Improving Long Baseline „100– 300 km… Differential GPS

Positioning Applying Ionospheric Corrections Derived

from Multiple Reference Stations
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Elsa Mohino, Ph.D.1; Mauricio Gende, Ph.D.2; and Claudio Brunini, Ph.D.3

Abstract: The aim of this study is to develop a method to mitigate the ionospheric delay bias in long baseline differential global
positioning system 共GPS兲. The ionospheric delay is the main source of error when single frequency GPS receivers are involved in surveys
with baselines which exceed a few tens of kilometers. This article presents a technique that estimates the vertical total electron content
共VTEC兲 in several continuously operating reference stations 共CORS兲 and computes the slant total electron content 共STEC兲 for the receiver
of unknown coordinates. VTEC was obtained from the La Plata ionospheric model and an interpolation strategy was implemented in order
to calculate STEC values. Networks covering different areas and baseline sizes are studied. The strategy presented in this article could be
particularly useful when the accuracy of one decimeter is required and reference stations used are a few hundred kilometers away since
it provides a 50% improvement in position accuracy.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲0733-9453共2007兲133:1共1兲
CE Database subject headings: Global positioning; Land surveys; Errors; Data processing; Models.

Introduction coming the main limitation of the differential positioning accu-

Due to spatial correlation of some GPS error sources 共satellite
clocks and orbit errors, atmospheric delays兲, the differentiation of
observations can improve position accuracy canceling or at least
reducing some of these biases. Depending on the precision re-
quired and the available economic resources, several differential
positioning techniques could be applied. If the desired accuracy is
about one meter, users can employ code differential GPS, a
simple and reliable technique requiring small observation time
spans. For greater accuracy, users must resort to phase differential
GPS, because these measurements present one hundred times less
noise than code measurements 共Hofmann-Wellenhof et al. 1994兲.
Nevertheless, due to the fact that all wave cycles are identical,
phase measurements are not completely determined. Thus, this
phase ambiguity requires special processing techniques.
Often, the ionospheric bias for short baselines, under 10 km
long is well correlated and can be canceled with differential po-
sitioning 共Georgiadou and Kleusberg 1988; Odijk 2002兲. As the
baseline grows, the ionospheric delay tends to decorrelate, be-
1
Dept. Geofísica y Meteorología, Univ. Complutense de Madrid,
Ciudad Univ., s/n, 28040, Madrid, Spain. E-mail: emohino@fis.ucm.es
2
Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Univ. Nacional de
La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n, B1900FWA, La Plata, Buenos Aires,
Argentina. E-mail: mgende@fcaglp.unlp.edu.ar
3
Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Univ. Nacional de
La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n, B1900FWA, La Plata, Buenos Aires,
Argentina. E-mail: claudio@fcaglp.unlp.edu.ar
Note. Discussion open until July 1, 2007. Separate discussions must
be submitted for individual papers. To extend the closing date by one
month, a written request must be filed with the ASCE Managing Editor.
The manuscript for this paper was submitted for review and possible
publication on November 28, 2005; approved on August 3, 2006. This
paper is part of the Journal of Surveying Engineering, Vol. 133, No. 1,
February 1, 2007. ©ASCE, ISSN 0733-9453/2007/1-1–5/$25.00.
racy for distances greater than a few kilometers. This limitation is
overcome using dual frequency receivers, which can account for
the ionospheric differential delay. However, the economic cost in
these cases is significantly increased. A tight economic constrain
usually limits the survey to single frequency receivers. Thus, dif-
ferential positioning must be made using a reference station, re-
stricting the area to a few tens of kilometers surrounding this
station. This paper presents a technique that enables the extension
of single frequency differential positioning to areas with poor
CORS coverage 共maximum distances between network stations
up to 600 km兲 maintaining decimeter accuracy 共around 0.1 m in
horizontal components and 0.2 in the vertical one兲.
This technique relies on the estimation of the ionospheric
delay using multiple reference stations. In this sense, this study
can be compared with other studies such as Wanninger 共1997兲 or
Rizos et al. 共1998兲 which employ multiple reference stations to
improve the accuracy and ambiguity resolution. For a detailed
review of these techniques, see Fotopoulos and Cannon 共2001兲. In
contrast with these studies, which deal mainly with rapid differ-
ential positioning at the centimeter level having baselines shorter
than 100 km, the methodology proposed here aims at obtaining a
decimeter level accuracy with longer baselines. Within this range
of baselines, Odijk et al. 共2000兲 presents a technique based on the
estimation and interpolation of ionospheric delays with a network
of reference stations that improves the ambiguity resolution for
network station distances under 200 km long. Colombo et al.
共2002兲 presents another technique to improve the ambiguity reso-
lution for double frequency receivers using a network of reference
stations increasing the maximum baseline up to several hundred
kilometers long. This technique estimates STEC employing
the Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña 共UPC兲 tomography
model and interpolating STEC for the receiver of unknown
coordinates.

