Sect_4.3.6

4.3.6 GPS Surveying Software:

SUMMARY OF CAPABILITIES AND FEATURES OF GPS SURVEYING SOFTWARE

In summary, the ideal software package for the processing of GPS data should have the following capabilities and features:

The ability to process data from all available receiver types quickly and efficiently using standard methods of pre-processing for data of similar types, apart from receiver-specific decoding software requirements.
The ability to process dual-frequency observations, either L1 and L2 data separately, or in various combinations.
The ability to handle all GPS field data capture scenarios, such as "rapid static", "stop & go", "kinematic", etc.
The ability to invoke automatic processing involving minimal operator intervention after an initial selection of options for "standard" accuracy applications.
The ability to estimate tropospheric parameters if required for high precision vertical surveying, or for long baseline applications.
The ability to combine data from many receivers operating simultaneously, and to process the observations in a multi-baseline solution, if required.
The ability to efficiently update previously processed solutions with additional information gained from new data, to permit incremental construction of a network solution.
The ability to exploit the inherent integer nature of the carrier phase ambiguities when processing double-differenced data collected by the receiver(s) in either static or kinematic mode, through the implementation of an efficient ambiguity resolution capability "on-the-fly".
The ability to include precise ephemerides from various sources.
The ability to assign realistic apriori weights to the observations, and ground station coordinates.
The ability to incorporate fixed control stations and derive transformation parameters that relate GPS coordinates to local geodetic coordinates.

There is as yet no such software package! Though each year we progress ever closer to the ideal.

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