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Medium Scale Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances (MSTIDs) are quasi-wavelike structures in ionospheric density that can be sensed using Global Navigational Satellite Service (GNSS) Total Electron Content (TEC) techniques and coherent scatter radars such as the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN). MSTIDs, especially those observed during quiet times and on the night side, have been known to be driven by electrodynamic instability processes, such as the Perkins instability. In this work, SuperDARN is used in conjunction with GNSS TEC data to investigate MSTIDs during a major geomagnetic storm on September 7-8th, 2017. The interval of this study is in the North American region between 23UT and 3UT, during the peak of the storm, when Kp reached 9. MSTIDs during the interval were investigated by previous studies. However, the roles of electrodynamic instability processes and atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) in driving the MSTIDs were not determined. GNSS TEC fluctuations associated with the MSTIDs were strong, reaching up to half of background TEC. In SuperDARN, MSTID signatures were observed in power measurements. Meanwhile, SuperDARN line-of-sight (LOS) plasma velocity corresponding to MSTID structures exceeded $pm$500 m/s. This systemic change in the polarity of SuperDARN LOS velocities is indicative of strong polarization electric fields and therefore driving electrodynamic instability processes. This work therefore presents signatures of storm time electrified MSTIDs in mid-latitude North America. / Master of Science / The upper atmosphere contains a region called the ionosphere, where ionized gas called plasma exists. This plasma can be sensed using satellites and ground-based receivers. Specifically, Global Navigational Satellite Service constellations, such as GPS, are good candidates for this technique. This method yields a column density measurement of electrons and is known as GNSS TEC. Most of the time, GNSS TEC is used in a low resolution format, but a high-resolution format is available. This high-resolution GNSS TEC allows for smaller structures in the ionosphere to be investigated. Ionospheric plasma can also be sensed using ground based radar systems, such as the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN). Combining GNSS TEC and SuperDARN allows for investigation of disturbed structures in the Ionosphere. These structures include wave-like behavior, with time scales under 30 minutes, called Medium Scale Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances (MSTIDs). When these MSTIDs are investigated during times where the Sun is especially active, some unexpected results are found. Most importantly, SuperDARN radars see plasma velocity behave as if it is affected by MSTID structures. This suggests that the buoyancy force which drives the MSTIDs is an electric force instead of a pressure gradient. This behavior has been shown before, but only at night times, specifically when the Sun is not as active. Therefore, this work presents a new kind of MSTIDs.

Ao se efetuar levantamentos utilizando a tecnologia GNSS, o processamento desses dados, bem como uma análise dos fatores oriundos dos processamentos e a correta interpretação dos resultados obtidos, consiste em fator primordial para se definir a qualidade de um levantamento. Contudo, os resultados estatísticos fornecidos pelos softwares comerciais após o processamento e ajustamento dos dados, apesar de garantir maior confiabilidade aos levantamentos, não fornecem a acurácia das coordenadas encontradas, apresentando apenas a sua precisão. Assim, este trabalho tem por objetivo final, fornecer uma tabela onde seja possível, através de uma comparação dos resultados oriundos dos processamentos, classificar a acurácia dos mesmos. Para tanto, foram efetuados os processamentos e ajustamentos de dados inerentes as quatro estações do ano, durante os anos de 2006, 2007 e 2008, e após adequada análise dos mesmos, foi implementada uma Tabela de Acurácia Recomendada, onde os profissionais da área de mensuração poderão, através de uma comparação entre os relatórios de processamento fornecidos e os itens da referida tabela, efetuar a classificação da acurácia dos trabalhos de interesse. / When making surveys using GNSS technology, the processing of these data, as well as an analysis of the factors resulting from the processing and the correct interpretation of results, is to prime factor for defining the quality of a survey. However, the statistics provided by commercial software after processing and adjustment of the data, while ensuring high reliability of surveys, do not provide the accuracy of the coordinates found, showing only its precision. This paper aims to provide a table where possible, by comparing the results from the processing, The classification accuracy of them. To do so, we made adjustments and the processing of data relating the four seasons, during the years 2006, 2007 and 2008, and after proper analysis of the same purpose, a Table of Accuracy Recommended where professionals in the area of measurement may, through a comparison between the reports provided and processing the items of the tariff, to perform the classification accuracy of the work of interest.

