Enhancing precision of global positioning system using short-range distance baseline field

Abstract

This paper presents two novel concepts to improve the precision of global positioning system (GPS). First, observations of the low cutoff angle are applied to GPS positioning for obtaining more information to enhance precision. However, unequal weight P = cos(2)(z) is used, where z denotes the zenith distance, since the noise of the GPS observations is increased following the increase of the zenith distance. Second, a short-range baseline field is used as the test area. In addition, the external precision of the GPS baseline is evaluated using the distance obtained with a precise telemeter to replace the conventional method, which uses internal precision, i.e., baseline repeatability or standard deviation. The analysis results indicate that the best precision of GPS positioning is obtained at a cutoff angle of 15degrees. Moreover, using unequal weight to receive low cutoff angle GPS observation data to positioning can improve the precision average 3 mm for our test baselines.