c


GPS technique has been well established as a means for establishment of

control points in surveying and mapping. In carrying out this, the absolute
coordinates of at least one site have to be known accurately in WGS84
coordinate system. As WGS84 coordinates for a particular site was not known
neither it could be derived, in order to establish a reference station, Single Point
Positioning technique of GPS has been applied for several hours of observation
spanning in three consecutive days and night. The observed value shows precise
planimetric position but grossly imprecise in height. However, the study provides
some insight on the influence of some variables like a-priori value of parameters,
time of observation etc. on result. The paper also discusses the probable sources
of errors, precautions to be taken and direction of further study.



Control establishment is an important exercise in mapping process. The mapping
accuracy is directly based on the accuracy of control network. The control
network is formed by a group of points whose position (x,y,z) are known to a high
degree of accuracy. Accuracy defines the quality of a control network. The
positions of other features of interest are determined with respect to these control
points for mapping. To achieve such a high degree of accuracy a reliable and
accurate method of surveying is required. Though several techniques are used to
properly establish and provide accurate horizontal and vertical control networks,
meeting the requirements of the user community, the best technique will be one
that provides the control networks with required mapping accuracy at the least
cost in time and money.

The GPS (Global Positioning System) is one of the viable systems which meets
the requirements of the surveying fraternity all over the globe. It is a space-based
all weather radio navigation system. It broadcasts precise, synchronized timing
signals to provide precise estimates of position, velocity and time of the antenna
location of the system receiver. There are several methods of measurement
based on GPS that make possible to take survey measurements from space.
The numerous limitations of the terrestrial surveying like requirement of inter-
visibility of survey stations, dependability on weather, difficulties in night
observations, 3D position parameters etc could be overcome using GPS
techniques. These advantages over the conventional techniques coupled with
economy in time and cost, accuracy, speed and versatility in operation make
GPS the most promising surveying tool of the future. Thus, a great technological
revolution is taking place at the development of GPS as it can be used in any
conceivable problem under the sky, where the exact position of any object or
phenomena involved.

GPS surveying is a relative technique with baseline being ³observed´ and

computed from the reference to rover. As many baseline will often be measured
from the same reference station, the choice and reliability of reference station are
of particular importance. Thus, the absolute WGS84 coordinates of at least one
site have to be known accurately as all measurements in GPS system are
depicted in WGS84 coordinate system.

For any precise GPS survey the absolute coordinates of ONE site in a network
have to be known in WGS84 to about 10 meters. There are three possibilities for
obtaining reliable WGS84 coordinates for one site and these are:

È WGS84 coordinates may be available.

È WGS84 coordinates can be derived from local coordinates using
appropriate transform function.
È WGS84 coordinates can be computed by GPS point positioning.

Since, WGS84 coordinates for a particular site is not known neither it could be
derived, Single Point Positioning technique of GPS has been applied for several
hours of observation spanning in three consecutive days and night.

   

In point positioning, coordinates of the antenna position at an unknown point are
sought with respect to the WGS84 reference frame. In this method, the known
positions of the tracked GPS satellites (the position of a satellite can be
computed from ephemerides) are being used to determine the position of
unknown point using single GPS receiver by a method similar to the method of
resection used in plane table surveying (Fig. 1).

_
  
 
  

In this figure, s1, s2, s3 and s4 represent four different satellites (least required)
being tracked. The positions of these satellites are referenced to the centre of the
earth in the X, Y, Z coordinate frame. The coordinates for s1 are shown as (xs1,
ys1, zs1). The coordinates of r, the unknown point, as referenced to the centre of
the earth, are assumed to be (xr, yr, zr). The observed code, Prs1, relates the
known coordinates of satellite 1 with the unknown coordinates of the receiver
using the equation for a line in three-dimensional space. That is,

Prs1 = Ö [(Xs1 - Xr)2 + (Ys1 - Yr)2 + (Zs1 - Zr)2] + error

Thus, from four satellites, four distance equation can be formed leading to
computation of the four unknowns (xr, yr, zr and clock bias) can be computed.

„
 
The area of study is the campus of IIT Roorkee. The astronomical coordinates of
Roorkee are known to be: 29° 52 002 North, 77° 53 522 East and its height
above datum (geoid) is 268 meter.

