GPS signal propagation

Signal, tagged with time from satellite clock, is sent by satellite. About 66 msec (20,000 km) later the signal arrives at GPS receiver (not that the satellite has moved about 66 m during the time it takes signal to propagate to receiver). Time at which the signal is received is given by clock in receiver. Difference between transmit time and receive time x c is pseudorange. During the propagation, signal passes through the ionosphere (10-100 m of delay), and neutral atmosphere (2.3-30 m delay, depending on elevation angle). To determine an accurate position from range data, we need to account for all these propagation effects and time offsets.

GPS signal propagation

Satellites move at about 1 km/sec => 1 msec time error results in 1 m range error ~ satellite position or receiver position error:
For pseudo-range positioning, 1 msec errors OK. For phase positioning (1 mm), time accuracy needed to 1 msec.

1 msec ~ 300 m of range => Pseudorange accuracy of a few meters is sufficient for a time accuracy of 1 msec.

GPS signal propagation

Velocity of electromagnetic waves:
In a vacuum = c In the atmosphere = v Dimensionless ratio n = c/v = refractive index

Consequently, GPS signals in the atmosphere experience a delay compared to propagation in a vacuum. This delay is the difference between the actual path of the carrier S and the straightline path in a vacuum L:

dt =

dS "S v #

dL "L c

In terms of distance, after multiplying by c:

cdt = !

" ndS # " dL = "

S L

(n #1)dL +

( " ndS # " ndL)

S L

Change of refractive delay along path length

Change of path length

GPS signal propagation

L1 and L2 frequencies are affected by atmospheric refraction:
Ray bending (negligible) Propagation velocity decrease (w.r.t. vacuum) propagation delay

In the troposphere:
Delay is a function of (P, T, H), 1 to 5 m Largest effect due to pressure

In the ionosphere: delay function of the electronic density, 0 to 50 m This refractive delay biases the satellite-receiver range measurements, and, consequently the estimated positions: essentially in the vertical.

Tropospheric refraction
Total tropospheric delay L in terms of the equivalent increase in path length (n(l) = index of refraction, Fermats principle):

#L = !

pathL

[n(l )" 1]dl

Refractivity N used instead of refraction n:

N = (n " 1) !106
Refractivity N is a function of temperature T, partial pressure of dry airP d, and partial pressure of water vapor e (k1, k2, and k3 are constants determined experimentally):

N = k1

Pd e e + k 2 + k3 2 T T T

The delay for a zenith path is the integral of the refractivity over altitude in the atmosphere:

!Lzen " 10 #6 $ Ndz

P e e " % !Lzen = 10 (6 $ ) k 1 d + k 2 + k 3 2 dz ' T T T # &

Tropospheric refraction
It is convenient to consider separately the hydrostatic delay and the wet delay:

!Lzen = !Lzen + !Lzen hydro wet

Hydrostatic or dry delay:
Molecular constituents of the atmosphere in hydrostatic equilibrium. Can be modeled with a simple dependence on surface pressure (P0=surface pressure ( in mbar), = latitude, and H = height above the ellipsoid)
!Lzen = 2.2768 0.0024 " 10 #7 hydro

P0 f ($, H )

f (!, H ) = 1 " 0.00266 cos(2! ) " 0.00028 H

Standard deviation of current modeled estimates of this delay ~ 0.5 mm.

Non-hydrostatic or wet delay:

Associated with water vapor that is not in hydrostatic equilibrium. Very difficult to model because the quantity of atmospheric water vapor is highly variable in space and time (Mw and Md the molar masses of dry air and water vapor)
)# , & e M e !Lzen = 10 "6 +% k 2 " w k 1 ( / dz + k 3 / 2 dz . wet Md ' T T *$ -

Standard deviation of current modeled estimates of this delay ~ 2 cm.

Tropospheric refraction
Range error:
Hydrostatic delay ~ 200 to 230 cm at zenith at sea level Wet delay typically 30 cm at zenith at sea level

Tropospheric delays increase with decreasing satellite elevation angle:

This is accounted for my multiplying the zenith delays by a correction factor:

!Ltropo = mh (" )!Lzen + mw (" )!Lzen hydro wet

Correction factors m() depend on elevation angle = mapping functions

Tropospheric mapping functions

For an homogeneous atmosphere:
m(! ) = sin(! ) + 1+ a+ a b 1+ c a b sin(! ) + c sin(! ) +

Hz

m(! ) = 1

when

! = 90

m(! ) =

R 1 = H z sin !

