Concatenation of hourly RINEX files

Abstract

A subset of stations that are part of the International GPS Service (IGS) submit hourly RINEX observation files in addition to the daily files to be used for near real time applications. Ideally, concatenating the hourly files will result in the original 24 hour file. If this is indeed the case, there is no need for submitting every observation twice and the concatenated hourly files can replace the daily file. In order to compare such concatenated files with the original daily files, each data field has to be inspected according to the RINEX format definition. Differences have to be removed before any replacement could be performed. By using a RINEX inspection software tool on a subset of stations, the concatenated version of the daily file was in agreement with the original file in 94% of the conversions. This suggests that it may be possible for IGS to completely depend on the hourly files for the creation of the daily files in the future, thereby eliminating the need for transferring each observation twice.