scholarly journals Sea Topography of the Ionian and Adriatic Seas Using Repeated GNSS Measurements

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 812
Author(s):  
Sotiris Lycourghiotis

The mean sea surface topography of the Ionian and Adriatic Seas has been determined. This was based on six-months of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements which were performed on the Ionian Queen (a ship). The measurements were analyzed following a double-path methodology based on differential GNSS (D-GNSS) and precise point positioning (PPP) analysis. Numerical filtering techniques, multi-parametric accuracy analysis and a new technique for removing the meteorological tide factors were also used. Results were compared with the EGM96 geoid model. The calculated differences ranged between 0 and 48 cm. The error of the results was estimated to fall within 3.31 cm. The 3D image of the marine topography in the region shows a nearly constant slope of 4 cm/km in the N–S direction. Thus, the effectiveness of the approach “repeated GNSS measurements on the same route of a ship” developed in the context of “GNSS methods on floating means” has been demonstrated. The application of this approach using systematic multi-track recordings on conventional liner ships is very promising, as it may open possibilities for widespread use of the methodology across the world.

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingyu Chen

AbstractWhen using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements, Precise Point Positioning with Ambiguity Resolution (PPP-AR) has been a popular substitute for relative positioning in geoscience applications. Compared with the Fractional Cycle Biases (FCB) method, the processing of Integer Recovery Clocks (IRC) products estimate, especially for ambiguity datum fixing, is so complex that its application has been greatly limited. Based on the concept of “carrier range”, we introduce an efficient way to implement the IRC method, termed as the alternative IRC method in this paper. In this method, the fixed ambiguities derived from PPP-AR using the FCB method, and not a fixed-ambiguity datum, are fixed in the IRC products estimate. This greatly reduces the complexity of implementing the IRC method and does not influence the accuracy of positioning. The alternative IRC method outperforms the FCB method by corroborating the consistency of daily positions in nature with international GNSS service weekly solution. To confirm this improvement, global positioning system measurements acquired over a year (2016) from approximately 500 globally distributed stations were processed. The accuracy of IRC products is approximately 20 ps and is highly stable for this year. Moreover, comparing the positioning accuracy of the FCB method to the alternative IRC method, we find that the mean root mean square over the year falls evidently from 2.03 to 1.65 mm at the east component. Therefore, we suggest that the alternative IRC method should be implemented when estimate IRC products.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6981
Author(s):  
Marcela Bindzarova Gergelova ◽  
Slavomir Labant ◽  
Jozef Mizak ◽  
Pavel Sustek ◽  
Lubomir Leicher

The concept of further sustainable development in the area of administration of the register of old mining works and recent mining works in Slovakia requires precise determination of the locations of the objects that constitute it. The objects in this register have their uniqueness linked with the history of mining in Slovakia. The state of positional accuracy in the registration of objects in its current form is unsatisfactory. Different database sources containing the locations of the old mining works are insufficient and show significant locational deviations. For this reason, it is necessary to precisely locate old mining works using modern measuring technologies. The most effective approach to solving this problem is the use of LiDAR data, which at the same time allow determining the position and above-ground shape of old mining works. Two localities with significant mining history were selected for this case study. Positional deviations in the location of old mining works among the selected data were determined from the register of old mining works in Slovakia, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) measurements, multidirectional hill-shading using LiDAR, and accessible data from the open street map. To compare the positions of identical old mining works from the selected database sources, we established differences in the coordinates (ΔX, ΔY) and calculated the positional deviations of the same objects. The average positional deviation in the total count of nineteen objects comparing documents, LiDAR data, and the register was 33.6 m. Comparing the locations of twelve old mining works between the LiDAR data and the open street map, the average positional deviation was 16.3 m. Between the data sources from GNSS and the registry of old mining works, the average positional deviation of four selected objects was 39.17 m.


Author(s):  
Ping He ◽  
Yangmao Wen ◽  
Shuiping Li ◽  
Kaihua Ding ◽  
Zhicai Li ◽  
...  

Summary As the largest and most active intracontinental orogenic belt on Earth, the Tien Shan (TS) is a natural laboratory for understanding the Cenozoic orogenic processes driven by the India-Asia collision. On 19 January 2020, a Mw 6.1 event stuck the Kalpin region, where the southern frontal TS interacts with the Tarim basin. To probe the local ongoing orogenic processes and potential seismic hazard in the Kalpin region, both interseismic and instantaneous deformation derived from geodetic observations are employed in this study. With the constraint of interseismic global navigation satellite system (GNSS) velocities, we estimate the décollement plane parameters of the western Kalpin nappe based on a two-dimensional dislocation model, and the results suggest that the décollement plane is nearly subhorizontal with a dip of ∼3° at a depth of 24 km. Then, we collect both Sentinel-1 and ALOS-2 satellite images to capture the coseismic displacements caused by the 2020 Kalpin event, and the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) images show a maximum displacement of 7 cm in the line of sight near the epicentral region. With these coseismic displacement measurements, we invert the source parameters of this event using a finite-fault model. We determine the optimal source mechanism in which the fault geometry is dominated by thrust faulting with an E–W strike of 275° and a northward dip of 11.2°, and the main rupture slip is concentrated within an area 28.0 km in length and${\rm{\,\,}}$10.3 km in width, with a maximum slip of 0.3 m at a depth of 6–8 km. The total released moment of our preferred distributed slip model yields a geodetic moment of 1.59 × 1018 N$\cdot $m, equivalent to Mw 6.1. The contrast of the décollement plane depth from interseismic GNSS and the rupture depth from coseismic InSAR suggests that a compression still exists in the Kalpin nappe forefront, which is prone to frequent moderate events and may be at risk of a much more dangerous earthquake.


