PRIDE PPP‐AR for GUI
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- The GUI version cannot handle high-frequency data above 1Hz.
- GUI version can only recognize observation files in standard naming formats.
- GUI version will not download RTS products, GLONASS broadcast ephemeris and hourly broadcast ephemeris.
- For data before 2020, the GUI version can automatically download IGS's third reprocessing product for processing, but cannot download COD/COM products before 2020. If you want to test COD/COM products, users can download and modify the corresponding configuration by themselves, see section [6.3.2](https://file+.vscode-resource.vscode-cdn.net/e%3A/bug/PRIDE-PPPAR-master/doc/PRIDE PPP-AR v3.0 manual-en-1222.md#mergeformat).
- Only support for single-day processing.
- Same as section [5.4.3](https://file+.vscode-resource.vscode-cdn.net/e%3A/bug/PRIDE-PPPAR-master/doc/PRIDE PPP-AR v3.0 manual-en-1222.md#mergeformat) step3, some stations near the coast need ocean tidal correction. Table directory of the GUI version is in the installation directory.
- The GUI version maintains the same software functionality as v2.2, so some new features added in version 3.0 are not applicable to the GUI version.
This GUI version of PRIDE PPP-AR software is based on the Linux version. The executable files used in the software are the same as the Linux version, and the products preparation process and data processing steps are also the same as the Linux version. The software can help users to use PRIDE PPP-AR on Mac system and Windows system in a friendly way.
This software can achieve most of the functions of the Linux version, and it can process the observation data of a single station in a single day at a time. However, due to the memory limitation of Windows system, you still need to use Linux version if you need to process high frequency dynamic data with sampling frequency higher than 1Hz, continuous multi-day data processing, or large batch of observation data solving.
Figure 1. Main interface of the software PRIDE PPP-AR
PRIDE PPP-AR GUI version has the following features:
- User-friendly interface for users who are not good at operating Linux systems;
- Support a variety of result files’ plotting, and support zoom, cursor and other auxiliary functions;
- The calculation results are consistent with the Linux version, and compatible with the Linux version, such as the configuration file (config) and the result files (kin, res, etc.) can be interoperable;
- Inherited most of the data processing functions of Linux version, such as hourly kinematic data processing with sampling interval greater then 1s, kinematic/static solution in a single day, etc.
- Maintain the majority of solution options as Linux version, such as support for the solutions of the five systems of GRECJ, LAMBDA algorithm, a variety of tropospheric delay estimation models, a variety of AC GNSS products and so on.
As shown in the figure, the main interface of the software has the following main sections.
- Menu bar: In the first menu bar, the “File” bar allows you to select the directory of the RINEX file where the calculation is performed, save the execution steps in the output message area, load the config file, etc.; the “Options” in the Edit bar can be used to set the parameters of the solution; the “Plot Figure” option in the “Plot” can be used for plotting after the solution; the “Help” option in “Help” can be used to go to the official website of this software.
- Workspace: mainly buttons for viewing config file in item 2, controls related to directory setting in item 3 workspace, message output area in item 4, controls related to result files’ directory in item 5, buttons for parameter setting and calculation in item 6, and buttons for saving or clearing output messages in item 7.
Figure 2 Main components of the main software interface
- Select the observation file to be processed: first click on the folder icon in the main interface and select the path where the observation file to be processed is located in the file path option dialog that pops up; then the combo box on the left side of the folder icon will have the observation file name to choose from, and select the observation file to be processed from the combo box according to the file name, or select “ALL” to process all the observation files in the working directory.
- Select the desired solution parameters: click on the Options button and set exactly the parameters such as sampling interval, dynamic or static, ambiguity fixing strategy and satellites list involved in the solution in the Options dialog, plus other options such as tropospheric estimation parameters and product options can be modified as needed. This step generates a config file equivalent to the Linux version, which can be viewed by clicking on the icon to the right of the folder icon.
- Start solving: Click the Execute button to perform PPP solving on the observation file selected in the first step and according to the solving parameters selected in the second step; during the solving process, this GUI version of PRIDE PPP-AR program will execute programs such as spp, sp3orb, redig, tedit, lsq and arsig in the same order as the Linux version to perform a series of PPP or PPP-AR operations. The solving process takes about tens of seconds, and during this process the middle whiteboard text box will display the solving steps simultaneously, in addition you can save the contents of the text box to a text file by using the Save button in the bottom right corner of the main interface, the button to the right of the Save button is to clear all the contents of the text box.