â 

Since control point has to meet some specific requirements with special
emphasis of its suitability for GPS observation, the choice and reliability of
reference station is of particular importance. In taking care of a good site
characteristics for GPS observation such as

È A clear view of the sky;

È No obstructions above the cut-off angle (say 15°);
È No reflecting surfaces that could cause multi-path;
È Safe, away from traffic and passers-by;
È Possibility to leave the receiver unattended;
È No powerful transmitters (radio, TV antennas etc.) in the vicinity, a point
on the top of a building (the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetric
Engineering Section) of Civil Engineering department at IIT Roorkee is
found suitable and thus considered as reference station for GPS receiver
and subsequently, serves as the control point for this study.

m

?

 


„
?
(
 
The field equipment includes one GPS receiver unit and auxiliary devices such
as tripod, tribach, and other ancillary equipment.

(
   „ 
  


In view of establishing the control point on the top of building, GPS observation
was carried out on absolute position mode, also known as single point
positioning. In the absolute positioning mode, single GPS receiver is used to find
the coordinates of the antenna position. Steps those were carried out for
experimental set up, data collection and processing are as follows:?
 È Antenna setup: The tripod was set above the control point and then
attached the tribach. The leveling and centering was then carried out
iteratively before fixing the antenna to the tribach. Other components i.e.,
sensor, controller, battery etc were then connected.
È Initialisation: A mission was then started to take GPS observation in static
survey mode. Before starting to take observation a few input parameters
such as the sampling rate, sampling type, cut off elevation angle, project
and job name, approximate location (29° 52 002 North, 77° 53 522 East
and height 268 meter), height of antenna and antenna offset etc for the
point were fed through controller.
È Data collection: The data was collected taken during different sessions
spread over three consecutive days/nights as given in Table 1.
È Data processing: The collected data was then dumped from controller to
computer. After creating a project, the data was brought and processed
within SKI 3.2 post-processing software.

v
 


The observation was taken on April 19, 2001 starting from 17hr 31min 55sec to
26hr 46min 55sec i.e., a duration of 7 hr 15 min starting from early evening to
late night. On next day i.e, on April 20, the observation session started at noon
(14 hr 31 min 30 sec) and continued till mid-night (24 hr 32min 25 sec) for a
duration of 10 hr 12 min 55 sec. On April 21, 2001, there were two sessions for
observation- first one from early morning (04hr 38 min 20 sec) to noon (14 hr 31
min 30 sec) for a duration of 09 hr 53 min 10 sec and second one from evening
(18hr 47 min 30 sec) to night (21 hr 13 min 05 sec) for a duration of 02 hr 25 min
35 sec. On April 22, the observation session was restricted in early morning only
from 03 hr 36 min 35 sec to 05 hr 55 min 15 sec for a duration of 2 hr 18 min 40
sec.

The observed data was processed in SKI 2.3 session wise. Only code data of
both bands were used in processing. Broadcast ephemerides were used to
compute the position of satellite. Hopfield model was used to take into
consideration the delay caused by troposphere but no model was used for
ionospheric interference. After processing the data, following results have been
obtained:

È The geodetic (WGS 84) Latitude of the station point has been found to be
very precise with mean (29° 51 45.5274642North) and standard
deviation (0.479622).
È The geodetic (WGS 84) Longitude of the station point has been found to
be very precise with mean (77° 54 0.7782962East) and standard
deviation (0.1705042).
È Mean of the geodetic (WGS 84) heights has been found to be 241.80225
meter with standard deviation 2.79805 meter (In this calculation height
found in session 2 is considered as Outlier).
The details of the observation and geodetic coordinates are given in Table 1.

r v
„

  

    

  

A-priori Geodetic Calculated Geodetic
Detail of Observation (WGS84)Co-ordinates of (WGS84)Co-ordinates of
SESSI Station point Station point
ON Dat Latitude Longitud Latitude Longitud
Duratio Heigh
e Time (29° e(77° (29° e(77°
n t (m)
(Ap 51'+) 54'+) 51'+) 54'+) Heigh
ril, t (m)
T H H H
From 200 ' " ' " ' " ' " ' "
1) o r r r