O presente estudo tem como objetivo principal analisar o contexto tectônico e geodinâmico do Pantanal, a partir de dados provenientes dos Sistemas Globais de Navegação Por Satélite (GNSS). Essa dissertação é estruturada no formato de dois artigos. Para tanto, foram usados dados geodésicos de monitoramento contínuo e periódicos. No primeiro capítulo discute-se a compartimentação tectônica atual da Bacia do Pantanal com base em dados geodésicos e integração com dados sismológicos, lineamentos estruturais e modelos de velocidade para placa Sul-americana. Os resultados mostram que grande parte da bacia está sendo alçada, ao passo que o seu entorno e a parte sul estão sendo rebaixados, conforme sugerem os valores da componente Up (vertical). Este comportamento pode ser explicado pela presença de falhas normais E-W ou de falhas oblíquas ENE com componente extensional para sul, as quais em ambos os casos são coincidentes com a orientação de lineamentos cartografados a partir de imagens de satélites na Bacia do Pantanal. No segundo capitulo é apresentada uma análise das variações das altitudes geodésicas, causadas por imposição de carga em superfície. Os resultados indicam que os deslocamentos possuem amplitude que varia de 40 a 140 milímetros por ano, corroborando a hipótese de que os pulsos de cheia e seca no Pantanal que apresentaram amplitudes de 3,6 a 7,6 metros têm relação direta com os deslocamentos nas altitudes GNSS. Além disso, é proposto que a imposição de carga em superfície, imposta pelos rios que compõem o Pantanal e registradas nos dados GNSS, pode estar agindo como um gatilho para desencadear a sismicidade registrada na bacia. / The main objective of this study was to analyze the Pantanal\'s tectonic and geodynamic context, based on data from the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). This dissertation is structured in the format of two articles. For this purpose, continuous and periodic geodetic data were used. The first chapter discusses the current tectonic compartmentalization of the Pantanal Basin, based on geodetic data and integration with other data sources like seismic, structural lineaments and velocity models for South American plate. The results show that a large part of the basin is being raised, while its surroundings and the southern part are being lowered, as suggested by the values of the Up component. This behavior can be explained by the presence of normal EW faults or oblique faults ENE with extensional component to the south, which in both cases are coincident with the orientation of lineaments mapped from satellites images in the Pantanal Basin. In the second chapter, an analysis of the variations of the geodesic altitudes caused by surface loading is presented. The results indicate that the displacements have an amplitude ranging from 40 to 140 millimeters per year, corroborating the idea that the flood and dry pulses in the Pantanal that presented amplitudes of 3.6 to 7.6 meters have direct relation with the displacements in the GNSS altitudes. In addition, it was proposed that the surface loading, imposed by the Pantanal rivers, and recorded in the GNSS data, may be acting as a trigger for the seismicity observed in the basin.

GNSS Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) is an opportunistic Earth sensing technique where GNSS signals passing through the atmosphere are received in low Earth orbit and processed to extract meteorological parameters. As signals are received along an orbit, the measured Doppler shift is transformed to a bending angle profile (commonly referred to as bending angle retrieval), which, in turn, is inverted to a refractivity profile. Thanks to its high vertical resolution and SI traceability, GNSS-RO is an important complement to other Earth sensing endeavors. In the lower troposphere, GNSS-RO measurements often get degraded and biased due to sharp refractive gradients and other complex structures. The main objective of this thesis is to explore contemporary retrieval methods such as phase matching and full spectrum inversion to improve their performance in these conditions. To avoid the bias caused by the standard inversion, we attempt to derive additional information from the amplitude output of the examined retrieval operators. While simulations indicate that such information could be found, it is not immediately straightforward how to achieve this with real measurements. The approach chosen is to examine reflected signal components and their effect on the amplitude output.

