Adjustment of Transceiver Lever Arm Offset and Sound Speed Bias for GNSS-Acoustic Positioning

Abstract

Global Navigation Satellite System––Acoustic (GNSS-A) positioning is the main technique for seafloor geodetic positioning. A transceiver lever arm offset and sound velocity bias in seawater are the main systematic errors of the GNSS-A positioning technique. Based on data from a sea trial in shallow water, this paper studies the functional model of GNSS-A positioning. The impact of the two systematic errors on seafloor positioning is analysed and corresponding processing methods are proposed. The results show that the offset in the lever arm measurement should be parameterised in the observation equation. Given the high correlation between the vertical lever arm offset and the vertical coordinate of the seafloor station, a sample search method was introduced to fix the vertical offset correction. If the calibration of the sound velocity profiler cannot be ensured, the correction parameter of the sound velocity bias should be solved. According to the refined functional model and corrections, the position of a seafloor station in shallow water can be determined with a precision of better than 1 cm.