DATUM PROBLEM OF NETWORK-BASED RTK-GPS POSITIONING IN TAIWAN

The conventional single-reference station positioning is affected by systematic errors such as ionospheric and tropospheric delay, so that the rover must be located within 10 km from the reference station in order to acquire centimeter-level accuracy. The medium-range real-time kinematic has been proven feasible and can be used for high precision applications. However, the longer of the baseline, the more of the time for resolving the integral ambiguity is required. This is due to the fact that systematic errors can not be eliminated effectively by double-differencing. Recently, network approaches have been proposed to overcome the limitation of the single-reference station positioning. The real-time systematic error modeling can be achieved with the use of GPS network. For expanding the effective range and decreasing the density of the reference stations, Land Survey Bureau, Ministry of the Interior in Taiwan set up a national GPS network. In order to obtain the high precision positioning and provide the multi-goals services, a GPS network including 66 stations already been constructed in Taiwan. The users can download the corrections from the data center via the wireless internet and obtain the centimeter-level accuracy positioning. The service is very useful for surveyors and the high precision coordinates can be obtained real time.