GPS Handout 3 Adama University(ADU)

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3.0 GPS ERRORS AND BIASES

Accuracy and Precision:

Before talking about errors and accuracy of GPS, we should know what Accuracy
and Precision mean?
The term accuracy refers to how close an estimate (or measurement) is to true but
unknown values. The precision refers to how close an estimate is to the mean
estimate.
GPS Pseudo Range and Carrier Phase measurements are both affected by several
types of random errors and biases.
These errors are classified as: -
a) Errors originated at Satellites
b) Errors originated at Receivers
c) Errors due to signal propagation through Atmosphere (Atmospheric Effect)
d) Geometric Location of GPS satellites also affects the accuracy (DOP)

Errors Originated at Satellite:

a) Ephemeris Errors or Orbital errors
b) Satellite Clock Errors
c) Selective Availability (SA)
Errors Originated at Receivers:
a) Receiver Clock Errors
b) Multipath Error
Errors due to Propagation of
Signal through Atmosphere
a) Ionospheric Delay
GPS Errors and Biases
b) Tropospheric Delay
Errors due to Satellite Geometrical Location in the sky

 DOP, PDOP, HDOP, VDOP, TDOP, GDOP

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3.1 Ephemeris Errors or Orbital Errors:

 Accuracy our computed position depends upon how accurately we know the
location of the satellites
 Orbit of satellites are monitored continuously from monitoring stations and their
predicted orbital information based on several GPS observations is uploaded to
satellite which in turn is broadcasted
 Overlapping 4 hours GPS data spans are used to predict fresh satellite position for
every 1 hour period
 Modeling of these is not in general perfect which causes some errors in estimation
of satellite position known as ephemeris error or orbital error
 Ephemeris errors are usually in the order of 2m to 5m and reaches up to 50 m
under Selective Availability
 Ephemeris error for a particular satellite is identical for all GPS users
 However, as different users see the same satellite at different view angle, the
effect of ephemeris error is different
 For Relative positioning, the following rule of thumb gives a rough estimate of the
effect of ephemeris errors
Base line error / Base line length = Satellite position Error / the range of satellite

 For more accurate solution of ephemeris data than broadcasted ephemeris,

many institutions such as International GPS Services for Geodynamics (IGS), US
National Geodetic Survey (NGS) and others have developed post mission orbital
services
 Precise ephemeris data is based on GPS data collected at Global GPS Network
coordinated by IGS.
 These data can be down loaded by user at any time free of cost from
www.igscb.jpl.nasa.gov/igscb/product/

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3.2 Satellite Clock Errors:
 Each GPS satellite contains four very accurate and precise atomic clocks,
two of Cesium (Cs) and two of Rubidium (Rb) standards
 New generation satellites contain Rb clocks only
 One of the onboard clocks, Cs is selected to provide frequency and timing
requirements for generating GPS signals. The others are backups
 GPS satellite clocks, although highly accurate are not perfect
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 If clock is off by one second, then there will be 3 x 10 m of error in
measuring distance because light travels at the speed of 3 x 10 8 m / s
 One billionth of second (one nanosecond) of inaccuracy in a satellite clock
results in 30 cm of error in measuring the distance.
 Their stability is about 1 – 2 parts in 10 13 over a period of one day
 This means that satellite clock errors is about 8.64 – 17.28 ns per day
because it accumulates an error of 1 ns in every three hours.
 The corresponding range error is 2.59 m – 5.18 m, which can easily be
calculated by multiplying the clock error by speed of light.
 Cs clock is tend to behave better over a longer period of time compared to
Rb clocks
 To resolve the satellite clock drift, they are continuously monitored by
ground control system and compared with master control clocks systems that are
combination of more than 10 very accurate atomic clocks.
 These errors and drift of the satellite clocks are calculated and included in
the navigational message that is broadcasted from the satellite.
 In computing the distance, the GPS receivers subtract the satellite errors
from the reported transit time to come up the true signal travel time.
 Even with the best effort of the control centers in monitoring the behavior
of each clock, their errors cannot be precisely determined.
 Any remaining clock errors accumulate typically to about few nanoseconds,
which cause distance errors of about one meter.

