GNSS positioning accuracy performance assessments on 1st and 2nd generation SBAS signals in Thailand

Abstract This research evaluates the performance of the first and second-generation satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) GAGAN and BDSBAS services in Thailand. The study initially analyses GNSS observations from 40 local continuously operating reference stations (CORS) over the past 12 months in 2022, providing initial horizontal and vertical accuracies at 2.03 and 3.66 m respectively with the single point positioning (SPP) mode. The positioning accuracies are 2.27 m horizontally and 2.54 m vertically as of GAGAN, while 2.94 m horizontally and 3.90 m vertically as of BDSBAS with the first-generation system. Since the 1st generation SBAS performance is affected by the ionosphere, especially in the equatorial and auroral regions, the ionosphere-free combination is applied in the SPP algorithm as well as the 2nd generation SBAS with the Dual-Frequency Multi-Constellation (DFMC) capable receivers for BDSBAS only. The SPP accuracies are 1.51 m horizontally and 3.26 m vertically, where the BDSBAS results are 2.16 m horizontally and 4.28 m vertically. Demonstrated results show that the positioning accuracy cannot be improved significantly when applying the 1st generation GAGAN and BDSBAS systems and the 2nd generation BDSBAS system in Thailand due to the low number of common satellites available, especially when using the SBAS outside their ground tracking network; therefore, it is expected to apply the GNSS observation and computed satellite error correction from the regional ground tracking network to enhance the performance of the 2nd generation SBAS. The positioning accuracy result could be achieved at sub-metre level, which will greatly benefit high-accuracy applications such as air, land, and sea navigation in the region.