The single-frequency precise point positioning (PPP) technique has attracted increasing attention due to its high accuracy and low cost. However, a very long convergence time, normally a few hours, is required in order to achieve a positioning accuracy level of a few centimeters. In this study, an approach is proposed to accelerate the single-frequency PPP convergence by combining quad-constellation global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and global ionospheric map (GIM) data. In this proposed approach, the GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, and Galileo observations are directly used in an uncombined observation model and as a result the ionospheric and hardware delay (IHD) can be estimated together as a single unknown parameter. The IHD values acquired from the GIM product and the multi-GNSS differential code bias (DCB) product are then utilized as pseudo-observables of the IHD parameter in the observation model. A time varying weight scheme has also been proposed for the pseudo-observables to gradually decrease its contribution to the position solutions during the convergence period. To evaluate the proposed approach, datasets from twelve Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) stations on seven consecutive days are processed and analyzed. The numerical results indicate that the single-frequency PPP with quad-constellation GNSS and GIM data are able to reduce the convergence time by 56%, 47%, 41% in the east, north, and up directions compared to the GPS-only single-frequency PPP.

High-rise buildings are susceptible to wind-induced displacements, which can be precisely monitored by using GPS technology. However, GPS monitoring applications may be subject to signal interference and high hardware costs. This study presents a new wind-induced vibration monitoring approach that is based on the mixed use of high-rate and low-rate GPS receivers. In the proposed approach, high-rate receivers are only required in the monitoring stations, where we apply time-differenced positioning to obtain position changes between adjacent epochs. The derived high-rate monitoring station position changes are then integrated with low-rate single epoch relative positioning results between the monitoring and reference stations. Experimental results with both simulated and real data show that the proposed method has a comparable performance with the traditional relative positioning approach, in terms of determining buildings’ vibration frequency, displacement, and acceleration.

This study assessed the satellite orbit and clock corrections of the L‐band experiment (LEX) signal correction messages broadcasted by the Japan Quasi‐Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) by comparing them with those of the international global navigation satellite system (GNSS) service real‐time (IGS‐RT) products. Using datasets collected at a fixed static station and a kinematic vehicle experiment, the authors evaluated the application of multi‐GNSS advanced demonstration of orbit and clock analysis (MADOCA) products in precise point positioning (PPP) through static and kinematic data processing modes. The results show that the MADOCA‐LEX products bring slightly larger root mean square and standard deviation of three‐dimensional positions than the IGS‐RT products. For kinematic PPP positioning, the convergence time was longer than IGS‐RT products. However, from the global scope, the positioning accuracy of the MADOCA‐LEX products, at a level of 20 cm, is comparable with that of the IGS‐RT products, which satisfies the need of global PPP.

Higher-order ionospheric error may reach several millimetres in the case of high ionospheric activity, which affects some high-accuracy applications, such as crustal movement monitoring, earthquake disaster prediction, plate motion monitoring and coordinate frame maintenance. However, accounting for higher-order ionospheric error is not yet a common strategy for regional global navigation satellite system (GNSS) network data processing. This study investigates the higher-order ionospheric effects on precise point positioning (PPP) in the China area with GNSS data selected from some IGS stations and some CMONOC stations. The Bernese GNSS software was used to calculate the effects of higher-order ionospheric error on the PPP estimated coordinates. The numerical results show that higher-order ionospheric positioning errors become larger as the station latitude decreases or the ionospheric activity increases. In addition, the positioning errors in the north direction are larger than those in the east and up directions and may reach 6 mm in south China.