Performance analysis of multi-GNSS PPP for accurate ship-borne positioning in Antarctic region

This study evaluates the performance of multi-constellation GNSS Precise Point Positioning (PPP) for offshore kinematic observations in the challenging environment of Antarctica using the data collected on a moving ship during the 6th Turkish Antarctic Expedition in 2022. The analysis involved two open-source PPP software solutions, PRIDE PPP-AR, and Ginan, which were used to process GNSS data from both GPS-only and multi-GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou) constellations. The results indicate that PRIDE PPP-AR generally provided better horizontal and vertical positional accuracy than Ginan software, achieving improvements of up to approximately 33% in height component root mean square error (RMSE) for both constellation solutions. While the mean value of horizontal position differences for PRIDE PPP-AR in multi-GNSS solution was 4 cm, while 5 cm for Ginan. The anticipated advantages of multi-GNSS over GPS-only solutions were not consistently observed for Ginan software in 2D position and height components. However, PRIDE PPP-AR demonstrated improved internal consistency with multi-GNSS solution, achieving an RMSE value of 5 cm for horizontal positioning compared to 6 cm for Ginan. The general results of the study reveal that the PPP technique, which does not require any reference station’s GNSS data, can achieve almost the same accuracy as the differential positioning technique. With this superiority, the PPP technique is an ideal positioning technique, especially in remote marine environments and polar regions, where geodetic infrastructure is inadequate and environmental conditions are difficult