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3.3 Selective Availability (SA) and Anti Spoofing– Man Made Errors:
 Errors in the satellite, orbital error, atmospheric effect, receiver clock error and
multipath amount to less than 10 m of range error which under GDOP results error
of 20 m.
 US Department of Defense (DOD) has determined to provide this level of
precision to general public use
 DOD introduced man-made errors to degrade the positional accuracy of 100 m.
 This intentional degradation is called Selective Availability (SA) and is
implemented by dithering the satellite clocks and reporting the orbit of satellite
inaccurately.
 Military receivers are equipped with special hardware and codes that can
mitigate the effect of SA.
 SA can be turned ON or OFF through ground commands by administrator
 SA introduces two types of errors
a) Delta error – results from dithering the satellite clock and is
common to all users
b) Epsilon error - results from additional slowly varying orbital
error
 When SA turned On, nominal horizontal and vertical errors
can be up to 100 m and 156 m respectively
 When SA turned OFF, the nominal horizontal and vertical
accuracies would be in order of 22m and 33m respectively
 Using DGPS would overcome the effect of epsilon error
because it is similar to ephemeris error.
 In the March 1990 SA was activated and in May 2000 the
SA turned OFF.
 After 1994, the precise P-Code was encrypted by adding to
it an unknown W – Code; the resulting encrypted code is called the Y-Code which
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has the same chipping rate as the P – Code. This encryption is called Anti
Spoofing (AS)

3.4 Receiver Clock Errors:

 Similar to satellite clock error, any error in receiver clock causes inaccuracy
in distance measurement
 However, it is not possible to equip receiver with very accurate atomic
clocks as atomic clock weighs more than 20 kg and cost about $ 50, 000 and
require extensive care in temperature control
 Therefore, receiver clock is made of inexpensive crystal which is less
accurate as compared to atomic clocks on board
 A typical clock has a drift of 1000 ns every second. Receiver correct their
clock every second and adjust the receiver time to the accuracy of GPS clock
 Also, fourth unknown is used to correct receiver clock error when
measurement to all the satellites taken at same time
 For this, we put receiver at a precisely known location, and then we need to
track only one satellite to continuously calculate the receiver clock errors and
adjust it. (as other three unknowns are known for that location)

3.5 Multi Path Error:

 This is major source of error for both carrier and pseudo range measurements
 This occurs when GPS signal arriving
at receiver antenna through different paths
 Therefore, the signals are direct line of
sight signal and reflected signals from the
object surrounding the receiver antenna
 The direct line of sight signal is
distorted through the interference with the
reflected signal
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 Interference causes an uncertainty about the true signal arrive time much same
way has eco of sound, resulting inaccuracy in range measurements
 It affect both the carrier phase and pseudo range measurements, however, it is
much larger in pseudo range measurements
 The size of the carrier phase multi path can reach a maximum value of 4.8 cm
for L1 carrier
 The pseudo range multipath can theoretically reach several tens of meters for
the C/A code measurements. However, with the advancement of receiver
technology, actual pseudorange multipath is reduced dramatically.
There are two way to reduce the effect of multipath: -

i) Signal Processing Technique – where data is analyzed to separate

the direct signal from indirect signal. It is applicable for reflected signal coming
from the object having distance more than 10 m from the receiver antenna. If it is
less than 10 m then the two signals cannot be differentiated.

ii) By The Use of Choke Ring Antenna - it is a device that has several
concentric metal hoops, which rejects the signal that hits the bottom side of the
antenna an allows only those signals to hit the antenna coming from direct line of
sight.

3.6 Atmospheric Effect:

 Signal travel time is measured to calculate the distance of satellite
from the receiver which is multiplied with speed of light
 The speed of light varies due to atmospheric conditions.

3.6.1 Ionospheric Delay:

 At the upper most part of the atmosphere, Ultra Violet (UV) and X-rays from
sun interacts with gaseous molecules and atoms. These interaction results in gas
ionization and that is why this region is called Ionosphere
 It extends from altitude of approximately 50 km to about 1000 km or even
more
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 The electron density within the Ionospheric region is not constant, it changes
with altitude.

Depending upon the Electron density and Altitude, the Ionosphere is divided intro
four sub-regions
Sub Region Altitude
D 50-90 Km
E 90-140 Km
F1 140 – 210 Km
F2 210 – 1000 Km
F2 layer is layer of maximum electron density.
 The altitude and thickness of these layers vary with time as a result of change
in Sun’s radiation and earth’s magnetic field. E.g. F1 layers disappears during night
and is more pronounced in summer than winter
 Ionosphere is dispersive medium; it bends the GPS signals and changes its
speed.
 It speeds up the carrier wave beyond the speed of light and slows down the
code by the same amount
 Meaning Satellite – Receiver Distance = Too long when measured with
Code
= Too short if measured by carriers
 The Ionospheric delay is proportional to the number of free electron along the
GPS signal path called Total Electron Content (TEC)
 TEC depends upon
i) Time of day (electron density reaches max. during mid day and min.
at midnight)
ii) Time of Year (electron density is higher in winter than summer)
iii) The 11 years Solar Cycle (electron density level reaches a maximum
value after every 11 years. 1998 was maximum peak year.
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iv) The geographic location (electron density is minimum in mid latitude
region and highly irregular in polar and equator regions)

