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Efficiency of OPUS-RS solutions

A. D. Dogru, H. Duman, D. U. Sanli & M. M. Berber

To cite this article: A. D. Dogru, H. Duman, D. U. Sanli & M. M. Berber (2018): Efficiency of
OPUS-RS solutions, Survey Review, DOI: 10.1080/00396265.2017.1405495

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Efficiency of OPUS-RS solutions
A. D. Dogru1, H. Duman1, D. U. Sanli1 and M. M. Berber∗ 2
Today rapid-static GPS is an alternative surveying technique among other fundamental GPS
surveying methods such as real-time kinematic and static GPS. It usually finds application areas
in engineering surveying and monitoring of ground deformation for example landslides. Web-
based GPS software such as OPUS-RS which was developed by the National Geodetic Survey
(NGS) promoted further the use of the technique. NGS also provides its users the obtainable
accuracy of the OPUS-RS derived solutions. Minimum 15 min of GPS data is recommended for
rapid-static positioning and the accuracy is given accordingly. In this study, we go beyond the
typically recommended 15 min observations and examine the accuracy variation of rapid-static
OPUS positioning solutions over 8–118 min interval. Seven Continuously Operating Reference
Stations from the US are selected, and their data are segmented into the above-mentioned
shorter sessions. Statistical analyses of the CORS stations revealed that solutions from 15 min or
shorter sessions contain outliers, and this degrades the efficiency of the technique. By
extending the typical 15 min observation length up to 60 min perfectly eliminates the outliers,
and the accuracy on the average is improved by about 5–20 mm for horizontal and about
25 mm for vertical components.
Keywords: OPUS-S, OPUS-RS, global navigation satellite systems, horizontal and vertical coordinates

Introduction extended longer than 15 min. Nonetheless, it was not a

Rapid static GPS, which has been in use since the tech-
nique first emerged, is still popular today with cm accu-
racy. With careful experimental design and processing
strategy, one can even improve the accuracy level to mm
(Hastaoglu and Sanli 2011a). The technique was further
promoted with the development of web-based software
by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) researchers
(Schwarz 2008, Schwarz et al. 2009).
Lately, rapid-static positioning is usually preferred in
the monitoring of landslides (Hastaoglu and Sanli
2011a, Wang and Soler 2012). The accuracy of the tech-
nique was studied by Schwarz et al. (2009) and Hastaoglu
and Sanli (2011b). Hastaoglu and Sanli (2011b) deter-
mined the accuracy using BERNESE 5.0 software devel-
oped by the University of Bern and showed that
BERNESE rapid-static positioning accuracy depends
only on the height difference between baseline points.
Schwarz et al. (2009) studied the accuracy of OPUS-RS
(Online Positioning User Service-Rapid Static) developed
by the NGS scientists and gave the baseline dependent
accuracy both for horizontal and vertical positioning
using minimum 15 min of data. Schwarz (2008) indicated
that robustness of the GPS solutions and hence the accu-
racy improves if the observing session duration is
1
Department of Geomatic Engineering, Yildiz Technical University, Istan-
bul, Turkey
2
Department of Civil and Geomatics Engineering, California State Univer-
sity, Fresno, CA, USA
∗
Corresponding author, email muberber@csufresno.edu
detailed study assessing the effect of the outliers for vary-
ing observation durations. Current state of the art in qual-
ity assessment is given by Wielgosz (2011).
Berber et al. (2014) were able to produce results with as
minimum as 8 min sessions. They provided the accuracy
of OPUS-RS for 8–118 min sessions over a local study
area but they did not follow a systematic approach in
terms of sampling and removal of the outliers. They
used data from a few epochs of the repeated GPS obser-
vations. Therefore, as they mentioned in their work,
their results were lacking statistical significance. In this
study, using the continuous data of the US Continuously
Operating Reference Stations (CORS) we extended the
study of Berber et al. (2014) to lead better statistical
interpretations. Hence, we were also able to provide com-
parisons to the work of Schwarz (2008) and Schwarz et al.
(2009).
Experiment and analysis
In this study, the continuous data of P433, P033, P147,
P012, SG09, MHMS, and RAAP from the US CORS
network are used. The data were downloaded from the
archives of Scripps Orbit and Permanent Array Center
(SOPAC) at sopac.ucsd.edu (see Fig. 1).
From each CORS station, 3 days of continuous data for
GPS days 9, 10, and 11 in the year of 2014 were down-
loaded. The positions from 24 h sessions were obtained
using OPUS-S (Static) positioning software. The pos-
itions from three 24 h data were checked whether the
repeatability was 2–3 mm for horizontal and 4–6 mm

