Flight Tests Demonstrate Sub 50 cms RMS

Ronald J. Muellerschoen, Willy I. Bertiger, Michael L. Whitehead

Abstract:	Wide Area Differential GPS (WADGPS) positioning is performed in real-time during NASA's DC-8 AirSAR flights. The goal of the experiment is to demonstrate absolute positioning in earth-fixed coordinates to better than one meter in all components in real-time. Results show dual-frequency real-time RMS (root-mean-square) accuracy in the vertical to be 50-60 cms with an RMS horizontal accuracy of better than 40 cms. Augmenting the system with stable Rubidium oscillators both at a reference ground receiver and on the aircraft allows the user to model his clock as a predictable process rather than a stochastic white-noise process. This permits better separation of the clock and vertical estimates. Results of this experiment demonstrate dual-frequency real-time RMS accuracy in the vertical to be better than 40 cms RMS. An important aspect to real-time GPS positioning experiments is verifying accuracy. Post-processing techniques using only GPS data are shown to yield truth solutions with an accuracy in all components of better than 10 cms RMS.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 12th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1999) September 14 - 17, 1999 Nashville, TN
Pages:	199 - 210
Cite this article:	Muellerschoen, Ronald J., Bertiger, Willy I., Whitehead, Michael L., "Flight Tests Demonstrate Sub 50 cms RMS," Proceedings of the 12th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1999), Nashville, TN, September 1999, pp. 199-210.
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