Differential GPS

CVL 111
 GPS Errors
• GPS satellite orbit, clock and position geometry based source of errors: These errors is basically
defined in terms of satellite transmitted signals having transmission time from satellite to
receiver. It includes error related to satellite clock, orbit and position i.e. Selective Availability.
• Propagation or atmosphere dependent source of errors: There errors are basically defined in
terms of signal propagation from satellite to receiver. It includes ionosphere and troposphere
related errors. Errors are generated due to the delay in signals in upper and lower atmosphere.
• Receiver clock dependent source of errors: These errors are basically defined in terms of
receivers. It includes errors related to clock, cycle slips, noise etc.
• Signal Multipath and atmospheric interference source of errors: Signal Multipath errors can be
defined in terms of reflected signal from geographical based buildings, high rocks, vehicles,
power line or water. Atmospheric interference errors are generated via atmospheric conditions
i.e. humidity, temperature, pressure etc.
• User mistakes: These errors are generated by incorrect information input in GPS receiver.
• Random based nature errors: These errors are generated due to the unexpected and
unpredictable changes in the nature or environmental conditions i.e. electronic or instrumental
noise error. 2
 Errors due to the Signal Path

• The fundamental assumption when

measuring the range of an SV is that
the speed of transmission of the
signal is constant. This is only true in
free space and, as the signal travels
through the electrically charged
particles of the earth’s ionosphere,
and then through the water vapour
of the earth’s troposphere, the
speed of transmission changes.

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 Differential GPS
DGPS is a technique for reducing
the error in GPS-derived
positions by using additional
data from a reference GPS
receiver at a known position.

Differential GPS involves the

cooperation of two receivers,
one that is stationary and
another that's roving around
making position measurements.
The stationary receiver is the
key. It ties all the satellite
measurements into a local
reference
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DPGS…
• The sheer scale of the GPS system comes to our rescue. The satellites are so far
out in space that the little distances we travel here on earth are insignificant. For
example, if two receivers are fairly close to each other, say within a few
kilometers, the signals that reach both of them will have traveled through
virtually the same slice of atmosphere, and so will have virtually the same errors.

• So if two receivers are fairly close to each other, let us say within a few
kilometers, the signals that reach both of them will have traveled through
virtually the same slice of atmosphere, and so will have virtually the same error.

• That is the idea behind differential GPS: We have one receiver measure the
timing errors and then provide correction information to the other receivers that
are roving around. That way virtually all errors can be eliminated from the system.

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 DPGS…

• The idea is simple. Put the reference receiver on a point that is been
very accurately surveyed and keep it there. This reference station
receives the same GPS signals

• Instead of using timing signals to calculate its position, it uses its known
position to calculate timing. It figures out what the travel time of the
GPS signals should be, and compares it with what they actually are. The
difference is an "error correction" factor.

• The receiver then transmits this error information to the roving

receiver so it can use it to correct its measurements.

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DPGS…
• Since the reference receiver has no way of knowing which of the many
available satellites a roving receiver might be using to calculate its position,
the reference receiver quickly runs through all the visible satellites and
computes each of their errors. Then it encodes this information into a
standard format and transmits it to the roving receivers. The roving
receivers can then apply the corrections for particular satellites they are
using.

• Error transmissions not only include the timing error for each satellite,
they also include the rate of change of that error as well. That way the
roving receiver can interpolate its position between updates.