For a spherically symmetric atmosphere, the 1/sin(elev) term is tempered by curvature effects. There are different parameterizations:
Marini (original one): a, b, c constant Niell mapping function uses a, b, c that are latitude, height and time of year dependent

Tropospheric refraction
How to handle the range error introduced by tropospheric refraction?
Correct: using a priori knowledge of the zenith delay (total or wet) from met. model, WVR, radiosonde (not from surface met data) Filter:? Model: ok for dry delay, not for wet Estimate:
Introduce an additional unknown = zenith total delay Solve for it together with station position and time offset Even better: also estimate lateral gradients because of deviations from spherical symmetry

If tropospheric delay is estimated, then GPS is also an atmospheric remote sensing tool!

GPS meteorology
GPS data can be used to estimate Zenith Total Delay (ZTD) ZTD can be converted to ZWD by removing hydrostatic component if ground pressure is known ZWD is related to (integrated) Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV) by:

PWV = " (Tm )!Lzen wet

is a function of the mean surface temperature, ~0.15. Trade-off between (vertical) position and ZTD Red: GPS estimates Yellow: water vapor radiometer measurements Green stars: radiosonde measurements

Tropospheric refraction: Summary

Atmospheric delays are one the limiting error sources in GPS Delays are nearly always estimated:
At low elevation angles there can be problems with mapping functions Spatial inhomogeneity of atmospheric delay still unsolved problem even with gradient estimates. Estimated delays are being used for weather forecasting if latency <2 hrs.

Ionospheric refraction
The ionospheric index of refraction is a function of the frequency f and of the plasma resonant frequency fp of the ionosphere. It is slightly different from unity and can be approximated (neglecting higher order terms in f) by:

nion = 1 ! f p2 2 f

The plasma frequency fp has typical values between 1020 MHz and represents the characteristic vibration frequency between the ionosphere and electromagnetic signals. The GPS carrier frequencies have been chosen to minimize attenuation by taking f1 and f2 >> fp. Since:

f = N ( z )q !me
N ( z)q n( z ) = 1 ! 2"me f
2 e 2

2 p

2 e

where N(z) is the electron density (a function of the altitude z), and qe and me are the electron charge and mass respectively, nion can be written as:

Ionospheric refraction
The total propagation time between at the velocity v(z)=c/n(z), where c is the speed of light in vacuum, is:

dz T( f ,z) = " rec = v( f ,z)

sat

n(z) " rec c dz =

sat

2 sat N(z)q dz " rec c # " rec 2$m f e2c dz e sat

Substituting eq. (3) in eq. (4) and replacing qe and me by their numerical values, we obtain, for a given frequency f:

N ( z )qe2 A "t ( f , z ) = ! dz = 2 rec 2#m f 2 c cf e

sat

sat

rec

N ( z )dz =

A IEC 2 cf

with the constant A=40.3 m3.s-2. IEC is the Integrated Electron Content along the line-of-sight between the satellite and the receiver.

Ionospheric refraction
The ionospheric delay is given by:
A IEC 2 cf1 A I2 = 2 IEC cf 2 I1 =

Note that:

A( f12 ! f 22 ) I 2 ! I1 = IEC 2 2 f1!f 2

And:

I1 f 22 = 2 I2 f1

Ionospheric refraction
The phase equations can be written as: Lets write the following linear combination:
" LC
f12 f1 f 2 f12 f1 f f f = 2 "1 # 2 " 2 $! LC = 2 " I1 # 12 2 22 I2 + ... f1 # f 22 f1 # f 22 2 f1 # f 22 f1 # f 2 f12 f1 f 22 f f f = 2 I2 # 12 2 22 I2 + ... f1 # f 22 f12 f1 # f 2 f1 f 22 f1 f 22 = 2 I2 # 2 I2 + ... f1 # f 22 f1 # f 22
Recall that:
I1 f 22 = I2 f12

f1 # + f1$t + f1I1 + f1T + N1 c f " 2 = 2 # + f 2$t + f 2 I2 + f 2T + N 2 c

"1 =

% " LC % " LC

We have created a new observable:

! LC = 2.546 "! 1 + 1.984 " ! 2 !