© 2018 Survey Review Ltd

DOI 10.1080/00396265.2017.1405495 Survey Review 2018 1
Dogru et al. Efficiency of OPUS-RS solutions

1 CORS used in this study.

for the vertical positioning. This satisfies quality concerns
published by the IGS. Then, the 3-day continuous data
was sub-divided into 8, 15, 30, 60, 90 and 118 min short
sessions. Each session was processed using the online
rapid static positioning software OPUS-RS.
OPUS-RS uses minimum nine reference stations to find
the position of a newly established GPS station (i.e. a
rover station) (Wielgosz et al. 2004, Schwarz 2008).
Note that here we consider the CORS stations listed
above as the rover points whose positions, in return, are
determined by the said minimum nine reference stations
chosen by OPUS-RS software. In Fig. 1, the reference
stations which are used to find the position of the rover
points are shown with shaded circles. The range from
the reference stations to the point of interest may vary
from a few km up to 200 km. In this project, we investi-
gated the variation of GPS rapid-static accuracy with
respect to root mean square distance (RMSD) in which
square root of sum of squares of baselines to reference
stations divided by number of baseline lengths taken
(Schwarz et al. 2009). We can perhaps simply interpret
RMSD as the mean distance to nine reference stations.
The CORS stations used were selected from densely cov-
ered western and sparsely covered central US. We were
also prudent for the wide-spread distribution of the
CORS stations. OPUS-RS analyse GPS tracking data
using a network adjustment of the reference stations
(Schwarz 2008). The combination of both P-code and
carrier phase observations of L1 and L2 are used. Tropo-
spheric and ionospheric delay parameters as well as inte-
ger ambiguities are saved from the network adjustment in
order to use them later on for rover station positioning.
The double differenced ionospheric delay and the tropo-
spheric refraction from the reference stations are spatially
interpolated to rover stations. Ambiguities are resolved
using the well-known LAMBDA method (de Jong and
Tiberius 1996). For more details, readers are referred to
Schwarz (2008).
A quality check was applied to solutions of GPS base-
line components: north, east, and vertical (up) to deter-
mine positional outliers. The mean and the standard
deviation of each solution series were computed. If the
difference between the solution and the mean value was
greater than three times the standard deviation, the

Table 1 Number of data sets produced after dividing 3-day continuous CORS data into sub-sessions. Average baseline to
reference stations used in the processing (RMSD) is also given next to the station name

Session
length MHMS RAAP P147 SG09 P012 P433 P033
[min] [62 km] [74 km] [87 km] [145 km] [154 km] [163 km] [196 km]

8 500 540 523 444 411 422 430

15 275 288 286 267 247 236 249
30 141 144 144 139 140 121 138
60 70 72 72 71 66 62 70
90 47 48 48 48 42 41 47
118 34 36 36 36 34 30 35

2 Survey Review 2018


solution was removed as an outlier. This procedure was
applied repeatedly until the final outlier is removed from
the solution series. Table 1 lists the number of solutions
produced for each unique session length obtained by
dividing the continuous data of the 7 CORS stations.
For the observation sessions of 8, 15, 30, 60, 90 and
118 min, one would expect to have 540, 288, 144, 72, 48
and 36 solutions, respectively. Note that the required
number decreases from time to time due to the fact that
OPUS-RS did not produce a solution. In our case, one
reason that OPUS-RS did not produce solution is due
to high DOP values, and this is discussed in the next sec-
tion. In the title of the table, next to each CORS station,
the root mean square distance (RMSD introduced in
Schwarz et al. 2009) is also given. As one might notice,
minimum number of solutions is 30 which is suitable for
proper statistical analysis.
Accuracy of OPUS-RS results
For the accuracy computations, OPUS-RS results derived
from short GPS sessions were not compared against the
results from other terrestrial or space techniques (i.e.
total station measurements or VLBI measurements).
Instead, the mean value of the static solutions from
three 24 h sessions was considered as the ‘truth’, and the
2 Eight-min GPS rapid static solution time series of P433 for north, east and up components.
Dogru et al. Efficiency of OPUS-RS solutions
RMS of short session solutions were computed. This con-
vention was first introduced by Eckl et al. (2001) and fol-
lowed by many, among others (Soler et al. 2006, Ozturk
and Sanli 2011, Firuzabadi and King 2012, Hayal and
Sanli 2016). The time series of 8 min solutions for the
components of north, east, and up is given for the station
P433 in Fig. 2.
Note that the time series contain positional outliers and
data gaps for each GPS baseline component. Hastaoglu
and Sanli (2011b) relate the positional outliers to the suc-
cess of the ambiguity resolution for BERNESE proces-
sing. Schwarz (2008) ascribes the occurrence of these
type of outliers to multipath effects and unmodeled tropo-
spheric effects (e.g. see page 81). Nevertheless, they did
not give detailed investigations as to RMSD and observ-
ing session duration. To fulfil this requirement, here, we
determined positional outliers for each short session
time series. Then, we prepared Table 2 to tabulate the per-
centages associated with outliers as well as data gaps due
to lack of solution for each data span and GPS baseline
component.
Table 2 reveals that the efficiency (i.e. reliability) of
GPS rapid static positioning from OPUS-RS for
stations P012 and P433 (i.e. for RMSD of 154 and
163 km) is around 90% for 8 and 15 min sessions.
This is less than the expected 95% level. This means
Survey Review 2018 3
Dogru et al. Efficiency of OPUS-RS solutions