Os sistemas de aumento, conhecidos como SBAS (Satellite-Based Augmentation System) fornecem informações de integridade e acurácia em tempo real para seus usuários, utilizando-se das correções diferenciais que são transmitidas pelos satélites geoestacionários e estão disponíveis em algumas regiões do globo terrestre. Fora da sua região de abrangência o sistema ainda não disponibiliza os dados de correção em tempo real. Entretanto, o sinal é transmitido na mesma frequência L1 do GPS, o qual fica disponível aqui no Brasil, e alguns receptores GNSS possuem canais de frequência especifica que captam este sinal, com a perspectiva de que os dados destes satélites melhoram as condições do rastreio, além da melhoria na acurácia das coordenadas. Partindo deste princípio, foi utilizada a observável fase da onda portadora (L1) para inferir sobre a sua contribuição para o posicionamento. Os rastreios foram realizados em diferentes localidades devido à elevação dos satélites SBAS variar em função da latitude e longitude. Contudo, este estudo foi direcionado para os dados dos satélites PRN 138 (WAAS), PRN 120 e 124 (EGNOS), pois foram os únicos visíveis durante todo o rastreio, tendo simultaneidade dos dados entre os receptores base e móvel. Durante a etapa de processamento, o qual foi utilizado o software GNSS Solution, alguns experimentos foram realizados, tais como: 1) Processamento com todas as observáveis L1 dos satélites disponíveis (GPS e SBAS), análise dos desvios-padrão e comparação das coordenadas obtidas com as consideradas verdadeiras; 2) Processamento sem as observáveis L1 dos satélites SBAS, análises e comparações; 3) Retirada gradativa dos satélites GPS e reprocessamento em conjunto (GPS+SBAS) e separadamente (apenas GPS). A finalidade principal desses experimentos foi verificar a potencialidade da observável L1 dos satélites SBAS processadas em conjunto com a observável L1 do GPS, no posicionamento relativo. Análises estatísticas, como tendência e erro médio quadrático (RMS), foram aplicadas para verificar a existência de erros sistemáticos e a acurácia das coordenadas. Os resultados mostram que, especificamente nos locais de rastreio, as observáveis L1 dos satélites SBAS ao serem adicionados ao processamento, combinado com as observáveis L1 dos satélites GPS, não são determinantes para melhoria da acurácia das coordenadas. / The augmentation systems, known as SBAS (Satellite-Based Augmentation System) provide information for completeness and accuracy in real time to its users, using the differential corrections that are transmitted by geostationary satellites. They are available in specific regions of the globe such as USA, Canada and Europe. Outside their region of coverage the system still does not provide the correction data in real time. However, the signal is transmitted at the same frequency L1 GPS, which is available here in Brazil, and some GNSS receivers have specific frequency channels that capture this signal, with the prospect that the data from these satellites improve the conditions of screening, besides improving the accuracy of the coordinates. With this assumption, we used the observed phase of the carrier wave (L1) to infer its contribution to the placement. The surveys were conducted in various locations due to rising SBAS satellites vary with latitude and longitude. However, this study was directed to the data from the WAAS satellites (PRN 138) and EGNOS (PRN 120 and 124) because they were the only visible throughout the screening taking simultaneity between the base and mobile receivers. During the processing stage, which was used the software GNSS Solution, some experiments were performed, such as: 1) Processing with all the L1 observable from available satellites (GPS and SBAS), analysis of standard deviations and comparison of the coordinates obtained with the true, 2) processing without observable L1 SBAS satellites, analysis and comparisons, 3) gradual withdrawal of the GPS satellites and reprocessing together (GPS + SBAS) and separately (GPS only). The main purpose of these experiments was to investigate the potential of the L1 observable processed SBAS satellites together with GPS L1 observable in the relative positioning. Statistical analysis such as trending and root mean square (RMS) were applied to verify the existence of systematic errors and accuracy of these coordinates. The results show that, specifically at sites of screening, the observables L1 SBAS satellites to be added to the processing, combined with the L1 observable GPS satellites, are not decisive for improving the accuracy of the coordinates.

