Monitoring the Short-term Variations in the Stability of the Nigerian GNSS CORS Diurnal Coordinates

Abstract

Positioning, based on GNSS reference network technology, is becoming a routine operation within and outside the spatial industry. The expanding user base and diverse range of applications employing this technology can impose significant expectations on the providers of reference network services. In positioning and navigation, the requirement for high accurate coordinate estimates cannot be over-emphasized. This is ensured by the provision of accurate and reliable corrections from the zero-order GNSS reference stations. It is therefore expedient to study the diurnal coordinates of such stations to guarantee reliable information for positioning and navigation applications. In this study, observation data from the Nigerian permanent GNSS continuously operating reference stations located at different states around Nigeria was processed. The hourly and diurnal (daily) coordinate solutions obtained were analysed for the purpose of monitoring the short-term stability of the network coordinates using a two-year (2012-2013) test data. The daily precise point positioning results were processed, analysed, and presented as coordinate time series using RTKPLOT. Python programming language was used to write custom modules to visualize the time series graphs at 30 seconds epochs in order to determine points and epochs where and when the condition for stability defaulted. The stations; FPNO, GEMB, and MDGR were found to be most stable in the Easting component; GEMB and MDGR were the most stable in the Northing component while in the Up component the station GEMB was the most stable. The outcome of the study will assist in detecting stations that are non-operational, performing diurnal PPP processing to detect stations that are unstable, and reporting reference stations that experience sudden coordinate changes. The developed monitoring module can be implemented by the reference stations operators as an automated program for setting up an intelligent alert system to trigger a warning whenever there is unexpected coordinate breach.