commands to propagate the navigation states. The proposed architecture is tested using both raw GNSS observables (Pseudorange and Doppler frequency) and Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems-grade (MEMS) Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) measurements fused using an extended Kalman filter (EKF) to aid the navigation solution. Other than the navigation states, the state vector also includes IMU errors, wind velocity, VDM parameters, and receiver clock bias and drift. Simulation results revealed significant performance improvements with a decreasing number of satellites in view during 140 seconds of a GNSS outage. With two satellites visible during the GNSS outage, the position error improved by one order of magnitude as opposed to a tightly coupled INS/GNSS scheme. Real flight tests on a small fixed-wing UAV show the benefits of the approach with position error being an order of magnitude better as opposed to a tightly coupled INS/GNSS scheme with two satellites in view during 100 seconds of a GNSS outage.

Study on Multi-GNSS Precise Point Positioning Performance with Adverse Effects of Satellite Signals on Android Smartphone.

The emergence of dual frequency global navigation satellite system (GNSS) chip actively promotes the progress of precise point positioning (PPP) technology in Android smartphones. However, some characteristics of GNSS signals on current smartphones still adversely affect the positioning accuracy of multi-GNSS PPP. In order to reduce the adverse effects on positioning, this paper takes Huawei Mate30 as the experimental object and presents the analysis of multi-GNSS observations from the aspects of carrier-to-noise ratio, cycle slip, gradual accumulation of phase error, and pseudorange residual. Accordingly, we establish a multi-GNSS PPP mathematical model that is more suitable for GNSS observations from a smartphone. The stochastic model is composed of GNSS step function variances depending on carrier-to-noise ratio, and the robust Kalman filter is applied to parameter estimation. The multi-GNSS experimental results show that the proposed PPP method can significantly reduce the effect of poor satellite signal quality on positioning accuracy. Compared with the conventional PPP model, the root mean square (RMS) of GPS/BeiDou (BDS)/GLONASS static PPP horizontal and vertical errors in the initial 10 min decreased by 23.71% and 62.06%, respectively, and the horizontal positioning accuracy reached 10 cm within 100 min. Meanwhile, the kinematic PPP maximum three-dimensional positioning error of GPS/BDS/GLONASS decreased from 16.543 to 10.317 m.

Impact of robot antenna calibration on dual-frequency smartphone-based high-accuracy positioning: a case study using the Huawei Mate20X

The access to Android-based Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) raw measurements has become a strong motivation to investigate the feasibility of smartphone-based positioning. Since the beginning of this research, the smartphone GNSS antenna has been recognized as one of the main limitations. Besides multipath (MP), the radiation pattern of the antenna is the main site-dependent error source of GNSS observations. An absolute antenna calibration has been performed for the dual-frequency Huawei Mate20X. Antenna phase center offset (PCO) and variations (PCV) have been estimated to correct for antenna impact on the L1 and L5 phase observations. Accordingly, we show the relevance of considering the individual PCO and PCV for the two frequencies. The PCV patterns indicate absolute values up to 2 cm and 4 cm for L1 and L5, respectively. The impact of antenna corrections has been assessed in different multipath environments using a high-accuracy positioning algorithm employing an undifferenced observation model and applying ambiguity resolution. Successful ambiguity resolution is shown for a smartphone placed in a low multipath environment on the ground of a soccer field. For a rooftop open-sky test case with large multipath, ambiguity resolution was successful in 19 out of 35 data sets. Overall, the antenna calibration is demonstrated being an asset for smartphone-based positioning with ambiguity resolution, showing cm-level 2D root mean square error (RMSE).