- To access the results file: you can access the results folder by clicking on the folder icon directly below the main interface, or you can click on the Plot Figure option under Plot in the menu bar at the top of the main interface to plot from the results file; in addition, you can also choose to save and clear the existing contents of the text box before solving for another observation file.
Figure 3 Output message of the solution results
The parameters in the Options dialog all correspond to the command line parameters and the config file parameters in the Linux version. The template config in the example in the Linux version of the software can also be used directly in this version of the software. When the software starts, the “.PRIDE_PPPAR_config” folder will be created under the system user folder by default, and the template config file “config_template” will be further created under it, according to which the options parameters of Options are derived.
- Interval: Sampling interval, 30s, 1s, 5s, 15s, etc. can be selected as the sampling interval of the observation data, and the user needs to select it according the actual observation file to be calculated.
- Strict Editing: refined editing options, optional YES and NO.
- Positioning mode: divided into Kinematic, Static and Fixed, that is, the kinematic mode calculates the position of each ephemeris station, which will be recorded in the kin file at the end; the static mode calculates the average position of each ephemeris and gives the variance, which will be recorded in the pos file at the end; the fixed position mode refers to the SNX file reference coordinates of the IGS to solve, and the final The calculation gives the mean position and variance, which is recorded in the pos file; it should be noted that only stations with IGS can be solved by the method of fixed position mode.
- Satellite system: the satellite system involved in the solution.
- Excluded satellites: satellites that are excluded from the list of satellites involved in the solution.
- Downweighted satellites: some satellites with reduced weights in position resolution (e.g., GEO satellites).
Figure 4 General Options
Product dir is the directory where the product is stored in Figure 5. By default, it is automatically specified as the next level of the product directory after the observation file directory is selected; you can also customize the path by mouse-clicking the folder icon on its right side.
Product options: There are satellite orbit product, satellite clock product, ERP product, quaternion product (optional) and phase deviation product, etc. If the products are missing, the software will automatically download and decompress the relevant product to the product directory under the directory where the observation file is located
Figure 5 Product Options
If you want to choose another Analysis Center product, you can also customize it by changing Default to the file name, for example in Figure 6. Besides, the options of quaternions and bias can be set as “None” if there are no such products corresponding to orbit product and clock product.
Figure 6 Using products of other AC
The broadcast ephemeris file will be automatically downloaded and extracted to the automatically created nav directory without user’s operation. If the broadcast ephemeris brdm-file is missing while online, the software will download it automatically; if it is not online, the user should download the required broadcast ephemeris brdm-file for the day in advance, create a new nav folder and put the brdm-file into it. Since the multi-system broadcast ephemeris “brdm” file did not exist in the early pre-2015 period, the software selects the “brdc” file of the GPS system for the calculation.
Software working directory: in Figure 7 the RINEX observation file directory selected in the main interface of the software must contain the observation files to be processed; then other directories will be created automatically while processing: the nav directory which holds the broadcast ephemeris, the product directory which holds the satellite product files. After processing the observation file, the result files are generated in a multi-level directory such as “2020/001/abpo” under the working directory.
Figure 7 Software Working Directory
- 2nd-order ionosphere correction: whether to correct the second order ionosphere delay.
- Troposphere mapping function: there are four options: GMF, NIE (NMF), VM1 (VMF1), VM3 (VMF3).
- ZTD model: zenith troposphere estimation methods are mainly PWC , often estimated in 60 min, and STO.
- HTG model: horizontal tropospheric gradient estimation methods, the 3 main ones are PWC, often estimated in 720 minutes, STO and NON.
Figure 8 Atmospheric Delay Options
- AR mode/Ambiguity co-var: The former is whether the ambiguity is fixed or not, i.e., the calculation is done by fixed solution or float solution; the latter is “YES”, i.e., the ambiguity is fixed by LAMBDA algorithm, and “NO”, i.e., the ambiguity is fixed by Rounding method is used to fix the fuzziness.
- Ambiguity cut-off: the cutoff mean elevation angle used to determine if the fixed ambiguity is valid.
- Ambiguity duration: the valid time duration of ambiguity fixation in seconds.
- PCO on wide-lane: whether to perform PCO corrections on MW combinations.
- Widelane round-off: bias, standard deviation, and threshold in cycle for judging wide-lane ambiguity resolution.
- Narrowlane round-off: bias, standard deviation, and threshold for determining narrow-lane ambiguity fixation, in cycle.
