Real-Time GPS/Galileo Precise Point Positioning Using NAVCAST Real-Time Corrections

Real-time precise point positioning (PPP) is possible through the use of real-time precise satellite orbit and clock corrections, which are available through a number of organizations including the International GNSS Service (IGS) real-time service (IGS-RTS). Unfortunately, IGS-RTS is only available for the GPS and GLONASS constellations. In 2018, a new real-time service, NAVCAST, which provides real-time precise orbit and clock corrections for the GPS and Galileo constellations, was launched. In this research, the potential performance of real-time PPP which makes use of NAVCAST real-time corrections is analyzed using various static and kinematic datasets. In the static dataset, 24 hours of observations from eight IGS stations in Canada over three different days were utilized. The static results show that the contribution of Galileo satellites can improve the positioning accuracy, with 30%, 34%, and 31% in east, north, and up directions compared to the GPS-only counterparts. In addition, centimeter-level positioning accuracy in the horizontal direction and decimeter-level positioning accuracy in the vertical direction can be achieved by adding Galileo observations. In the kinematic dataset, a real vehicular test was conducted in urban and suburban combined areas. The real-time kinematic GPS/Galileo PPP solutions demonstrate an improvement of about 53%, 45%, and 70% in east, north, and up directions compared to the GPS-only counterparts. It is shown that the real-time GPS/Galileo PPP can achieve a sub-decimeter horizontal positioning accuracy and about meter-level vertical positioning accuracy through the use of NAVCAST real-time corrections.