Estimating Vertical Land Motion from Remote Sensing and In-Situ Observations in the Dubrovnik Area (Croatia): A Multi-Method Case Study

Different space-borne geodetic observation methods combined with in-situ measurements enable resolving the single-point vertical land motion (VLM) and/or the VLM of an area. Continuous Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements can solely provide very precise VLM trends at specific sites. VLM area monitoring can be performed by Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technology in combination with the GNSS in-situ data. In coastal zones, an effective VLM estimation at tide gauge sites can additionally be derived by comparing the relative sea-level trends computed from tide gauge measurements that are related to the land to which the tide gauges are attached, and absolute trends derived from the radar satellite altimeter data that are independent of the VLM. This study presents the conjoint analysis of VLM of the Dubrovnik area (Croatia) derived from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 InSAR data available from 2014 onwards, continuous GNSS observations at Dubrovnik site obtained from 2000, and differences of the sea-level change obtained from all available satellite altimeter missions for the Dubrovnik area and tide gauge measurements in Dubrovnik from 1992 onwards. The computed VLM estimates for the overlapping period of three observation methods, i.e., from GNSS observations, sea-level differences, and Sentinel-1 InSAR data, are −1.93±0.38 mm/yr, −2.04±0.22 mm/yr, and −2.24±0.46 mm/yr, respectively.

On the Definition of the Strategy to Obtain Absolute InSAR Zenith Total Delay Maps for Meteorological Applications

Atmospheric Phase Screens (APSs) derived from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) observations contain the difference between the tropospheric water vapor induced delay of two acquisition epochs, i.e. the slave and the master (or reference) epochs. Using estimates of the atmospheric state coming from independent sources, for example numerical models and/or Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations, the APSs can be transformed into absolute maps of Tropospheric Delay (Zenith Total Delay or ZTD), related to the columnar atmospheric water vapor content. In this work, a systematic comparison between various APS and ZTD products aims to determine a convenient strategy to go from APSs to InSAR-derived absolute ZTD maps, highlighting the uncertainties and approximations introduced in the entire processing. The main problem to solve is the evaluation of a sufficiently accurate high resolution master delay map. Different sources of data and two different approaches to derive the master are validated and compared to define the most suitable strategy for meteorological applications. Maps of ZTD obtained by an iterative interpolation of a global atmospheric circulation model values result more suited than those derived from the assimilation of GNSS observations into a NWP model. A time average approach to estimate the master map is more robust than the single epoch approach with respect to the choice of the master epoch. Still the choice of a proper master epoch in the InSAR processing chain as well as that of the maps to be averaged result crucial in the estimate of the master.

Ionospheric response to the 17 March and 22 June 2015 geomagnetic storms over Wuhan region using GNSS-based tomographic technique

By using the data of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) observation from Crustal Movement Observation Network of China (CMONOC), ionospheric electron density (IED) distributions reconstructed by using computerized ionospheric tomography (CIT) technique are used to investigate the ionospheric storm effects over Wuhan region during 17 March and 22 June 2015 geomagnetic storm periods. F-region critical frequency (foF2) at Wuhan ionosonde station shows an obvious decrease during recovery phase of the St. Patrick’s Day geomagnetic storm. Moreover, tomographic results present that the decrease in electron density begins at 12:00 UT on 17 March during the storm main phase. Also, foF2 shows a long-lasting negative storm effect during the recovery phase of the 22 June 2015 geomagnetic storm. Electron density chromatography presents the evident decrease during the storm day in accordance with the ionosonde observation. These ionospheric negative storm effects are probably associated with changes of chemical composition, PPEF and DDEF from high latitudes.

Earthquake Magnitude Scaling Using Peak Ground Velocity Derived from High-Rate GNSS Observations

AbstractRapid response to destructive tsunami and seismic events requires rapid determination of the earthquake magnitude. We propose a new method that employs peak ground velocities (PGVs) derived from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data to estimate earthquake magnitudes. With a total of 1434 records from 22 events as the constraints, we perform the regression and obtain a PGV scaling law for magnitude determination. The advantage of the new method is that the PGVs are extracted from the GNSS velocity waveforms, which can be easily computed using broadcast GNSS ephemeris. In contrast, the peak ground displacement (PGD) depends on a sophisticated high-precision GNSS-processing subject to external correction data, realization of which cannot be kept robust constantly, especially in real time. The results show that the PGV magnitudes agree with reported moment magnitudes with mean absolute deviation of 0.26 magnitude units for the 22 events and also agree well with the PGD magnitude. We further demonstrate that GNSS-derived PGV and the modified Mercalli intensity values can be consistent with their counterparts from the U.S. Geological Survey ShakeMap products and therefore the GNSS-derived PGVs have the potential to be included in the ShakeMap as a complementary constraint, especially in areas with sparse seismic station coverage for large earthquake.