Application of miniaturized atomic clocks in kinematic GNSS single point positioning

Abstract

Kinematic GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) single point positioning (SPP) requires epoch-wise estimation of a receiver synchronization error w.r.t. GNSS system time. Modeling this error source improves the accuracy of the up-coordinate and makes the adjustment more robust. In this paper, we discuss the performance of three different atomic frequency standards that were characterized in terms of their frequency stabilities at Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Germany. We found significant differences to the manufacturer's data in terms of Allan deviations. In order to analyze the clock performance when connected to GNSS receivers, a static experiment was carried out at Leibniz Universität Hannover. Application of receiver clock modeling in kinematic SPP improves the RMS error of the up-coordinates up to 26% compared to epoch-wise receiver clock error estimation.