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GPS Carrier Phase Ambiguity Fixing Concepts

This document summarizes concepts for fixing carrier phase ambiguity in GPS positioning. It discusses integer least squares adjustment and testing to estimate and validate ambiguity solutions. It introduces invertible ambiguity transformations that can decorrelate ambiguities and make the integer least squares problem easier to solve. The integer least squares ambiguity decorrelation adjustment method reparametrizes the problem to obtain a formulation with decorrelated ambiguities, trivializing the search. Examples show how this flattens the spectrum of conditional variances.

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56 views2 pages

GPS Carrier Phase Ambiguity Fixing Concepts

This document summarizes concepts for fixing carrier phase ambiguity in GPS positioning. It discusses integer least squares adjustment and testing to estimate and validate ambiguity solutions. It introduces invertible ambiguity transformations that can decorrelate ambiguities and make the integer least squares problem easier to solve. The integer least squares ambiguity decorrelation adjustment method reparametrizes the problem to obtain a formulation with decorrelated ambiguities, trivializing the search. Examples show how this flattens the spectrum of conditional variances.

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Oscar Silva
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8.

GPS CARRIER PHASE AMBIGUITY FIXING


CONCEPTS

Peter lG. Teunissen


Department of Geodetic Engineering, Delft University of Technology,
Thijsseweg 11, 2629 JA Delft, The Netherlands

8.1 INTRODUCTION

High precision relative GPS pOSitioning is based on the very precise carrier
phase measurements. A prerequisite for obtaining high precision relative
positioning results is that the double-differenced carrier phase ambiguities
become sufficiently separable from the baseline coordinates. Different
approaches are in use and have been proposed to ensure a sufficient separability
between these two groups of parameters. In particular the approaches that
explicitly aim at resolving the integer-values of the double-differenced
ambiguities have been very successful. Once the integer ambiguities are
successfully fixed, the carrier phase measurements will start to act as if they
were high-precision pseudorange measurements, thus allowing for a baseline
solution with a comparable high precision. The fixing of the ambiguities on
integer values is however a non-trivial problem, in particular if one aims at
numerical efficiency. This topic has therefore been a rich source of GPS-research
over the last decade or so. Starting from rather simple but timeconsuming integer
rounding schemes, the methods have evolved into complex and effective
algorithms.
Among the different approaches that have been proposed for carrier phase
ambiguity fixing. are those documented in Counselman an Gourevitch [1981],
Remondi [1984; 1986; 1991], Hatch [1986; 1989; 1991], Hofmann-Wellenhof
and Remondi [1988]. Seeber and Wiibbena [1989], Blewitt [1989], Abott et al.
[1989], Frei and Beutler [1990], Euler and Goad [1990], Kleusberg [1990], Frei
[1991], Wiibbena [1991], Euler and Landau [1992], Erickson [1992], Goad
[1992], Teunissen [1993a; 1994a,b], Hatch and Euler [1994], Mervart et al.
[1994], De longe and Tiberius [1994], Goad and Yang [1994].
The purpose of the present lecture notes is to present the theoretical concepts
of the GPS ambiguity fixing problem, to formulate procedures of solving it and
to outline some of the intricacies involved. Several examples are included in the
lecture notes for both quantitative as well as qualitative purposes. To gain a firm
footing with the GPS ambiguity fixing problem, it is cast in the familiar
framework of least-squares adjustment and testing theory. Starting from the
double-differenced carrier phase observation equations, the section 8.2 Integer
Least-Squares Adjustment and Testing presents an overview of both the

P. J. G. Teunissen et al. (eds.), GPS for Geodesy


© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1998
320 Peter J. G. Teunissen

ambiguity estimation part as well as the ambiguity validation part of the GPS
ambiguity fixing problem. It shows how the fixed solution can be arrived at via
the float solution and it shows how both these solutions can be validated.
In section 8.3 Search for the Integer Least-Squares Ambiguities two concepts
for numerically solving the integer least-squares problem, are discussed. The first
concept is based on using the ellipsoidal planes of support and the other is based
on using a sequential conditional least-squares adjustment of the ambiguities. In
case of short observational time span based carrier phase data, both concepts -
when applied to the traditional double-differenced ambiguities - suffer from the
fact that the least-squares ambiguities are highly correlated. In order to
corroborate this, quantitative indications are given of the elongation of the
ambiguity search space, the precision and correlation of the least-squares
ambiguities and of the signature of the spectrum of conditional variances. The
poor performance of the search is also exemplified by means of both an
analytical example as well as an illustrative numerical example.
In section 8.4 The Invertible Ambiguity Transformations the concept of integer
ambiguity reparametrization is introduced. Starting from the nonuniqueness of
the double-differenced ambiguities and the idea of considering linear
combinations of the double-differenced carrier phase observables, the class of
invertible single-channel ambiguity transformations is identified and then
generalized to the multi-channel case. The importance of this class is that it
provides significant leeway to influence the dependence of the double-
differenced ambiguity variance-covariance matrix on the design matrix
containing the receiver-satellite geometry. Members from this class allow one to
replace the original integer least-squares problem with an equivalent formulation
that is much easier and hence much faster to solve.
In section 8.5 The LSQ Ambiguity Decorrelation Adjustment it is shown how
the original integer least-squares problem can be reparametrized so as to obtain
a formulation which is easier to solve. The basic idea that lies at the root of the
method - both in the construction of the ambiguity transformation as in the
formulation of the search bounds - is that integer least-squares ambiguity
estimation becomes trivial once all least-squares ambiguities are fully
decorrelated. Although the integer nature of the ambiguities generally prohibits
a full decorrelation of the ambiguities, the presence of the discontinuity in the
spectrum of conditional variances still enables one to decorrelate the ambiguities
to a large extent. It is shown how the decorrelation can be achieved by means
of using integer approximations of the fully decorrelating conditional least-
squares transformations. Results of the decorrelation are shown in terms of the
elongation of the transformed ambiguity search space, the precision and
correlation of the transformed least-squares ambiguities, and the flattened and
lowered spectrum of transformed conditional variances. The section is concluded
with both a qualitative and quantitative based discussion on the characteristics
of the GPS spectrum.

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