Applicability of real-time PPP technique in polar regions as an accurate and efficient real-time positioning system

Authors: REHA METİN ALKAN, SERDAR EROL, BİLAL MUTLU

Abstract: The polar regions, which include the Arctic and Antarctic areas, attract the attention of people every day, and issues that are closely related to the future of humanity make these regions even more important. Accurate and reliable positioning in polar regions is very critical for scientific research projects and also for commercial, touristic, and other human activities. In this study, the usability and the accuracy performance of the real-time precise point positioning (RT-PPP) technique in high-latitude polar regions with harsh environmental and extreme atmospheric conditions were investigated. Within that framework, the GNSS dataset of six IGS multi-GNSS stations located at different latitudes in the north and south polar regions and two different Real-Time Service products (precise satellite orbits and clock corrections and biases) were used. The 3D RT-PPP coordinates of the reference stations were estimated for each 1-s epoch during the 26.5-h measurement period (total of approximately 95,000 epochs). The RT-PPP-derived coordinates were calculated using real-time products generated by IGS Centre National D'études Spatiales (CNES) and Spaceopal NAVCAST services with different GNSS constellations including GPS-only, Galileo-only, and a combination of GPS and Galileo. It was shown that the RT-PPP technique provides a decimeter to centimeter level of positioning accuracy using data from only one GNSS receiver after the initialization period. The results also proved that RT-PPP performance strongly depended on the real-time products that were used and the GNSS constellation type. This attainable accuracy from the RT-PPP technique can meet the requirements of many Arctic and Antarctic projects. In general, it can be said that the RT-PPP technique has become an alternative to the conventional relative GNSS techniques in remote areas.

Keywords: Antarctica, Arctic, polar region, real-time-precise point positioning, IGS-Real-Time Service, NAVCAST

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