# Presentation: 715803

## A Geodesist’s View of the Ionosphere

- Gerald L. Mader
- National Geodetic Survey
- Silver Spring, MD

## Background 

-  National Spatial Reference System (NSRS)
- ~1400 Monumented FBN Stations
- 400 + Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS)
- Practically totally dependent on Global Positioning System (GPS)
- GPS
- Range & Phase data
- Static & Kinematic Positioning modes

## Positions From GPS Phase Equations

- 2 + N2 = (f 2  / c) D + (f 1  / f 2) I 1

-   c f1 f2      1 + N1       2 + N2
- f12  -  f22            f2                         f1

-  D  =

- 0.484 ( 1 + N1 ) - 0.377 ( 2 + N2 )

-  xj - xi
-    Dij

-   xi + ...  =

- 0.484  1 - 0.377  2

-  xj - xi
-    Dij

-   xi + ... + Qij  =

- Kinematic or bias fixed form has double differenced integers known - solve only for x,y,z.

- Float or static solution has double differenced integers unknown and estimated as constant along with x,y,z.

- [( xj – xi)2 + ...]1/2

-   =

- Simplified Double Difference Phase Equations

## Positioning

- Good static solutions take time
- Bias precision proportional to satellite arc length
- Bias-fixed positions
- Each epoch is a separate new position (kinematic)
- Average separate positions over short time (rapid-static)
- Find a way to quickly determine the integers
- Integer search techniques

## Integer Search Techniques

- Estimate N1 and N2 integers and their range for each satellite
- Filter these integer pairs to eliminate unrealistic values
- Evaluate the combinations of the integer pairs

## Integer Search Procedure

- Filter by ion delay test each integer pair

- Form integer suites from all possible integer pair permutations

- Least squares solution for each integer suite

- Select integer suite by best rms and contrast to next best

**Integer Search Procedure**

- eliminate bad suites

- repeat over time

## Highlight of ambiguity set rms’s to illustrate contrast and minimum acceptable rms

- <date/time>

- contrast

- minimum acceptable rms

## Developing the Ionosphere Filter

- 2 + N2 = (f 2  / c) D + (f 1  / f 2) I 1

-                  f 1f 22          1 + N1             2 + N2
-                  f 22  -  f 12                  f 1                           f 2

- I 1   =

- Simplified Double Difference Phase Equations

- I 1 = ( 1.551  - 1.98 2 ) + ( 1.55 N1  - 1.98N2  )

- This term is fixed for each satellites double difference phase observations

- Each pair of candidate integers predicts a different ionosphere delay for these observations

## Change in L1 Ionosphere Delay with N1,N2 Integer Pairs

- <date/time>

**Change in L1 Ionosphere Delay with N1,N2 Integer Pairs**

**N1 / N2**

- The closest ionosphere delays are 0.2 L1 cycles apart (blue circles). However, these positions are usually eliminated during least squares test for acceptable rms values. Red circles show possible ambiguities, implying ion delay resolution of < 0.4 cy is desired.

## Example 1

- airplane flies over base station: d=0

- airplane flies straight: d=250 km

## Example 2

- 187 km baseline

## Summary

- Ionosphere delay estimates are essential for more efficient GPS positioning
- CORS provides dense network of phase data
- What we need:
- Given x,y,z,t  line-of-sight delays
- Good to 0.2-0.3 cy & time scale of minutes
- Near real time
- Range data won’t do it

## What Might We Do?

- Continuously operate model on CORS data
- Adapt kinematic software to available ionosphere modeling
- Relax OPUS requirements to permit rapid-static processing (~ 10-20 min.)
- Allow OPUS to accept L1 GPS receiver data

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## Slide 15

## Conclusions 

- The right ionosphere models can have a significant impact on geodesy
- Greater efficiency
- Remove distance dependence from base network
- Allow less expensive receivers
- Needed now and foreseeable future (pending L5, GPS3, Galileo)