JOURNAL OF SURVEYING ENGINEERING © ASCE / FEBRUARY 2007 / 1

J. Surv. Eng., 2007, 133(1): 1-5

 Methodology
As a first step, the ionospheric delay for all stations in the network
is estimated. This network must have at least three double fre-
quency reference stations in which STEC for each station-satellite
line is calculated using the LPIM model. As described in Brunini
et al. 共2004兲, the LPIM model is a two-dimensional ionospheric
GPS-based model. Due to the dispersive nature of the ionosphere,
the total electron content encountered by the signal as it travels
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across the ionosphere can be estimated by measuring GPS signals
in two frequencies 共namely L1 and L2兲. The LPIM model uses the
geometry-free linear combination 共␾4兲 of simultaneous carrier
phase measurements to remove all satellite-receiver frequency in-
dependent terms
␾4 = ␾1 − ␾2 = ⌬I + ␶R + ␶S + ⌬N
where ␾1 and ␾2 = carrier phase observations on L1 and L2;
⌬I = differential ionospheric delay between both GPS carriers; ␶R
and ␶S = receiver and satellite inter-frequency hardware biases;
and ⌬N = differential carrier phase ambiguity. The latter term is
estimated by leveling ␾4 with the corresponding code geometry-
free linear combination. Disregarding second-order terms, the dif-
ferential ionospheric delay is related to the slant total electron
content 共STEC兲 by
冉 冊
1 1
⌬I = − ␣ − STEC
f 21 f 22
where ␣ = constant with value 40.3 m3 s−2; and f 1 and
f 2 = frequencies of each GPS carrier. The LPIM model simulta-
neously estimates the ionospheric slant total electron content and
the receiver and satellite hardware bias, which are supposed daily
constant values. Brunini et al. 共2003兲 compared the LPIM derived
hardware bias with CODE and JPL products and concluded that
LPIM solutions are reasonable 共up to 0.9 total electron content
units 共TECU兲 for satellite hardware bias and up to 3.1 TECU for
some receivers兲 and, so is the STEC absolute level obtained. Al-
though in this work we use the LPIM derived STEC estimates,
the LPIM model also provides two-dimensional regional VTEC
maps based on a thin shell approximation of the ionosphere as
well as a spherical harmonic expansion on a solar-fixed coordi-
nate system.
The sampling rate for all cases studied in this paper was the
typical CORS sampling rate: 30 s 共Spofford and Weston 1998兲.
The second step is to estimate STEC for the receiver of un-
known coordinates, using a linear interpolation with an inclined
plane 共Wübbena et al. 1996兲 based on the STEC of each calcu-
lated line reference station to satellite. For a review of different
interpolation algorithms used with multiple reference stations, see
Dai et al. 共2001兲. In this study, instead of using the station hori-
zontal coordinates, the horizontal coordinates of the sub-
ionospheric points 共the intersection points between the ray path
and the ionosphere, assumed as an infinitesimal single layer at a
height of 450 km兲 are taken into account for interpolation, as in
Wanninger 共1995兲 and Odijk et al. 共2000兲. In order to account for
the different elevation angles of each ray path, the estimated
STEC is transformed into VTEC using a simple mapping function
based on the assumption that there is an infinitesimal ionospheric
layer at a height of 450 km
2 / JOURNAL OF SURVEYING ENGINEERING © ASCE / FEBRUARY 2007
J. Surv. Eng., 2007, 133(1): 1-5
VTEC = STEC 冑 1 − cos2 E 冉 RT
RT + H
冊 2
共3兲
where E = elevation angle of the ray path; RT=Earth radius; and
H=height of the layer.
Finally, L1 observations for the reference station and the re-
ceiver of unknown coordinates are corrected with the estimated
STEC values. Differential positioning is then calculated using the
accumulation of all the observations in the session, which was
eight hours in all cases. Though a fixed receiver has been used for
this paper, the strategy chosen for positioning was to force a
kinematic solution as if a hypothetical rover L1 receiver were
used. As a result, one position for each observation epoch was