- Critical search: the four parameters are, the maximum number of ambiguities removed, the minimum number of ambiguities retained, the minimum value of ratio for ambiguity search and the threshold value in the LAMBDA algorithm in order.
Figure 9 Ambiguity Options
- Pseudo-range noise: pseudo-range observation noise in the unit of m.
- Phase noise: phase observation noise, in the unit of cycle.
- Tides: earth tide correction, tidal load and earth pole shift correction.
- Observation cut-off: the cutoff height angle for data preprocessing as a tedit parameter.
- A priori coordinate constraint: a priori three-dimensional sit constraint.
Figure 10 Station parameter options
By clicking on the Load config file option under the File menu bar, the config file is redirected and the settings parameters in the software Options are updated simultaneously, and subsequent solving will follow the config file selected in this step as a template. The RINEX file directory, the broadcast ephemeris file directory and the product catalog in the config file will be reset according to the directory set in the main interface.
Figure 11 Menu bar File bar
- Menu bar: At the top of the main interface is the menu bar, through the options in the File bar you can import the result file, or save the plot.
- Toolbar: Below the menu bar is the toolbar, through these icons you can adjust the style of plotting, the time interval of data display, and you can open the cursor function, etc.
- File import area: below the toolbar is the function area about file import, by clicking the button kin, res, ztd, and other result files you can plot ENU, res, elev, track, DOP, Nsats, Skyview, ztd and other plots.
- Plotting area: below the functional area of file import is the plotting area, which is composed of several tabs such as ENU, res, elev, track, DOP, Nsats, Skyview, ztd, etc. By clicking the tabs you can switch the displayed plots.
Figure 12 Plotting Interface
After importing the kin file, the software will automatically generate charts such as ENU-t, Track, DOP-t, Nsats-t. If you want to view the various types of maps, you only need to select the corresponding tab page. Kin file contains the station coordinates of positioning, the DOP value of each epoch, the number of satellites in each constellation.
The ENU-t plot shows the ENU directional deviation compared to the average coordinates of the dynamic positioning results in the kin file.
Figure 13 ENU-t chart
The planar trajectory map shows the planar trajectory of the dynamic positioning result, i.e. the trajectory map formed by converting the dynamic positioning coordinate points to the station-centered coordinate system and connecting them by ephemeral moments.
Figure 14 Position plane trajectory chart
At the top of Figure 15 is the DOP-t plot, which indicates the PDOP values for the observation period, and at the bottom of Figure 15 is the Nsats-t plot, which indicates the number of satellites involved in the solution during the observation period.
Figure 15 DOP and Nsats-t charts
After importing the res file, click on the combo box of the satellite icon in the toolbar and select the corresponding satellite system or PRN to view the overall residual chart of a satellite system or the residual chart of a single satellite, and the corresponding satellite elevation angle will also be displayed below.
Figure 16 Res and elev-t charts
After importing the res file, select the tab page of Skyview, click the combo box of the satellite icon in the toolbar, select the corresponding satellite system or PRN to view the satellite sky view, in addition, you can click the “#” icon in the toolbar to show or hide the satellite prn.
Figure 17 Satellite sky view
Import the ztd file and the software will automatically generate a ZTD plot, which contains a plot of ZDD, ZWD and the sum of the two ZTD over time in the ztd file.
Figure 18 zdd, zwd and ztd-t charts
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Cursor: Click the toolbar cursor switch button, then when the mouse moves into the plotting area, the cursor will follow the mouse and show both the horizontal and vertical axis values. If the cursor button is clicked again, the cursor will be hidden. In particular, this feature is not available for the satellite sky view.
Figure 19 Cursor function demonstration
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Frame or move data interval: Use the left mouse button to frame part of the data interval in the chart to achieve local zoom, and use the mouse wheel to zoom in locally with the mouse pointer position as the center; such as holding down the keyboard ctrl key at the same time, and hold down the left mouse button to move the chart where the mouse pointer is located left and right. In addition, the rightmost part of the toolbar has a button to restore the data display interval in the horizontal and vertical directions, click to reset the data display interval in the view respectively, while hitting the keyboard spacebar is equivalent to restore the horizontal and vertical directions at the same time.
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Change the style of the graph: the three leftmost controls of the toolbar serve to change the plotting line color, line width and scale text font, etc. In addition, you can also select the time format such as “h:\m:s” according to the first combo box on the right in Figure 6‑20.
Figure 20 Local zoom function display