Les systèmes GNSS sont actuellement utilisés en aviation civile pour estimer la position et la vitesse de l'avion pendant les phases de route jusqu'aux approches de précision. Etendre l'utilisation de GNSS aux opérations de surface en environnement aéroportuaire et sous de faibles conditions de visibilité reste un challenge pour la communauté aviation civile. En effet, durant ces opérations, les mesures GNSS peuvent être affectées par des évènements singuliers tels que les multi-trajet ou les anomalies ionosphériques. Ces évènements peuvent engendrer des erreurs de position jugées inacceptables en termes de précision et d'intégrité pour assurer le guidage de l'avion. Les algorithmes de surveillance d'intégrité GNSS actuellement utilisés ne sont pas conçus pour prendre totalement en compte les effets de tels évènements. Il est essentiel de développer des algorithmes de surveillance conçus pour protéger les utilisateurs des effets de tels évènements afin de pouvoir utiliser GNSS pour le guidage de l'avion en milieu aéroportuaire et sous de faibles conditions de visibilité. Afin de concevoir de tels algorithmes de surveillance d'intégrité, il est nécessaire de développer des modèles d'erreurs de mesures GNSS et des modèles de pannes GNSS. La thèse a été principalement orientée vers la conception de modèles d'erreurs de mesures GNSS dues aux multi-trajets et vers le développement de modèles de pannes GNSS dues aux multi-trajets. Pour ce faire, un modèle d'erreurs multi-trajets GNSS sur les mesures bi-fréquence GPSL1C+GPSL5 et GalileoE1+GalileoE5a a d'abord été proposé. Ensuite, l'impact des multi-trajets sur l'erreur de position a été étudié. Pour cette étude, un algorithme de couplage serré GPS+Galileo/IRS a été considéré. Cet algorithme est basé sur un filtre de Kalman linéarisé. Une analyse théorique et quantitative a été conduite pour étudier l'impact des erreurs de mesures GNSS dues aux multi-trajets sur le biais et sur la matrice de covariance de l'erreur de position horizontale en sortie de l'algorithme de positionnement considéré. Finalement, un modèle de pannes GNSS dues aux multi-trajets a été proposé. Ce modèle décrit la signature des pannes multi-trajets, les facteurs influençant cette signature, le modèle d'occurrence des pannes multi-trajets ainsi que les conditions d'occurrence de telles pannes / GNSSs are currently used in civil aviation to provide aircraft with position and velocity estimates from en-route to precision approach operations. Extending the use of GNSS to the guidance function during airport surface operations and under zero-visibility conditions remains a challenge. Indeed, during these operations, GNSS measurements may be affected by GNSS singular events, such as multipath or ionosphere anomalies. GNSS singular events may lead to unacceptable position errors in terms of accuracy and integrity for the zero-visibility guidance function. Current GNSS integrity monitoring systems are not designed to totally account for the GNSS singular event effects. The development of GNSS integrity monitoring systems designed to properly protect users from the singular event effects is essential to use GNSS for the guidance function under zero-visibility conditions. GNSS measurement error and integrity failure models are key inputs in the design of GNSS integrity monitoring systems. In this thesis, work has been mainly focused on the development of GNSS multipath measurement errors, on the assessment of the multipath impact on the GNSS-based position error, and on the development of GNSS multipath integrity failure models. For this matter, the dual frequency GPSL1C+GPSL5 and GalileoE1+GalileoE5a multipath pseudo- range error model adapted to airport navigation has been firstly proposed. Next, the impact of multipath on the GNSS-based position error has been assessed. To do so, a double constellation GPS+Galileo/IRS tight coupling algorithm based on a linearized Kalman filter has been selected. The theoretical and quantitative analysis of the impact of the GNSS multipath ranging errors on the horizontal position bias and on the covariance matrix of the horizontal position error have been proposed. Finally, a GNSS multipath integrity failure model has been proposed. The model describes the signature of the GNSS single multipath ranging failures, the factors influencing the signature as well as the occurrence model of these failures and their conditions of occurrence.

