Mitigating Tropospheric Propagation Delay Errors in Precise Airborne GPS Navigation

The high spatial and temporal variability of the troposphere is well known, as is its effect − through propagation delays − on GPS positioning. This effect can be particularly problematical in airborne kinematic differential positioning where the altitude difference between reference station and aircraft is typically quite large. The use of zenith delay models and mapping functions at ground stations is fairly well understood, however their use for processing data collected on board aircraft is less well understood.