Wide area differential gps reference system and method

Abstract

A GPS reference system and corresponding method utilizing a network of reference stations and a master station. Each reference station receives GPS signals from GPS satellites it observes and computes in response a pseudo-range residual for each GPS satellite it observes. The master station is in communication with the reference stations to receive the computed pseudo-range residuals and comprises a pseudo-range residual synchronizer, an ephemeris and clock correction estimator for each GPS satellite observed by the reference stations, and a transmitter. The pseudo-range residual synchronizer is responsive to the received pseudo-range residuals in order to compute clock differences between the reference stations and remove the clock differences from the received pseudo-range residuals so as to synchronize them. Each ephemeris and clock correction estimator computes an ephemeris correction and a clock correction for the corresponding GPS satellite in response to each synchronized pseudo-range residual for the corresponding GPS satellite. The transmitter transmits to users the computed ephemeris and clock corrections for each GPS satellite observed by the reference stations.