Dans le domaine de l’Aviation Civile, les motivations de recherches sont souvent guidées par la volonté d’améliorer la capacité de l’espace aérien grâce à la modernisation des moyens de navigation aérienne existants et aux nouvelles infrastructures. Ces buts peuvent être atteints en développant les services qui permettent des opérations d’approche et d’atterrissage plus robustes et plus fiables. La navigation par satellite, grâce au Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), a été reconnue comme un moyen performant de fournir des services de navigation aérienne [1] [2]. Le concept du GNSS requiert l’utilisation de moyen d’augmentations pour fournir une fonction de contrôle d’intégrité au vu des exigences [1] relatives aux applications critiques de type aviation civile. Un de ces moyen est le GBAS (Ground Based Augmentation System) et est standardisé par l’OACI pour fournir un service de navigation incluant les approches de précision allant jusqu’à la catégorie I incluse, en utilisant les constellations GPS ou GLONASS [3]. Des études sont en cours pour permettre d’étendre ce service jusqu’à la catégorie II/III avec le GPS L1 C/A, cependant des contraintes sont apparues lors de la surveillance de la ionosphère. Grâce à la modernisation du GPS et GLONASS et aux futures constellations Galileo et Beidou, les futurs GNSS utilisant de multiples constellations et de multiples fréquences (MC/MF) sont étudiés. Les activités de recherches européennes se sont appuyées sur la constellation GPS et sur la future constellation Galileo. Ce MC/MF GBAS devrait permettre de nombreuses améliorations comme un meilleur modèle des retards atmosphériques. Cependant, des challenges doivent être résolus avant d’atteindre les bénéfices potentiels. Dans ce travail de thèse, 2 principaux sujets en rapport avec le GBAS ont été traités, la transmission des données de corrections avec le MC/MF GBAS et l’impact des biais troposphériques avec le SC/SF et MC/MF GBAS. Dû aux contraintes portant sur le format des messages transmis à l’utilisateur via l’unité VDB [4], une nouvelle approche est nécessaire pour permettre l’élaboration du MC/MF GBAS. Une des solutions proposée dans cette thèse est de transmettre les corrections et les données d’intégrité à l’utilisateur dans des messages séparés à des fréquences différentes. De plus, ce travail de thèse remet en question la modélisation de l’atmosphère et particulièrement celle de la troposphère dans des conditions nominales que non-nominales en se concentrant d’abord sur le calcul du pire gradient troposphérique avant de développer les précédents travaux pour borner cette menace dans le but de protéger l’utilisateur. En vue du futur MC/MF GBAS, une nouvelle approche s’est avérée nécessaire. Ainsi, dans ce projet de thèse, des modèles météorologiques numériques (NWMs) sont utilisés pour estimer intégralement la composante horizontale du pire gradient troposphérique. Une méthode innovante pour rechercher les pires gradients troposphériques horizontaux est utilisée pour déterminer les biais qu’ils induisent impactant les avions visant une approche de Cat II/III avec le GBAS. Un modèle de ces pires biais de mesures troposphériques différentiels horizontaux dépendant de l’élévation des satellites pour 2 régions européennes est alors développé. La composante verticale est aussi modélisée grâce à une étude statistique qui compare les données réelles au modèle standard. Un modèle du biais différentiel total non corrigé est développé et doit être introduit dans le calcul des niveaux de protections sous des conditions nominales. Pour borner l’impact de la troposphère sur l’erreur de position tout en se focalisant sur le souhait d’avoir un nombre de données transmises à l’utilisateur faible, différentes solutions conservatives ont été développées où au minimum 3 paramètres, définis selon leur région géographique d’utilisation, doivent être transmis à l’utilisateur. / In the Civil Aviation domain, research activities aim to improve airspace capacity and efficiency whilst meeting stringent safety targets. These goals are met by improving performance of existing services whilst also expanding the services provided through the development of new Navigation Aids. One such developmental axe is the provision of safer, more reliable approach and landing operations in all weather conditions. