Monitoring the Ionosphere Using Integer-Leveled GLONASS Measurements

Simon Banville and Richard B. Langley

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	The integration of GLONASS data into GNSS-derived total electron content (TEC) products involves the estimation of a large number of parameters to model inter-frequency code biases. This issue can be avoided by using undifferenced integer ambiguities obtained from geodetic processing software to remove the arc-dependency of geometry-free carrier-phase GLONASS observations, a process termed integer leveling. While GLONASS integer leveling is, at the moment, a complex task requiring a full network adjustment for the computation of undifferenced ambiguities, this process is rigorous since it involves integer constraints rather than the assumption that code noise and multipath average out over an arc. As a result, leveling errors are practically eliminated. Using a network of 45 stations in Europe, it is demonstrated that valid TEC can also be retrieved from GLONASS integer-leveled observations by estimating only one bias parameter per station, a reduction of approximately 95% in the total number of bias parameters compared to commonly-used methods.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 28th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2015) September 14 - 18, 2015 Tampa Convention Center Tampa, Florida
Pages:	3578 - 3588
Cite this article:	Banville, Simon, Langley, Richard B., "Monitoring the Ionosphere Using Integer-Leveled GLONASS Measurements," Proceedings of the 28th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2015), Tampa, Florida, September 2015, pp. 3578-3588.
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