William Bertiger

Feature article: Flight data assessment of tightly coupled PPP/INS using real-time products

Airborne geodetic techniques are superior to their terrestrial counterparts with respect to both economy and efficiency [1]. In addition, airborne geodesy allows mapping of remote areas that would otherwise be inaccessible. A cornerstone for most airborne geodetic measurements is the accurate determination of the aircraft position and orientation. Therefore, airborne geodesy was not widely used until the advent of global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs). Now, with precise GNSS positioning techniques, airborne geodesy is booming within several domains, including solid Earth monitoring (e.g., crustal deformation) [2]–[4], fluid Earth monitoring (e.g., ice sheet or sea-level monitoring) [5]–[7], and geoid determination [8], [9]. Despite the success of these airborne geodetic methods, the increased availability and reliability of accurate aircraft positioning remains an important enabling technology in support of future scientific endeavors.