Ambiguity resolution for triple-frequency geometry-free and ionosphere-free combination tested with real data

The recent GPS Block IIF satellites SVN62 and SVN63 and the Galileo satellites GIOVE-A, GIOVE-B, PFM and FM2 already send signals on more than two frequencies, and more GNSS satellites will provide tracking data on at least three frequencies in the near future. In this paper, a simplified general method for ambiguity resolution minimizing the noise level for the triple-frequency geometry-free (GF) and ionosphere-free (IF) linear combinations is presented, where differently scaled code noise on the three frequencies was introduced. For the third of three required linear combinations, the most demanding one in triple-frequency ambiguity resolution, we developed a general method using the ambiguity-corrected phase observations without any constraints to search for the optimal GF and IF linear combination. We analytically demonstrate that the noise level of this third linear combination only depends on the three frequencies. The investigation concerning this frequency-dependent noise factor was performed for GPS, Galileo and Compass frequency triplets. We verified the theoretical derivations with real triple-frequency GPS and Galileo data from the Multi-GNSS Experiment (M-GEX) of the International GNSS Service (IGS). The data of about 30 M-GEX stations around the world over 11 days from 29 April 2012 to 9 May 2012 were used for the test. For the third linear combinaton using Galileo E1, E5b and E5a, which is expected to have the worst performance among all the GNSS frequency triplets in our investigation, the formal errors of the estimated ambiguities are in most cases below 0.2cycles after 400 observation epochs. If more GPS satellites sending signals on three frequencies or more stations tracking Galileo E6 signal are available in the future, an improvement by a factor of two to three can be expecte

Direct measurement of diurnal polar motion by ring laser gyroscopes

We report the first direct measurements of the very small effect of forced diurnal polar motion, successfully observed on three of our large ring lasers, which now measure the instantaneous direction of Earth's rotation axis to a precision of 1 part in 10^8 when averaged over a time interval of several hours. Ring laser gyroscopes provide a new viable technique for directly and continuously measuring the position of the instantaneous rotation axis of the Earth and the amplitudes of the Oppolzer modes. In contrast, the space geodetic techniques (VLBI, SLR, GPS, etc.) contain no information about the position of the instantaneous axis of rotation of the Earth, but are sensitive to the complete transformation matrix between the Earth-fixed and inertial reference frame. Further improvements of gyroscopes will provide a powerful new tool for studying the Earth's interior.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, agu2001.cl

First results from the GPS atmosphere sounding experiment TOR aboard the TerraSAR-X satellite

GPS radio occultation events observed between 24 July and 17 November 2008 by the IGOR occultation receiver aboard the TerraSAR-X satellite are processed and analyzed. The comparison of 15 327 refractivity profiles with collocated ECMWF data yield a mean bias between zero and −0.30 % at altitudes between 5 and 30 km. Standard deviations decrease from about 1.4 % at 5 km to about 0.6 % at 10 km altitude, however, increase significantly in the upper stratosphere. At low latitudes mean biases and standard deviations are larger, in particular in the lower troposphere. The results are consistent with 15 159 refractivity observations collected during the same time period by the BlackJack receiver aboard GRACE-A and processed by GFZ's operational processing system. The main difference between the two occultation instruments is the implementation of open-loop signal tracking in the IGOR (TerraSAR-X) receiver which improves the tropospheric penetration depth in terms of ray height by about 2 km compared to the conventional closed-loop data acquired by BlackJack (GRACE-A)

Geosciences Roadmap for Research Infrastructures 2025–2028 by the Swiss Geosciences Community

This community roadmap presents an integrative approach including the most urgent infrastructure requests for the future development of geosciences in Switzerland. It recommends to strengthen the multidisciplinary nature of the geosciences by putting all activities under the roof of the Integrated Swiss Geosciences supported by four specific research infrastructure pillars. The roadmap represents the view of the Swiss scientific community in the field of geosciences and is a formal element of the process to elaborate the Swiss Roadmap for Research Infrastructures 2023. This bottom-up contribution to the identification and selection of important national and international research infrastructures has been coordinated by the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) on a mandate by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).ISSN:2297-1564ISSN:2297-157