19t 1 3 5 2 4 5 0 1 0 239.3 45.7987 239.3

1 45.7988 0.8375 0.83757
h 7 1 5 6 6 5 7 5 0 912 9 848
20t 1 1 3 2 3 2 1 1 5 214.2 44.7764 119.0
2 45.4908 0.7363 0.47672
h 4 9 0 4 2 5 0 2 5 942 3 427
21s 0 3 2 1 3 3 0 5 1 235.2 45.5090 243.4
3 45.7391 0.7054 0.89779
t 4 8 0 4 1 0 9 3 0 110 3 658
1 4 3 2 1 0 0 2 3 245.1 46.0576 245.1
4 46.0577 0.8414 0.84139
8 7 0 1 3 5 2 5 5 550 7 550
22n 0 3 3 0 5 1 0 1 4 239.1 239.2
5 45.4954 0.8380 45.4954 0.83801
d 3 6 5 5 5 5 2 8 0 843 034






The planimetric position of the station point has been observed quite precisely.
Assuming the astronomic coordinates (29° 52 002North, 77° 53 522 East) of
the station point as the geodetic coordinates (since, the meridional and prime
vertical components of the deflection to vertical are very small, they can be
neglected for further consideration of this study), the observed planimetric
position of the station point may be considered quite accurate.

However, the observed values for geodetic (WGS 84) height of the station point
have been found to be very erratic. The mean calculated height (241.80225
meters) of the point is quite away from the geodetic height (207.6677 meters)
[Considering, the geodetic undulation of the station point with reference to WGS
84 ellipsoid is ±60.3323 meters and height above datum (geoid) as 268 meters].
It has also been observed that there is a great variation in geodetic height
between a-priori and calculated values and depends on the duration of
observation as well as on the period of the session. The variation is prominent if
the observation session either starts or finishes at afternoon i.e., when the
ionospheric disturbances are most severe. It has been also been found that
geodetic height increases from its a-priori value as the observation session
spreads from morning to early afternoon i.e, ionospheric disturbances changes
form stable state to most severe state. And it decreases if the condition gets
reverse. The degree of variation is more in case observation taken form most
severe disturbance state to stable state of ionosphere. These variations are
attributed to the different types of errors involved in GPS observation.

Generally, the position indicated by the GPS at a given time does not coincide
with the exact position of the apparatus. In fact, the difference between the
coordinate readings and the true values are caused by two types of errors:

È systematic error due to the GPS system itself (receiver noise and
resolution offset, receiver hardware offset etc.), which remains the same
irrespective of the measurement date and point measured; and
È random error that differs with each measurement, due to atmospheric
conditions, muti-path and shadowing effect, presence of water vapor etc.

To obtain accurate geodetic height, single point positioning can not be applied
directly. Rather, some other better method may be tried.




GPS system can be used reliably for establishing precise planimetric position of
a control point. Thus, planimetric change in position of any object or phenomena
can be studied very precisely by single point pointing of GPS receiver. For this no
previous information is necessary other than very approximate location of the
station point.

Since ionosphere is activated by solar radiation, its disturbances are much more
severe on+ GPS observation during the day time than at night. So, GPS data
should be preferably be collected at night than during day time, in single point
positioning.

A further study can be done on the accuracy of single point positioning by using
the precise ephemerides (in calculating the position of satellites).

However, other methods like relative positioning etc may be adopted which
minimises the different errors. Moreover, post processing of relative positioning
data takes into consideration the phase data of GPS observation and thus, may
improve the accuracy of control point location. Local atmospheric models may be
adopted to keep atmospheric errors least.

c!"   
The authors are grateful to Dr. P.K.Garg, Coordinator, RSPE section of Civil
Engineering Department, IIT Roorkee for providing available facilities and
infrastructure and other laboratory staff and helpers for their help and support in
carrying out the experiment.

   

 È Clark, D, 1968. ³Plane and Geodetic Surveying Vol. II´, Constable &
Company Ltd., London pp 684.
È Leica GPS- System 300 ³Guidelines to Static and Rapid Static GPS
Surveying´, May 1995.
È GPS Positioning Guide - Geomatics Canada, Geodetic Survey Division
Ottawa, Canada
È Vanicek, p and E.J. Krakiwsky, 1986 . Geodesy: the Concepts, Elsevier
Science Publishing Company Ltd pp 697.
È Defense Mapping Agency, 1987. GPS UE Relevant WGS-84 Data Base
package, Geoid height approximates in meters.
È Arnaud, M and A. Flori, ´Bias and Precision of Differential Sampling
Methods for GPS Positions´, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote
Sensing, Vol. 64, No. 6, June 1998, pp. 597-600.
È Kaplan, E.D., 1996. ³Understanding GPS: Principles and Applications´,
Artech House, USA pp 554.