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Q/A
 Satellite Clock Bias
• There are two types of problems with satellite clocks:
• Relativistic effect and Clock drift
• Relativistic effect as seen in theory of relativity- clock in orbit will appear to run
faster than that on the earth (due to more speed of satellite in orbit and weaker
gravitation force). It can be explained as below
• Relativistic effects are due to clock drift according to Einstein because of no fixed
universally allotted time i.e. time dilation which is basically related to observer.
The behavior of two clocks in different mode of inertial frame i.e. accelerating or
decelerating is explained by special effect of relativity.
• First receive time dilation before satellite is ready for orbit. Then, clocks will attain
the bit slow frequency of 10.23 MHz for confirmation.
 Satellite Clock Bias
• A gravitational time dilation has been provided by general relativity in which clock
appear to tick very slowly.
• It is attributable to eccentricity (0.02) of orbit causing time error of 45.8 ns. This
error is corrected in GPS receiver itself avoiding an error of about 14 m.
• The effect of clocks is due to the decreased gravity and at the time of reporting
location to users, they must incorporate relativistic corrected calculations.
 Satellite Clock Bias
• Unavoidable temporally variant clock errors are source of a significant bias that is
continuously monitored during tracking & analysis by the control segment. The
primary purpose of clock correction is to reduce error from about 1 ms of satellite
clock error to around 30 ns of GPS time. It may be noted that the concept of
carefully measured and monitored time is central to proper functioning of GPS.
However, description of concept of time is outside the scope of these lectures.
Interested readers can refer to Time System for more information on time
systems relevant for GPS.
• Each GPS satellites have four high quality atomic clocks, two cesium and rubidium
atomic clocks. One of the cesium clocks is used for time-keeping and signal
synchronization as they have better compared to rubidium clocks, others are
backups.
• Stability (accuracy) of GPS Clocks o Rubidium clocks: 1 to 2 parts in 1013 over a
period of one day or about 8.64 to 17.28 ns per day. o Cesium clocks: stability
improves to 1 to 2 parts in 1014 over 10 days. o Hydrogen masers: 1 parts in 1014
Satellite Clock Bias
• All observations taken by all GPS receivers at any instant from a particular
satellite will contain equal satellite clock error which can be removed through
differential positioning.
• Onboard satellite clocks are independent of one another, clock oscillators are
more stable if these are not disturbed by tweaking and adjustment is kept to
minimum. Thus instead of interfering with the clock, it is better to model their
behavior through careful monitoring and provided through polynomial
coefficients.
• Leap seconds are used to keep UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)-it is determined
by US Naval Observatory (USNO) correlated with earth rotation.
• GPS time is designed to keep within 1 ms of UTC, but in reality, GPS time is
normally within 40 ns of UTC, and satellite clocks are allowed to drift up to 1 ms
from GPS time and then corrected.
Q/A
 Remote Sensing
• Large amounts of data needed, and Remote Sensing can provide it
• Reduces manual field work dramatically
• Allows retrieval of data for regions difficult or impossible to reach:
• Open ocean
• Hazardous terrain (high mountains, extreme weather areas, etc.)
• Ocean depths
• Atmosphere
• Digital Imagery greatly enhances a GIS
• DIRECTLY: Imagery can serve as a visual aid
• INDIRECTLY: Can serves as a source to derive information such as
• Land use/land cover
• Atmospheric emissions
• Vegetation
• Water bodies
• Cloud cover
• Change detection (including sea ice, coastlines, sea levels, etc.)
 RS Methods in GIS
• Passive Sensors:
Landsat TM
AVHRR
Spot
MODIS
IKONOS
Quickbird
• Passive Systems: Air Photography
• Active Sensors: Radar
Coarser Resolution Satellite Sensors Used

MODIS
LANDSAT Thematic Mapper
36 spectral bands
Good for regional coverage
30m MS resolution
Most Common Uses:
15 m panchromatic resolution
Cloud/Aerosol Properties
Ocean Color
Most Common Use:
Atmospheric Water Vapor
Land Cover/Land Use Mapping
Sea/Atmospheric Temperatures
 Higher Resolution Satellite Sensors Used

IKONOS Quickbird

4 m visible/infrared resolution 2.5 m multispectral resolution

1 m panchromatic resolution 61 cm (~2 ft.) panchromatic resolution

MOST COMMON USES FOR HIGH RESOLUTION:

Accurate Base Maps
Infrastructure Mapping
Disaster Assessment (Smaller Scale)
 How data is extracted:

• Layers such as roads (yellow) and rivers (blue) can be easily seen from
air/satellite photos
• This information is digitized, separated into layers, and integrated into a GIS
 Aerial photograph
• An orthophotograph is an aerial photograph that
has been corrected to remove distortions caused by:
• Camera optics
• Tilt
• Elevation differences

• Digital Conversion (“Registration”)

• Must be converted to digital format before integration into
a GIS
• Photograph is split into many pixels
• Distortion at each point must be calculated
• A photograph is considered registered when each pixel has
its exact position (geographically) placed with the above
distortions having been taken into account

• These registered air photos can then be used to

extract data or as a base map for a GIS (or both)
Q/A