Development and Testing of a Kinematic Carrier-Phase Ambiguity Resolution Method Using a Reference Receiver Network¹

Abstract

ABSTRACT: There is currently great interest in using regional-area reference receiver networks to perform precise positioning using GPS carrier-phase measurements. The NetAdjust algorithm described herein uses a network of reference receivers to significantly increase the distance over which kinematic carrier-phase ambiguity resolution can be performed. When using this algorithm, information from the reference receiver network is encapsulated into the measurements from a single reference receiver so that standard ambiguity resolution techniques can be used between that reference receiver and a mobile receiver. The NetAdjust method is applied to a 400 km × 600 km network of 11 reference stations positioned throughout Norway. The NetAdjust algorithm yielded significant reductions in differential errors, and it improved positioning performance. Most important, NetAdjust demonstrated a significant improvement in the ability to resolve widelane carrier-phase integer ambiguities and a modest improvement in the ability to resolve L1 ambiguities. Results are presented for a number of different network configurations.