The Effect of Surface Meteorological Measurements on High-precision GPS Positing Determination

In this study, the Global Positioning System (GPS) data collected by the GPS receivers that were established as continuously operating reference stations by Central Weather Bureau and Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan are utilized to investigate the impact of atmospheric water vapor on GPS positioning determination. The surface meteorological measurements that were concurrently acquired by instruments co-located with the GPS receivers include temperature, pressure and humidity data. To obtain the influence of the baseline length on the proposed impact study, four baselines are considered according to the locations of the permanent GPS sites. The length of the shorter baseline is about 66km, while the longer is about 118 km. The results from the studies associated with different baseline lengths and ellipsoid height were compared for the cases with and without a priori knowledge of surface meteorological measurements. The finding based on 66 days measurements is that the surface meteorological measurements have a significant impact on the positioning determination for the longer baseline case. The associated daily maximum differences are 1.1 cm and 1.4 cm for the baseline and ellipsoid height respectively. The corresponding biases are -8.1 mm in length and -7.3 mm in el lipsoid height.