Determination of the Effect of Height Component on Global Positioning System (GPS) Signals

ABSTRACT

This research focuses on the effect of height components and how it affects the quality of signals received during observation. Data was downloaded in RINEX compact format, and converted into RINEX readable format using RunPKr script. This enabled the RINEX observation and navigation data to be processed in RTKLib by changing the height component in the software and getting the corresponding values for easting, northing and height at 2m, 4m, 6m, 8m and 10m. Since the observation was carried out in time series with 1 sec. interval, the height value of the point for the first 20 sec. showed that the signal was not affected by any phenomena. As this observation went on toward the last 20 sec., a declined in the height value occurred. Although there were differences in the height values observed, the values obtained for each sec. was used in Microsoft Excel to find the Most Probable Value (MPV) of each height component. The results were further analysed using SPSS 17 to find the Standard deviation, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and standard mean error. From the statistical analysis, it was found that there is no difference in the nothing, 0.01m difference in the easting and 2m difference in the height. The best accuracy was obtained for height component from 0m to 4m. even though the difference in observation is insignificant. Hence, it is concluded that the height component has little or no effect on the quality of signals obtained. To yield a better result, multiple observation is therefore recommended which should range from 0m to 4m in the height component.