obtained. This technique is mainly intended for users that lack
access to scientific precise differential positioning software,
therefore, a commercial program was used and no tropospheric
共1兲
parameters were adjusted; the Hopfield model with a standard
atmosphere was used to partially correct the troposphere.
A float solution strategy, where ambiguities are treated as real
values, was chosen to obtain the coordinates. An ambiguity fixed
solution, if correct, would be helpful to reduce the time session
without losing accuracy 共Mervart et al. 1994兲, but the main focus
of our work was to extend the range of use of a single frequency
receiver and not to reduce the time session. In order to compare
the results with the best possible solution, an ionospheric
free linear combination solution was also computed since all the
receivers involved in the experiment were double frequency
receivers.
For each day, the time period analyzed 共from 11 to 19 h local
共2兲
time兲 was chosen to contain daylight data and particularly the
ionospheric maximum, which typically takes place at 14 h local
time. All network station observations were used to calculate cor-
rections and these were applied to the observations in the rover
L1 receiver in the time period under analysis. Nevertheless, for
root mean square calculations related to each solution, two crite-
ria were applied: On the one hand, in order to limit errors asso-
ciated with the mapping function, which becomes less realistic as
elevation decreases, a mask angle of 20° was set to the user’s
location elevation; on the other hand, in order to limit errors as-
sociated with bad geometry, only epochs with a minimum of five
satellites were analyzed.
Data
In this study we analyzed four different networks; the analyzed
days correspond to geomagnetic nonperturbed conditions 共Kp
index never exceeded three兲 and years near the solar cycle maxi-
mum 共2002 and 2003兲. These networks have been carefully se-
lected to guarantee good a priori coordinate values and high
quality receivers with all the required observables 共P1, P2, L1,
and L2兲. In order to analyze the improvements achieved with the
use of the technique, networks have been chosen to contain four
double frequency stations, one of which was used as the unknown
position receiver. Table 1 lists the studied networks, which are
also graphically presented in Fig. 1.
Results
This section summarizes the main results obtained. Three pro-
cessing methodologies were used: L1 data, L1 data with the cor-
 Table 1. Analyzed Networks Including the Length of the Used Baseline Table 2. RMS Errors in Meters for the Ionospheric Free Linear
and Distance from the Rover Receiver to the Nearest Station in the Combination 共L3兲, L1 Noncorrected Observations 共L1兲, and L1 LPIM
Network Corrected Observations 共LPIM兲 Differential Positioning Results
Nearest Improvement
Reference Roving Days under Baseline station Network RMS L3 LPIM L1 共%兲
Network stations receiver analysis 共km兲 共km兲
Europe1 North 0.053 0.323 0.280 −15.1
Europe 1 Brus Lama Pots June 20, 626 300 June 20, 2002 East 0.049 0.349 0.415 16.0
Gope 2002 Height 0.248 3.221 0.453 −611.4
Europe 2 Gope Pots Wroc June 20, 209 209 Europe 2 North 0.045 0.046 0.266 82.6
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Bogo 2002
June 20, 2002 East 0.108 0.068 0.166 59.1
Dominican Bara Sped Lveg December 2–4, 127 90
Height 0.220 0.147 0.401 63.4
Republic Srod 2003
Dominican Republic North 0.019 0.036 0.163 77.8
California Ppt1 Ohln Chab December 3, 64 34
Mhcb 2003 December 2, 2003 East 0.012 0.048 0.237 79.6
Height 0.043 0.130 0.238 45.3
Dominican Republic North 0.030 0.044 0.120 63.2
December 3, 2003 East 0.015 0.036 0.188 80.6
rections provided by the presented technique and the ionospheric
Height 0.087 0.181 0.235 22.9
free linear combination 共L3兲.
Dominican Republic North 0.023 0.054 0.167 67.8
Table 2 shows the root-mean-square errors 共RMS兲 for each
December 4, 2003 East 0.017 0.047 0.184 74.3
baseline and position component 共north, east, height兲 calculated
with Height 0.092 0.215 0.513 58.2