Author(s):  
M. O. Ehigiator ◽  
S. O. Oladosu

With the use of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology, it is now possible to determine the position of points in 3D coordinates systems. Lagos datum is the most common Mean Sea Level used in most parts of Nigeria. In Niger Delta, for instance Warri and its environs, the most commonly used datum for height determination is the Mean Lower Low Water Datum. It then becomes necessary to determine a constant factor for conversion between the two datum when the need arises as both are often encountered during Geomatics Engineering field operations. In this paper, the constant to be applied in converting between both datum was determined. The constant was found to be 17.79m. The horizontal and vertical accuracy standard was also determined as well as the stack maps.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioannis Mintourakis

AbstractWhen processing satellite altimetry data for Mean Sea Surface (MSS) modelling in coastal environments many problems arise. The degradation of the accuracy of the Sea Surface Height (SSH) observations close to the coastline and the usually irregular pattern and variability of the sea surface topography are the two dominant factors which have to be addressed. In the present paper, we study the statistical behavior of the SSH observations in relation to the range from the coastline for many satellite altimetry missions and we make an effort to minimize the effects of the ocean variability. Based on the above concepts we present a process strategy for the homogenization of multi satellite altimetry data that takes advantage ofweighted SSH observations and applies high degree polynomials for the adjustment and their uniffcation at a common epoch. At each step we present the contribution of each concept to MSS modelling and then we develop a MSS, a marine geoid model and a grid of gravity Free Air Anomalies (FAA) for the area under study. Finally, we evaluate the accuracy of the resulting models by comparisons to state of the art global models and other available data such as GPS/leveling points, marine GPS SSH’s and marine gravity FAA’s, in order to investigate any progress achieved by the presented strategy


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serdar Erol ◽  
Emrah Özögel ◽  
Ramazan Alper Kuçak ◽  
Bihter Erol

This investigation evaluates the performance of digital terrain models (DTMs) generated in different vertical datums by aerial LiDAR and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry techniques, for the determination and validation of local geoid models. Many engineering projects require the point heights referring to a physical surface, i.e., geoid, rather than an ellipsoid. When a high-accuracy local geoid model is available in the study area, the physical heights are practically obtained with the transformation of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) ellipsoidal heights of the points. Besides the commonly used geodetic methods, this study introduces a novel approach for the determination and validation of the local geoid surface models using photogrammetry. The numeric tests were carried out in the Bergama region, in the west of Turkey. Using direct georeferenced airborne LiDAR and indirect georeferenced UAV photogrammetry-derived point clouds, DTMs were generated in ellipsoidal and geoidal vertical datums, respectively. After this, the local geoid models were calculated as differences between the generated DTMs. Generated local geoid models in the grid and pointwise formats were tested and compared with the regional gravimetric geoid model (TG03) and a high-resolution global geoid model (EIGEN6C4), respectively. In conclusion, the applied approach provided sufficient performance for modeling and validating the geoid heights with centimeter-level accuracy.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duojie Weng ◽  
Xingli Gan ◽  
Wu Chen ◽  
Shengyue Ji ◽  
Yangwei Lu

One’s position has become an important piece of information for our everyday lives in a smart city. Currently, a position can be obtained easily using smartphones that is equipped with low-cost Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) chipsets with accuracy varying from 5 m to 10 m. Differential GNSS (DGNSS) is an efficient technology that removes the majority of GNSS errors with the aid of reference stations installed at known locations. The sub-meter accuracy can be achieved when applying the DGNSS technology on the advanced receivers. In 2016, Android has opened the accesses of raw GNSS measurements to developers. However, most of the mid and low-end smartphones only provide the data using the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) protocol. They do not provide the raw measurements, and thus do not support the DGNSS operation either. We proposed a DGNSS infrastructure that correct the standalone GNSS position of smartphones using the corrections from the reference station. In the infrastructure, the position correction is generated considering the GNSS satellite IDs that contribute to the standalone solution in smartphones, and the position obtained is equivalent to the solution of using the range-domain correction directly. To serve a large number of smartphone users, a Client/Server architecture is developed to cope with a mass of DGNSS positioning requests efficiently. The comparison of the proposed infrastructure against the ground truth, for all field tests in open areas, showed that the infrastructure achieves the horizontal positioning accuracy better than 2 m. The improvement in accuracy can reach more than 50% for the test in the afternoon. The infrastructure brings benefits to applications that require more accuracy without requiring any hardware modifications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 4002
Author(s):  
Wen Zhang ◽  
Xingliang Huo ◽  
Yunbin Yuan ◽  
Zishen Li ◽  
Ningbo Wang