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has been identified as a key technology in providing navigation services to civil aviation users [1] [2] thanks to its global coverage and accuracy. The GNSS concept includes the provision of an integrity monitoring function by an augmentation system to the core constellations. This is needed to meet the required performances which cannot be met by the stand-alone constellations. One of the three augmentation systems developed within civil aviation is the GBAS (Ground Based Augmentation System) and is currently standardized by the ICAO to provide precision approach navigation services down to Cat I using the GPS or GLONASS constellations [3]. Studies on-going with the objective to extend the GBAS concept to support Cat II/III precision approach operations with GPS L1 C/A, however some difficulties have arisen regarding ionospheric monitoring. With the deployment of Galileo and Beidou alongside the modernization of GPS and GLONASS, it is envisaged that the GNSS future will be multi-constellation (MC) and multi-frequency (MF). European research activities have focused on the use of GPS and Galileo. The MC/MF GBAS concept should lead to many improvements such as a better modelling of atmospheric effects but several challenges must be resolved before the potential benefits may be realized. Indeed, this PhD has addressed two key topics relating to GBAS, the provision of corrections data within the MC/MF GBAS concept and the impact of tropospheric biases on both the SC/SF and MC/MF GBAS concepts. Due to the tight constraints on GBAS ground to air communications link, the VDB unit, a novel approach is needed. One of the proposals discussed in the PhD project for an updated GBAS VDB message structure is to separate message types for corrections with different transmission rates. Then, this PhD argues that atmospheric modelling with regards to the troposphere has been neglected in light of the ionospheric monitoring difficulties and must be revisited for both nominal and anomalous scenarios. The thesis focuses on how to compute the worst case differential tropospheric delay offline in order to characterize the threat model before extending previous work on bounding this threat in order to protect the airborne GBAS user. In the scope of MC/MF GBAS development, an alternative approach was needed. Therefore, in this PhD project, Numerical Weather Models (NWMs) are used to assess fully the worst case horizontal component of the troposphere. An innovative worst case horizontal tropospheric gradient search methodology is used to determine the induced ranging biases impacting aircraft performing Cat II/III precision approaches with GBAS. This provides as an output a worst case bias as a function of elevation for two European regions.The vertical component is also modelled by statistical analysis by comparing the truth data to the GBAS standardized model for vertical tropospheric correction up to the height of the aircraft. A model of the total uncorrected differential bias is generated which must be incorporated within the nominal GBAS protection levels. In order to bound the impact of the troposphere on the positioning error and by maintaining the goal of low data transmission, different solutions have been developed which remain conservative by assuming that ranging biases conspire in the worst possible way. Through these techniques, it has been shown that a minimum of 3 parameters may be used to characterize a region’s model.

Ce travail de thèse porte sur le développement de méthodes de réduction du canal de multitrajets, donnant une importance particulière à la préservation des performances en poursuite du signal par les systèmes de navigation par satellite. Le but est de rendre les modèles de canal mobile urbain applicables au test réaliste de nouveaux récepteurs GNSS, en réduisant drastiquement le nombre d’échos synthétisés par le simulateur de canal d’origine (de plusieurs milliers à moins de 10) tout en conservant son impact sur l’erreur de pseudo-distance. Trois types de méthodes de réduction ont été envisagés afin de couvrir l’ensemble des possibilités de réduction. En première approche, une méthode d’agrégation a été développée, par le clustering des multitrajets selon les dimensions du retard et du Doppler pondéré par leur puissance. Bien que cette méthode permette une bonne préservation des caractéristiques large-bande du canal d’origine, une deuxième approche a été considérée, visant à optimiser les paramètres des échos du canal réduit (retard, Doppler, phase et amplitude) pour minimiser la différence entre la fonction de corrélation du canal d’origine et celle du canal réduit. Bien que cette approche donne de bonnes performances en termes de préservation de l’erreur de pseudodistance, elle conduit à une instabilité des échos du canal réduit. C’est dans cette optique qu’une approche statistique a été développée, considérant que le retard des multitrajets évolue selon une chaîne de Markov du premier ordre. Ces méthodes ont été comparées selon le critère de la préservation de l’erreur du discriminateur en boucle ouverte. Dans certaines conditions portant sur le nombre de multitrajets du canal réduit et l’élévation du satellite émetteur, il apparait que la méthode de clustering implémentée en première approche égale les performances de la méthode paramétrique, la méthode statistique donnant systématiquement des performances inférieures. L’invariance de cette hiérarchie lors de l’ajout de boucles de poursuite à la simulation ou le test de divers modèles de signaux (modulation et bande RF) permet d’étendre ces conclusions. Etant donné l’avantage significatif des méthodes de clustering sur les méthodes paramétriques