冑
N December 2, 2003
兺 共xi − x0兲2
i=1
rms =
N
Where xi represents each position component 共north, east,
height兲 obtained after differential positioning 共from L1 direct ob-
servations, L1 LPIM corrected observations and ionospheric free
linear combination兲 and x0 is its “real” value 共calculated by dif-
ferent geodetic institutions with IGS standards that provided an
accuracy below 1 cm兲; N is the total number of epochs taken into
account for each day, component and solution, this is, those that
met the established criteria 共a minimum of five satellites in view
with an elevation above 20°兲.
It can be clearly seen that for the 626 km baseline, the pre-
sented technique was not adequate. At this baseline length, the
ionospheric delay is spatially decorrelated; the distance between
the reference stations is too long and the interpolation scheme
does not work. In the second case, with a shorter baseline, the
California North 0.134 0.134 0.199 32.7
East 0.101 0.079 0.088 9.4
Height 0.109 0.188 0.235 19.8
Note: Percentage improvements of the presented technique are also
共4兲 included. La Plata ionospheric model=LPIM.
ionospheric error was greatly reduced, mainly in the horizontal
components, which show an improvement of approximately 60%
and greater.
The technique was also successful for the third network as it
mitigated great part of the ionospheric effect. This fact is more
evident in the horizontal components for which, in the central
hours, a systematic southwest trend was visible for the noncor-
rected L1 data 共consistent with a reduction of the baseline length兲
which was eliminated when employing the LPIM corrected L1
observations. Improvements range from 14% to 72% depending
on the component and day under analysis. Nevertheless, for the
fourth network, the presented methodology did not report such a
great improvement. Strictly speaking, this result is related to the
length of the baseline, which is so short that the ionospheric re-
sidual delay after simple differentiation of observations is very
small. This error was then not significantly reduced with the
present methodology.

Error of the Technique and the Ionospheric

Differential Effect
As the unknown position receiver was a double frequency re-
ceiver, differences between STEC estimated with the interpola-
tion methodology presented here have been compared with the
STEC directly obtained from the LPIM model. These residuals
are considered as the error of the technique for the STEC estima-
tion in each line receiver k to satellite s for each epoch 共errsk兲
errsk = STECsk − STECsk 共5兲
where STECsk is the interpolated STEC between receiver s and
satellite k, and STECsk the corresponding LPIM calculated STEC.
Similarly, the residuals between the STEC obtained with the
LPIM model for the receiver of unknown coordinates 共STECsk兲
and the STEC calculated at the reference station 共STECrs兲 can be
Fig. 1. Analyzed networks regarded as the ionospheric effect in differential positioning 共effsk兲

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J. Surv. Eng., 2007, 133(1): 1-5

