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GPS Constellation
24 satellites with a minimum of 21 operating 98% of the time 6 Orbital planes 55 degrees inclination 20 200 km above the Earth's surface 11 hours 58 minute orbital period visible for approximately 5 hours above the horizon
ERRORS OF GPS
SELECTIVE AVAILABILITY ANTI SPOOFING EPHEMERIS ERROR ATMOSPHERIC PROPAGATION ERRORS MULTIPATH RXR NOISE
SELECTIVE AVAILABILITY
SA essentially consists of two different components, known as dither and epsilon.
Dither is an intentional manipulation of the satellite clock frequency resulting in the generation of the carrier waves and the codes with varying wavelengths. In other words, under SA, the distance between each C/A code chip will be variable, and no longer the designed 293m. The replica code generated within the receiver will still assume the chip length to be 293m and pseudorange measurements are based on this. Typical pseudorange errors for satellites with SA imposed are +/-100m
SELECTIVE AVAILABILITY
THE EPSILON COMPONENT OF SA REFERS TO ERRORS IMPOSED WITHIN THE DESCRIPTION OF THE SATELLITE ORBIT IN THE EPHEMERIS DATA SENT IN THE BROADCAST MESSAGE. FOR POSITIONING PURPOSES, THE COORDINATES OF THE SATELLITES ARE DERIVED USING THIS INCORRECT INFORMATION, AND ERRORS IN THESE COORDINATES PROPAGATE INTO THE POSITION OF THE RECEIVER.
ANTI-SPOOFING
AS further alters the GPS signal by changing the characteristics of the P code by mixing it with a socalled W code resulting in the Y code. It is the latter that is modulated onto the carriers and is thus designed to prevent the ability of the receiver to make P code measurements. Many receiver manufacturers have already developed techniques to still make P code measurements with only a small addition in added noise Cross correlation
Satellite Errors
Further unintentional errors within the space system still exist and will propagate into a position solution. These include errors in the modeling of the satellite clock offset and drift using a second order polynomial, and also errors that exist within the Keplerian representation of the satellite ephemeris information. The cause of these errors is primarily due to the manner in which the satellite ephemeris and clock is monitored. Tracking data for all observed satellites recorded at the GPS Monitor Stations is sent to the Master Control Station which then uses this data to predict the parameters for the future. These predictions are then returned to the uplink stations where they are transmitted to the satellites. The latency of the tracking data and the prediction routines used at the Air Force Base therefore directly effect the satellite system errors. Although similar to the SA errors, these are much smaller in magnitude.
Other planets (in particular the moon and the sun) have their own gravity fields and exert an attraction on the satellite. This is known as the third body effects. The third body gravitational attractions have an additional effect on the satellite orbit since they cause Earth and ocean tides. The change in the Earth's mass distribution and shape resulting from these tides alters the gravity field and thus the forces acting on any orbiting body. The magnitudes of these forces are extremely well modeled and therefore their effects can be greatly reduced.
Multipath
Mutipath is the phenomena by which the GPS signal is reflected by some object or surface before being detected by the antenna. The signal can be reflected off a part of the satellite (for instance the solar panels) although this is usually ignored as there is nothing that can be done by the user to prevent this. Mutipath is more commonly considered to be the reflections due to surfaces surrounding the antenna and can cause range errors as high as 15 cm for the L1 carrier and of the order of 15-20 m for the pseudoranges (Rodgers, 1992). The surface most prone to multipath is water, whilst sandy soil is the least
Receiver Noise
Errors which are due to the measurement processes used within the receiver are typically grouped together as receiver noise. These are dependent on the design of the antenna, the method used for the analogue to digital conversion, the correlation processes, and the tracking loops and bandwidths (Pratt, 1992). Noise within the pseudorange measurements can be reduced by a factor of 50% by combining with the more precise carrier phase observations
Differential GPS (DGPS) DGPS, Differential GPS is the use of differential correction data for the satellites in view, to remove the errors in the position measured by a GPS receiver due previously to SA (selective availability), and to other effects. The correction data is generated by a base station, which is a high quality GPS receiver with a good antenna sited at an accurately known location. The correction data is derived from the satellites pseudo range data and the base station's position. Effectively correcting the timing errors artificially introduced into the atomic clock data by SA, or atmospheric effects.DGPS relies on the concept that the errors in the position at one location are similar to those for all locations within a given (local) area. By recording GPS measurements at a point with known coordinates, these errors can be quantified and corrections can be applied to the other locations. By applying these corrections in real-time, the accuracy of GPS for instantaneous positioning is reduced from 100 m (95%) to typically 5m (and even sub-meter with commercial grade GPS receivers) 95% of the time. DGPS is now a well practiced technique for areas such as navigation, onshore and offshore Surveying and Mapping etc...
The DGPS infrastructure consists of three main components: the reference station, the mobile station and data link.
Because of these reasons, the pseudorange corrections are generated at the reference station which usually adopts an all-inview policy. By transmitting individual corrections for all satellites, the mobile station uses the corrections for the satellites observed at that station thus minimising (as far as possible) any errors that may be introduced. As well as a pseudorange correction (PRC) for each satellite, its rate of change is also computed (RRC) and transmitted to the mobile station and is used to model the time varying characteristics of the corrections over the period in which the corrections are generated at the reference station and applied at the mobile station (the age of correction). A central processor (a dedicated PC linked to the GPS receiver) is often used to generate the corrections, although many of today's receivers can generate the corrections in the "box". The processor also converts the corrections into a standard binary format which is then sent to the data link equipment and modulated onto a carrier frequency which is subsequently transmitted to the mobile station.
Centroid approach
The pseudorange corrections from all reference stations are combined to form one correction for each satellite in view. These corrections should now fit the centroid of the area defined by the reference stations that are used. Additional directional corrections can also be developed by examining the correlation between the composite centroid corrections and those at particular reference stations. The pseudorange corrections for the centroid can be generated either at a landbased hub or at the mobile station itself. The advantage of the former is that the mobile station needs only to receive one set of pseudorange corrections.
All-in-view approach
All the pseudorange corrections received from the reference stations are incorporated into one positioning solution with no pre-processing (except for validity checks). For instance, the correction for satellite PRN 12 may be received from 4 different reference stations and will be used separately to correct the pseudorange observed at the mobile station from PRN 12 - thus adding 4 observations to the system.
This is the simplest approach which computes an independent position using each reference station that corrections are received from. The resultant positions are later combined by taking a weighted average