An Observation Density Based Method for Independent Baseline Searching in GNSS Network Solution

With applications such as precise geodetic product generation and reference frame maintenance, the global GNSS network solution is a fundamental problem that has constantly been a focus of concern. Independent baseline search is a prerequisite step of the double-differenced (DD) GNSS network. In thi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tong Liu, Yujun Du, Wenfeng Nie, Jian Liu, Yongchao Ma, Guochang Xu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-09-01
Series:Remote Sensing
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/19/4717
Description
Summary:With applications such as precise geodetic product generation and reference frame maintenance, the global GNSS network solution is a fundamental problem that has constantly been a focus of concern. Independent baseline search is a prerequisite step of the double-differenced (DD) GNSS network. In this process, only empirical methods are usually used, i.e., the observation-max (OBS-MAX), which allows for obtaining more redundant DD observations, and the shortest-path (SHORTEST), which helps to better eliminate tropospheric and ionospheric errors between stations. Given the possible limitations that neither of the methods can always guarantee baselines of the highest accuracy to be selected, a strategy based on the ‘density’ of common satellites (OBS-DEN) is proposed. It takes the number of co-viewing satellites per unit distance between stations as the criterion. This method ensures that the independent baseline network has both sufficient observations and short baselines. With single-day solutions and annual statistics computed with parallel processing, the method demonstrates that it has the ability to obtain comparable or even higher positioning accuracy than the conventional methods. With a clearer meaning, OBS-DEN can be an option alongside the previous methods in the independent baseline search.
ISSN:2072-4292