 Table 3. Root-Mean-Square Values in Total Electron Content Units for
the Technique’s Error Estimating the STEC and for the Ionospheric
Differential Effect
Network Day Error Effect
Europe 1 June 20, 2002 1.25 4.00
Europe 2 June 20, 2002 0.56 1.40
Dominican Republic December 2, 2003 0.52 1.28
Dominican Republic December 3, 2003 0.68 1.09
Dominican Republic December 4, 2003 0.57 1.41
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California December 2, 2003 0.68 0.94
effsk = STECrs − STECsk 共6兲
Table 3 lists the root-mean-square error of the technique and
the ionospheric differential effect, taking into account all satellites
in view for each day under analysis. For the first network, the
square root error in the STEC estimation 共1.25 TECU兲 is greater
than for any other analyzed network 共under 0.68 TECU兲, confirm-
ing that, in this case, the methodology is not adequate, the base-
line is too long and the interpolation method fails. However, for
the fourth network located in California. The differential iono-
spheric effect is lower than for any other analyzed network, and
quite close to the error of the technique. Due to this, the presented
technique does not provide much improvement for short
baselines.
Conclusions
This study presented a technique which allows the extension of
differential positioning with a roving single frequency receiver for
baselines whose length amounts to a few hundred kilometers. In
this way, users with a low cost receiver can obtain decimeter
accuracy even in areas with poor reference station coverage. Nev-
ertheless, there are limitations for the application of the technique.
On the one hand, as the interpolation error grows with the dis-
tance between stations, the methodology is not adequate when the
maximum distance between stations in the network exceeds
600 km 共maximum distance between station is approximately
540 km in the Europe 2 network, while it is well over 1100 km in
the Europe 1 network兲. The ionospheric spatial correlation is
greatly reduced, which makes it impossible to obtain a good
STEC interpolation, an essential step for the improvement of the
differential positioning. This superior limit will also depend on
the region where the network is placed. On the other hand, there
is a lower limit for the application of the technique. For short
baselines, such as the fourth network 共64 km long兲, the method-
ology does not report a significant improvement as the residual
differential ionospheric effect is already small.
It is worth noting that the presented technique tends to provide
greater improvement for the horizontal components when com-
pared to the vertical one. This can be seen by comparing
root-mean-square errors for the presented technique with the
ionospheric free linear combination solution in Table 2: The hori-
zontal components tend to show similar values, while vertical
ones are usually significantly higher for the LPIM solution than
for L3 solution. As horizontal errors are related to ionospheric
horizontal gradients 共Gende et al. 2003兲, remaining L1 differential
positioning horizontal errors, which are mainly affected by these
horizontal gradients in the ionosphere, can be greatly reduced by
the presented technique. Regarding percentage improvements,
these are also bigger for the horizontal components compared to
4 / JOURNAL OF SURVEYING ENGINEERING © ASCE / FEBRUARY 2007
J. Surv. Eng., 2007, 133(1): 1-5
the vertical one. The absolute improvements tend to show similar
values for horizontal and vertical components but as vertical
root-mean-square errors for the L1 solution are bigger for the
vertical component, this component is less improved in a percent-
age sense.
From the results obtained we can conclude that the presented
methodology is quite successful, showing an improvement of
over 50% in most cases. It should be noted, though, that the
technique must be restricted to baselines ranging from one hun-
dred to three hundred kilometers for middle geomagnetic latitudes
共between 30 and 60°兲.
Acknowledgments
The writers would like to thank the reviewers for their comments
and suggestions, which have been a great help in improving the
manuscript.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
E ⫽ elevation angle;
f 1 ⫽ GPS L1 carrier frequency 共1575.42 MHz兲;
f 2 ⫽ GPS L2 carrier frequency 共1227.60 MHz兲;
H ⫽ height of the infinitesimal ionospheric layer in the
thin sell approximation;
N ⫽ total number of data for each day that met the
established criteria;
RT ⫽ Earth radius;
xi ⫽ position component obtained after differential
positioning;
x0 ⫽ “real” position component value;
⌬I ⫽ differential ionospheric delay;
⌬N ⫽ differential carrier phase ambiguity;
␣ ⫽ constant with value 40.3 m−3 s−2 relating ionospheric
delay to STEC;
␾1 ⫽ carrier phase measurement on GPS L1;
␾2 ⫽ carrier phase measurement on GPS L2;
␾4 ⫽ carrier phase geometry-free linear combination;
␶R ⫽ receiver inter-frequency bias; and
␶S ⫽ satellite inter-frequency bias.
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