 Impact of Ionospheric effect on signal depends upon the

frequency of the signal. Higher the frequency, lesser be the impact.
L1 carrier is having frequency of 1575.42 MHz
L2 carrier is having frequency of 1227.60 MHz
Therefore, L2 Ionospheric delay is more than that of L1
 Generally, Ionospheric Delay is in order of 5 m to 15 m
 The electron density varies with time and location, differencing the GPS
observations over relatively short distance and different time removes the
Ionospheric effect significantly.
 With the approximate knowledge of electron density – the effect of
Ionospheric delay is reduced by 50 % through use of Model called Klobucher
Model whose coefficients are transmitted from the satellites along with signal
message.
 By use of Duel Frequency Receiver which tracks both L1 and L2, Ionospheric
effect can be removed.

3.6.2 Tropospheric Delay:

 The layer of atmosphere up to 50 km is called troposphere. This contains
water vapor as main components
 It slows both codes and carriers, therefore dual frequency cannot remove
this error
 Only way is to remove Tropospheric delay is by measuring water vapor
contents along with temperature and pressure and applying a mathematical model
to compute the Tropospheric delay

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 It is about 2.3 m at the zenith (satellite directly overhead) and about 9.3 m
for 150 elevation angle and about 20 – 28 m for 50 elevation angle

3.7 Satellite Geometry Measures – Dilution of Precision (DOP):

 The various types of errors and biases discussed earlier directly affect the
accuracy of the computed GPS position
 Proper modeling of those errors and biases and or appropriate combination
of GPS observable will improve the positional accuracy
 However, these are not the only factors that affect the GPS accuracy. The
satellite geometry, which represents the geometrical locations of the GPS satellites
as seen by receiver plays a very important role in the total positioning accuracy
 The better the satellite geometry strength, the better the obtained positional
accuracy
 Good satellite geometry is obtained when the satellites are spread over the
sky. In general, the more the spread out the satellite are in the sky, the better the
satellite geometry and vice versa
 The above figure shows a simple graphical explanation of satellite geometry
effect using two satellites. In such case, the receiver will be located at the
intersection of two arcs of circles – each has a radius equal to the receiver –
satellite distance and centre at satellite itself
 Because of the measurement errors, the measured receiver-satellite distance
will not be exact and an uncertainty region on both sides of the estimated distance
will be present.
 Combining the measurements from the two satellites, it can be seen that
receiver will in fact located some where within the uncertainty area, the hatched or
shaded area in the figure.

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Good Satellite Geometry Poor Satellite Geometry

 It is known from the statistics that for a certain probability level, if the size
of the uncertainty area is small, the computed receiver’s position will be precise.
 As shown in the figure, if the two satellites are far apart, the size of the
uncertainty area will be small resulting in good satellite geometry. Similarly, if the
two satellites are close to each other, the size of uncertainty area will be large,
resulting in poor satellite geometry
 The satellite geometry effect can be measured by a single dimensionless
number called Dilution of Precision (DOP). The lower the value of DOP number,
the better the geometric strength and vice versa.
 The DOP number is calculated based on the relative satellite- receiver
coordinates. Because of the relative motion of satellite and receiver ( in case of
rover receiver), the value of DOP will change over the time.
 In practice, various DOP forms are used, depending upon the user needs.
E.g. for general GPS positioning purposes, a user may be interested in examining
the effect of satellite geometry on the quality of the resulting 3D position
(Latitude, Longitude and Height). This could be done by examining the value of
Position Dilution of Precision (PDOP)
 In other words PDOP represents the contribution of the satellite geometry to
the 3D positional accuracy
 PDOP can be broken into two components, Horizontal Dilution of
Precision (HDOP) and Vertical Dilution of Precision (VDOP)
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 The former represents the satellite geometry effect on horizontal component
of the positional accuracy while the later represents the satellite geometry effect
on the vertical component of the positional accuracy.
 Because the GPS user can track only those satellites, which are above the
horizon, VDOP will always be higher than HDOP.
 As a result, GPS height solution is expected to be less precise than the
horizontal solution
 Other commonly used DOP forms include the Time Dilution of Precision
(TDOP) and Geometrical Dilution of Precision (GDOP). The GDOP represents
the combined effect of the PDOP and the TDOP.


 To ensure high precision GPS positioning, it is recommended that a suitable

observation time is selected to obtain a highest possible accuracy
 A PDOP of five or less is usually recommended. Most GPS softwares have
ability to predict the satellite geometry based on the user’s approximate location
and approximate satellite locations obtained from recent almanac file for the GPS
constellation.
 The almanac file is obtained as part of navigation message and can be
downloaded free of cost over the Internet.

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