! Linear combination of L1 and L2 phase observables Independent of the ionospheric delay!

Ionospheric refraction
Dual-frequency receivers:
Ionosphere-free observable LG can be formed Ionospheric propagation delays cancel Note that ambiguities are not integers anymore

Single-frequency receivers:
Broadcast message:
Contains ionospheric model data: 8 coefficients for computing the group (pseudorange) delay Efficiency: 50-60% of the delay is corrected

Differential corrections

Ionospheric refraction
From the phase equations, one can write:
"2 !
f2 f "1 = 2 ( I 2," ! I1," ) f1 c (+ N )

We can plug in the relationship between differential ionospheric delay and IEC and get:
f2 f 2 A( f12 ! f 22 ) * 2 ! *1 = IEC 2 2 f1 c f1 f 2 ( f2 % cf12 f 2 ) IEC = & * 2 ! *1 # " & f1 # A( f12 ! f 22 ) ' $
LG

We can solve for IEC using GPS data (note N).

Ionospheric refraction

Satellite clock errors

Receiver clock errors

Clock errors
Errors in receiver clocks can reach kms of equivalent time. In some cases clocks are well enough behaved that they can be modeled by linear polynomials. But this is usually not the case. Two strategies:
Estimate receiver clocks at every measurement epoch (can be tricky with bad clocks) Cancelled clock errors using a trick: double differencing

Double differences
Combination of phase observables between 2 satellites (k,l) and 2 receivers (i,j): ijkl =(ik il) (jk jl) ijkl =(ikil+jkjl)*f/c(hkhi hl+hihk+hj+ hlhj)(ikil+jkjl) ijkl =(ikil+jkjl)*f/cijkl Clock errors hs(t) et hr(t) are eliminated (but number of observations has decreased) Note that any error common to the 2 receivers i and j will also cancel!
Atmospheric propagation errors cancel if receivers close enough to each other Short baselines provide greater precision than long ones.

Antenna phase center offsets

Antenna phase center:
Point where the radio signal measurement is referred to Not necessarily geometric antenna center

No direct access to the antenna phase center:

We setup the antenna using its geometrical center Need to correct for offset between APC and GC (1-2 cm)

In addition, the position of the phase center varies with elevation and azimuth of the incoming signal:
Need for an azimuth/elevation dependent correction The most common GPS antenna have been calibrated and correction tables are available for each model.
Phase residuals for an antenna calibration as a function of elevation. The phase variation is clearly evident. The solid curve is the polynomial fit to these data and the dots indicate the elevation increments used in the summary file (http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/ANTCAL/Files/summary.html)

Multipath
GPS signal may be reflected by surfaces near the receiver Multipath errors:
D ir
In d ir e c t pa th

Code measurements: up to several meters Phase measurements: centimeter-level

Note that multipath will repeat daily because of repeat time of GPS constellation: can be used to filter it out Best solution: choose the location of the GPS sites carefully!

GPS antenna

ect pat h

Reflecting surface: Wall, car, tree, etc

Error budget
SV clock = 1 m SV ephemeris = 1 m S/A = 10 m Troposphere = 1 m Ionosphere = 5 m

Satellite:
clocks orbits

Signal propagation:
Ionospheric refraction Tropospheric refraction

Receiver/antenna:
Ant. phase center variations Multipath Clock Electronic noise Operator errors: up to several km

Phase center variations = 1 cm Multipath = 0.5 m

GPS antenna

User Equivalent Range Error =

UERE ~ 11 m if SA on UERE ~ 5 m if SA on

In terms of position:
Standard deviation = UERE x DOP SA on: HDOP = 5 => e,n=55 m SA off: HDOP = 5 => e,n=25 m

Pseudorange noise = 1 m Phase noise < 1 mm

GPS receiver

Dominant error sources:

S/A Ionospheric refraction