Miniature Interferometer Terminals for Earth Surveying: Ambiguity And Multipath with Global Positioning System

Abstract

With the recent launching of several satellites of the global positioning system (GPS), a variety of schemes based on radio interferometry have been proposed for the accurate determination of relative positions of receiving terminals on the ground. Provided that the integer-cycle ambiguities of the interferometric phase observations can be correctly resolved, the baseline vector extending from the antenna of one terminal to that of another should be determinable with uncertainty much smaller than the 19-cm wavelength of the GPS transmissions. We propose a method of ambiguity resolution that is suitable for observations made with antennas of low directive gain. Such antennas are compact, but the feasibility of their use has been questioned because observations with them are susceptible to multipath interference. For short-baseline interferometric observations of GPS our method yields correct ambiguity resolution despite severe multipath interference and significant sky blockage, even when instability of the frequency standards governing the separate receiving terminals limits the time span of coherent integration to five minutes.