Carrier phase-based ionospheric observables using PPP models

The ionosphere is one of the major error sources in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning, navigation and timing. Estimating the ionospheric delays precisely is of great interest in the GNSS community. To date, GNSS observables for ionospheric estimation are most commonly based on carrier phase smoothed code measurements. However, leveling errors, which affect the performance of ionospheric modeling and differential code bias (DCB) estimation, exist in the carrier phase smoothed code observations. Such leveling errors are caused by the multipath and the short-term variation of DCB. To reduce these leveling errors, this paper investigates and estimates the ionospheric delays based on carrier phase measurements without the leveling errors. The line-of-sight ionospheric observables with high precision are calculated using precise point positioning (PPP) techniques, in which carrier phase measurements are the principal observables. Ionosphere-free and UofC PPP models are applied and compared for their effectiveness to minimize the leveling errors. To assess the leveling errors, single difference of ionospheric observables for a short baseline is examined. Results show that carrier phase-derived ionospheric observables from PPP techniques can effectively reduce the leveling errors. Furthermore, we compared the PPP ionosphere estimation model with the conventional carrier phase smoothed code method to assess the bias consistency and investigate the biases in the ionospheric observables.