Table 2 Outlier and data gap percentages for varying data noted the effect of the positional outliers, Berber et al.
spans and GPS baseline components. RMSD as (2014) looked at the effect of observation session using
described in Schwarz et al. (2009) is also given
only a few epochs of data, and we applied a thorough
below the station name
statistical investigation here.
Session length [min] 8 15 30 60 90 118 In an attempt to find the source of outliers and data
gaps in our solutions (see Fig. 2), we applied quality
MHMS (62 km) North (%) 4.8 2.9 1.4 0.0 2.1 0.0 checks to the RINEX files of CORS data. We used
East (%) 5.0 3.6 3.5 7.1 4.3 0.0 UNAVCO’s TEQC software to detect multipath levels
Up (%) 2.8 1.1 1.4 4.3 6.4 0.0
RAAP (74 km) North (%) 3.0 1.4 0.7 1.4 0.0 0.0
(i.e. MP1 and MP2) first. We noticed that MP1 and
East (%) 2.8 1.0 3.5 0.0 0.0 2.8 MP2 levels varied between 0.31 and 0.64 m which was
Up (%) 1.7 1.7 1.4 1.4 0.0 0.0 not actually the main source for the data gaps and outliers
P147 (87 km) North (%) 1.7 1.0 2.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 in our solution time series. Multipath levels need to be
East (%) 2.7 1.7 3.5 0.0 4.2 8.3 higher than the threshold value of 0.65 m to indicate
Up (%) 2.7 1.0 2.0 0.0 4.2 5.6 that solutions are biased due to multipath dominating at
SG09 (145 km) North (%) 3.4 3.7 3.6 1.4 0.0 2.8
East (%) 3.4 2.6 2.9 2.8 0.0 0.0
the station. Then, we checked satellite-receiver geometry
Up (%) 3.6 3.4 2.9 2.8 0.0 0.0 which is usually given with position dilution of precision
P012 (154 km) North (%) 3.2 4.5 2.1 3.0 0.0 0.0 (PDOP) values. We used Trimble’s ‘GNSS planning
East (%) 3.4 2.8 1.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 online’ software for this purpose (trimble.com/
Up (%) 4.1 3.6 1.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 GNSSPlanningOnline/#/Dops). We found out that most
P433 (163 km) North (%) 10.2 8.5 3.3 1.6 2.4 3.3 of the data gaps and outliers result from weak satellite-
East (%) 8.8 5.9 2.5 0.0 4.9 0.0
receiver geometry (i.e. high PDOP). Figure 3 shows that
Up (%) 10.0 8.1 2.5 0.0 0.0 0.0
P033 (196 km) North (%) 2.6 2.4 2.9 1.4 0.0 2.9 how high DOP values are correlated with data gaps and
East (%) 1.4 2.8 2.2 1.4 0.0 0.0 outliers of P433. Note that high DOP activity (GDOP
Up (%) 2.3 4.4 2.9 4.3 0.0 0.0 and PDOP ≥ 5.0) occurring between 12 and 18 h in the
plot causes data gaps. For the remaining time periods,
relatively lower DOP values, i.e. in the range of 4–4.5
cause outliers.
that 95% confidence level in computing positions is We carefully examined TEQC quality check reports for
degraded if observation session duration is shorter RINEX files created for 8 min sessions of P433, and
than 30 min. The reliability is guaranteed using mini- noticed that the positional outliers in our analysis were
mum 30 min sessions. In a similar study, Tut et al. induced by low-quality data. When TRIMBLE’s software
(2013) found the efficiency of BERNESE rapid-static portrays high DOP values, the number of satellites in the
positioning to be 80%. related RINEX file drops down to 6 (i.e. ranging between
When the outliers present in Table 2 are disregarded 6 and 8). At the normal times, they usually range between
(i.e. not taken into account in the accuracy compu- 9 and 12. Low satellite number is also accompanied by
tation), the accuracy obtained is shown in Fig. 4. The cycle slips from time to time leading to poorer positioning
reason of computing the accuracy without removing accuracy and even larger positional outliers (i.e. jumping
the outliers is merely to show how the user’s solution up to 40 cm high in Fig. 2). Schwarz (2008) indicates that
from a single session is biased. Note that for the base- when cycle slips occur in the data of short observations,
lines used in this study, i.e. in the approximately 60– OPUS-RS introduces additional least squares unknowns.
200 km range, 8 and 15 min solutions for all baseline Some epochs of the data are lost and hence the number of
components are biased the most. It is important to satellites further decreases because rapid static algorithm
point out that Schwarz et al. (2009) gave their accuracy deletes related segments of the data and unknowns. Then,
measures for only 15 min solutions, and this study ambiguity resolution becomes harder with additional
detects them among the least reliable observation ses- unknowns with even shorter data spans.
sions. Considering that user gathers only one single ses- One can also discern from Fig. 4 that fluctuations
sion of the observations, their positioning accuracy become stable between 60 and 118 min interval. We did
might fall into that risky 10% region. Schwarz (2008) not go into the assessment of the accuracy considering

