Enabling ambiguity resolution in CSRS-PPP

Precise point positioning (PPP) uses precise satellite orbits, clock corrections and biases derived from a global network of reference stations to enable accurate positioning worldwide. Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Spatial Reference System (CSRS) PPP is a free Web service offering automated PPP processing. A critical factor limiting the adoption of PPP in many applications is the convergence time needed to reach centimeter-level accuracies. To address this issue, CSRS-PPP now implements PPP with ambiguity resolution (PPP-AR). This feature required the development of new algorithms, such as sequential normal stacking for least-squares filtering/smoothing, and the weighted integer decision concept for ambiguity validation. New satellite product lines (ultra-rapid, rapid, final) also have been deployed to enable PPP-AR processing with various latencies. This analysis demonstrates that sub-centimeter horizontal accuracies can be obtained in less than one hour for both static and kinematic modes. Using product lines with longer latencies is beneficial, although improvements are typically within the reported uncertainties.