Potential Accuracy of GNSS PPP- and PPK-derived Heights for Ellipsoidally Referenced Hydrographic Surveys: Experimental Assessment and Results

Ellipsodially referenced survey (ERS) is considered as one of the challenging issues in the hydrographic surveys due to the fact that the bathymetric data collected by this technique can be readily transformed either to the geodetic or the chart datum by application of some geoscientific models. Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) is a preferred technique to determine the ellipsoidal height of a vessel reference point (RP) because it provides cost-effective and unprecedentedly accurate positioning solutions. Especially, the GNSS-derived heights include heave and dynamic draft of a vessel, so as for the reduced bathymetric solutions to be potentially free from these corrections. Although over the last few decades, differential GNSS (DGNSS) has been widely adopted in the bathymetric surveys, it only provides limited accuracy of the vertical component. This technical barrier can be effectively overcome by adopting the so-called GNSS carrier phase (CPH) based techniques, enhancing accuracy of the height solution up to few centimeters. From the positioning algorithm standpoint, the CPH-based techniques are categorized under absolute and relative positioning in post-processing mode; the former is precise point positioning (PPP) correcting errors by the global or regional models, the latter is post-processed kinematic positioning (PPK) that uses the differencing technique to common error sources between two receivers. This study has focused on assessment of achievable accuracy of the ellipsoidal heights obtained from these CPH-based techniques with a view to their applications to hydrographic surveys where project area is, especially, few tens to hundreds kilometers away from the shore. Some field trials have been designed and performed so as to collect GNSS observables on static and kinematic mode. In this paper, details of these tests and processed results are presented and discussed.