RTK-based GNSS Drifters for Monitoring in Estuaries and Rivers: Field Experimental Results

Charles Wang, Kabir Suara, Richard Brown, Yanming Feng

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	This paper presents a novel RTK-based GNSS Lagrangian drifter system that is capable of monitoring water velocity, turbulence and dispersion coefficients of river and estuarine. The Lagrangian drifters use the dual-frequency real time kinematic (RTK) technique for both position and velocity estimations. The capsule is designed to meet the requirements such as minimizing height, diameter, minimizing the direct wind drag, positive buoyancy for satellite signal reception and stability, and waterproof housing for electronic components, such as GNSS receiver and computing board. The collected GNSS data are processed with post-processing RTK software. Several experiments have been carried out in two rivers in Brisbane and Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Results show that the high accuracy GNSS-drifters can be used to measure dispersion coefficient resulting from sub-tidal velocity fluctuations in shallow tidal water. In addition, the RTK-GNSS drifters respond well to vertical motion and thus could be applicable to flood monitoring.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2016 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 25 - 28, 2016 Hyatt Regency Monterey Monterey, California
Pages:	1046 - 1054
Cite this article:	Wang, Charles, Suara, Kabir, Brown, Richard, Feng, Yanming, "RTK-based GNSS Drifters for Monitoring in Estuaries and Rivers: Field Experimental Results," Proceedings of the 2016 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Monterey, California, January 2016, pp. 1046-1054. https://doi.org/10.33012/2016.13493
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