An assessment of seasonal variations in the cref cors at the University of Lagos
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University of Lagos
Department of Surveying and Geoinformatics
Lagos, Nigeria
Submission date: 2020-01-24
Final revision date: 2020-03-16
Acceptance date: 2020-03-17
Publication date: 2020-03-31
Geomatics, Landmanagement and Landscape 2020;(1)
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ABSTRACT
Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) are reference stations of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), providing fundamental positioning infrastructure that is accurate and reliable. As such, CORS are designed to meet the needs of a wide range of users requiring high three-dimensional (3D) positional accuracy. The Continuously Operating Reference Station at the Engineering Faculty (CREF), University of Lagos was set up in order to support research applications in Surveying, Mapping and Geodesy. This study evaluates the seasonal variations in the 3D coordinates of CREF using metrics such as coordinate differences, Standard Deviation (SD) and Standard Error (SE). The Canadian Spatial Reference System (CSRS), known as CSRS – Precise Point Positioning (CSRS-PPP) was used to compute the station’s daily coordinates over a three-year period from 2016 to 2018. In the analysis, the daily coordinates were divided into two seasons - the wet and the dry. The results obtained show that the dry and the wet seasons had SDs (5.4 mm, 3.9 mm, and 2.0 mm) and (5.2 mm, 18.6 mm and 14.4 mm) in the x, y and z-directions respectively. Generally, the dry season presents a better result than the wet season as revealed by the accuracy metrics. These results have led to an increased understanding of the seasonal variability inherent in the data acquired by GNSS CORS, and must be taken into consideration: in particular, for GNSS applications such as the weather prediction and water vapour estimation. This study concludes that more needs to be done regarding the maintenance of CREF to ensure data continuity and reliability for geodetic studies.