Utilizing 3-D topographical information for the quality assessment of a satellite surveying

Abstract

Fostered by the rapid development of spatial information techniques, three-dimensional topographical information (e.g., digital terrain models and digital surface models) of a higher quality is becoming accessible to the public. The main emphasis of this study is on developing a satellite visibility and quality assessment technique for a global navigation and satellite system utilizing high-resolution 3-D topographical information. An adaptive sampling and analysis procedure is proposed to increase the computational efficiency while processing high-resolution topographical data. Additionally, a unified least-squares approach is introduced to realistically model the uncertainties in satellite orbits. Finally, simulation tests and global positioning system (GPS) field work have been performed to demonstrate the performance and capability of the proposed approach. The results reveal a significant improvement in efficiency and reliability for the quality estimation of a satellite surveying. Consequently, the proposed approach will benefit applications in which a pre-evaluation of the positioning quality is of a major concern for a satellite surveying (e.g., GPS field planning or network design). © The Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com.