en termes de temps de calcul, c’est l’usage de cette méthode qui est préconisé pour répondre à la problématique de réduction du canal de multitrajets. En particulier, la méthode de clustering pondéré développée dans cette thèse offre la possibilité de reproduire les paramètres largebande d’un canal composé de milliers de multitrajets avec moins de 10 échos. De plus, elle offre un compromis intéressant entre temps de calcul et préservation de l’erreur de pseudo-distance des systèmes GNSS, approchant les performances de méthodes d’optimisation paramétrique, voire les atteignant dans certaines conditions, avec un temps de calcul proche du temps réel. / This PhD work relates the development of multipath channel reduction methods, putting the emphasis on the preservation of the signal tracking performances of satellite navigation systems. It aims at adapting the land mobile channel models to the realistic testing of GNSS receivers, by reducing drastically the number of multipaths of the original channel model (from thousands to less than 10 typically) all by conserving the pseudo-range error. Three types of methods have been investigated in order to cover all different possibilities of reduction processes. As a first approach, a multipath aggregation method has been considered, through the clustering of the multipaths according to the delay and Doppler dimensions, weighted by their power. Even if this method allows a good preservation of the delay and Doppler characteristics of the original channel, a second approach has been investigated, oriented toward the optimization of the parameters of the reduced channel (delay, Doppler shift, phase and amplitude) in order to minimize the difference between the original channel correlation function and the reduced one. Even if this approach gives good performances in terms of pseudorange error preservation, it leads to the instability of the reduced channel echoes. Therefore, a statistical method has been implemented, considering that the delays of the reduced channel evolve according to a first order Markov process. These three approaches have been compared through the preservation of the discriminator open loop error. In particular conditions concerning the number of echoes in the reduced channel or the elevation of the emitter satellite, the clustering technique implemented in first approach appears to equal the performances of the parametric method, the statistical approach giving systematically the worst performances. The invariance of this hierarchy as adding tracking loops to the simulation or changing the signal model (modulation and RF bandwidth) allows extending the conclusion. Being given the significant advantage of the clustering on the parametric method in terms of computation time, the use of this method is preconized to address the channel reduction problem. In particular, the weighted clustering technique developed in this thesis offers the possibility to reproduce the wide-band characteristics of a channel model composed of thousands of multipaths with less than 10 echoes. Moreover, it constitutes an interesting tradeoff between computational effort and GNSS systems pseudo-range error conservation, approaching the performances of parametric methods, and even overcoming them in some conditions, with a computation time close to the real time.

The project aims to develop a platform for the demonstration and evaluation of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs). The GNSS receivers used in the project are two uBlox NEO-M8P modules, one of which is used as a reference receiver in a differential GNSS setup. The entire platform has been implemented and consists of a network-controlled car (NetCar) which has a GNSS receiver and a 4G module on it, a separate reference GNSS receiver, a computer hosting a control interface for controlling the NetCar and a relay server for relaying data between the control interface and the NetCar. The platform has been tested for evaluating the GNSS. The performance was evaluated in terms of the time to first fix (TTFF), stationary positioning accuracy and tracking accuracy which includes qualitative evaluation of accuracy, statistical evaluation of accuracy and evaluation of absolute accuracy after moving. The test results show that the platform performed well for the demonstration and evaluation of the GNSS. The evaluation results show that the TTFF for the uBlox NEO-M8P used in the project averaged 24.2 s with a worst case of 33 s. The stationary positioning accuracy was found to drift in the order of tens of centimeters when using differential GNSS in RTK float mode and in the order of centimeters in RTK fixed mode. The relative trackingaccuracy between points during either RTK mode was found to be on the order of centimeters while the absolute accuracy was found to be drifting, probably due to the reference receiver position being acquired through self-survey. The current project can be extended further by including automatic navigation, sensor fusion, pathfinding and the like.