3 Trimble’s DOP plot is highly correlated with data gaps and outliers occurring at the CORS station P433.

4 Survey Review 2018

 Dogru et al. Efficiency of OPUS-RS solutions

4 Accuracy of OPUS-RS results in the presence of outliers.

5 Comparing the accuracy from this study with that of the NGS.

Survey Review 2018 5

Dogru et al. Efficiency of OPUS-RS solutions
large height differences as done in Tut et al. (2013) merely
because in OPUS-RS the tropospheric zenith delay is esti-
mated using the continuous data of reference stations and
interpolated into the rover station.
We checked the accuracy of our 15 min solutions
against those of Schwarz et al. (2009) – see Fig. 5.
Schwarz et al. (2009) give the accuracy based on IDOP
and RMSD values. IDOP is a unitless parameter called
the interpolative dilution of precision (see pages 119 and
124 for details in Schwarz et al. 2009). Once the outliers
are removed, most of the accuracy values agree with the
ones produced in Schwarz et al. (2009). It is obvious
from the figure that the results from longer RMSD are
severely affected by outliers.
Conclusions
Thus far, the accuracy of OPUS-RS was only given for
15 min solutions. Here, we used data from CORS and
studied the effect for varying observation sessions
between 8 and 118 min. Based on our results, if a user
comes back to office employing only a single 15-min ses-
sion, their solution might contain outliers within about
10% of the chance. Error propagation in OPUS-RS is
given with respect to average baseline distance to refer-
ence (root mean square distance – RMSD) stations used
to derive rover positions. The accuracy of the results
from RMSDs longer than 150 km is degraded the most.
Eight-minute solutions show even weaker results. While
using OPUS-RS, the user does not have the chance to
choose their reference stations within certain distance
limits. The software, in that sense, is a black box. Given
the RMSD might extend up to 200–250 km in some
areas where the CORS network is sparse, the solution
would suffer more. It is well known that OPUS-S accepts
min 2 h of data. Under these circumstances; collecting
only 60 min sessions and using OPUS-RS instead, one
would guarantee a reliable solution on the average with
the accuracies of 5–10 mm for horizontal and 15 mm
for vertical coordinates.
Acknowledgements
Authors thank to IGS’s SOPAC for perfectly archived and
user friendly offered GPS data. We are also grateful to
NGS for providing international use of the OPUS soft-
ware. UNAVCO’s TEQC and Trimble’s ‘GNSS Planning
Online’ software helped us investigate the source of
6 Survey Review 2018
outliers encountered in the solutions. Finally, we thank
to the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive
comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the
author.
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