Expanding Network RTK Coverage Using an Ionospheric-Free Combination and Kriging for Tropospheric Delay

Network real-time kinematic (NRTK) coverage is defined as the area inside a station network. In conventional NRTK, the distance between stations is limited to 100 km, thus restricting the coverage of NRTK. In this study, we propose the utilization of an ionospheric-free combination and the application of a Kriging weighting model to mitigate tropospheric delay to extend the coverage of NRTK through network expansion. A network with station distances exceeding 100 km was constructed, and the residual errors, along with the success-fix rate of integer ambiguities, were analyzed on both sunny and rainy days to confirm the potential for network expansion using the proposed method. The results confirm that the success-fix rate increased by up to 44.3% on rainy days, compared with that of the traditional interpolation method. Furthermore, a high level of performance in integer ambiguity resolution can be maintained within the expanded network, regardless of the weather conditions.