The International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) is an empirical model widely used to describe ionospheric characteristics. In the previous research, high-precision total ionospheric electron content (TEC) data derived from global navigation satellite system (GNSS) data were used to adjust the ionospheric global index IG12 used as a driving parameter in the standard IRI model; thus, the errors between IRI-TEC and GNSS-TEC were minimized, and IRI-TEC was calibrated by modifying IRI with the updated IG12 index (IG-up). This paper investigates various interpolation strategies for IG-up values calculated from GNSS reference stations and the calibrated TEC accuracy achieved using the modified IRI-2016 model with the interpolated IG-up values as driving parameters. Experimental results from 2015 and 2019 show that interpolating IG-up with a 2.5° × 5° spatial grid and a 1-h time resolution drives IRI-2016 to generate ionospheric TEC values consistent with GNSS-TEC. For 2015 and 2019, the mean absolute error (MAE) of the modified IRI-TEC is improved by 78.57% and 77.42%, respectively, and the root mean square error (RMSE) is improved by 78.79% and 77.14%, respectively. The corresponding correlations of the linear regression between GNSS-TEC and the modified IRI-TEC are 0.986 and 0.966, more than 0.2 higher than with the standard IRI-TEC.


Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 4305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Liu ◽  
Fei Liu ◽  
Yang Gao ◽  
Lin Zhao

This paper implements and analyzes a tightly coupled single-frequency global navigation satellite system precise point positioning/inertial navigation system (GNSS PPP/INS) with insufficient satellites for land vehicle navigation using a low-cost GNSS receiver and a microelectromechanical system (MEMS)-based inertial measurement unit (IMU). For land vehicle navigation, it is inevitable to encounter the situation where insufficient satellites can be observed. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the performance of tightly coupled integration in a GNSS-challenging environment. In addition, it is also of importance to investigate the least number of satellites adopted to improve the performance, compared with no satellites used. In this paper, tightly coupled integration using low-cost sensors with insufficient satellites was conducted, which provided a clear view of the improvement of the solution with insufficient satellites compared to no GNSS measurements at all. Specifically, in this paper single-frequency PPP was implemented to achieve the best performance, with one single-frequency receiver. The INS mechanization was conducted in a local-level frame (LLF). An extended Kalman filter was applied to fuse the two different types of measurements. To be more specific, in PPP processing, the atmosphere errors are corrected using a Saastamoinen model and the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE) global ionosphere map (GIM) product. The residuals of atmosphere errors are not estimated to accelerate the ambiguity convergence. For INS error mitigation, velocity constraints for land vehicle navigation are adopted to limit the quick drift of a MEMS-based IMU. Field tests with simulated partial and full GNSS outages were conducted to show the performance of tightly coupled GNSS PPP/INS with insufficient satellites: The results were classified as long-term (several minutes) and short-term (less than 1 min). The results showed that generally, with GNSS measurements applied, although the number of satellites was not enough, the solution still could be improved, especially with more than three satellites observed. With three GPS satellites used, the horizontal drift could be reduced to a few meters after several minutes. The 3D position error could be limited within 10 m in one minute when three GPS satellites were applied. In addition, a field test in an urban area where insufficient satellites were observed from time to time was also conducted to show the limited solution drift.


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 2389-2418
Author(s):  
H. Steffen ◽  
P. Wu

Abstract. We present the sensitivity of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements at selected GNSS stations used both in the EUREF Permanent Network as well as in the BIFROST project to distinct areas in a laterally heterogeneous upper mantle beneath Fennoscandia. We therefore use a three-dimensional finite element model for glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) calculations. The underlying structure is based on the S20A seismic tomography model, whose shear-wave velocities have been transformed into a viscosity structure of the upper mantle. Lower mantle is not investigated as previous results showed negligible sensitivity of Fennoscandian GIA data to it. We subdivide the upper mantle in four layers with lateral viscosity structure. Areas with similar viscosity within a layer are combined to larger blocks. Further subdivision is made into areas inside and outside the formerly glaciated areas. This leads to about 20 differently shaped areas per layer. We then calculate the sensitivity kernels at 10 selected GNSS stations for all blocks in comparison to a well-fitting one-dimensional GIA model. We find that GNSS stations are most sensitive to mantle viscosity in the near surrounding of the station, i.e. in the nearest about 250 km, and only within the formerly glaciated area. This area can be enlarged up to 800 km when velocities of stations in the uplift center are investigated. There is no indication of sufficiently high sensitivity of all investigated GNSS stations to regions outside the glaciated area. We also note that in the first mantle layer (70–250 km depth) below the lithosphere, there is only small sensitivity to parts along the Norwegian coast. Most prominent features in the Fennoscandian upper mantle may be detected in the second (250–450 km depth) and third layer (450–550 km depth). In future investigations on the lateral viscosity structure using GNSS measurements one should only consider GNSS stations within the area of former glaciation. They can be further grouped to address certain areas. In a combination with other GIA data, e.g. relative sea-level and gravity data, it is then highly recommended to assign more weight on those GNSS results with high sensitivity in order to determine the viscosity of a certain region.


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