AUSPOS FAQ-2. RINEX Data

Online GPS Processing

• Question 2.1 - What type of data can I submit?
• Question 2.2 - What is RINEX data?
• Question 2.3 - How do I make RINEX?

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Question 2.1 - What type of data can I submit?

Your GPS data should:

• have been observed in 'static' mode;
• have a data span greater than 2 hours - but for best results 6-24+ hours;
• be geodetic quality (carrier phase data) and DUAL FREQUENCY;
• be in RINEX format; and
• while not strictly enforced, the IGS file naming conventions are recommended.

Under IGS file naming conventions, RINEX files will take the following form:

The data can be standard uncompressed RINEX or it can be UNIX compressed, GZipped, Zipped and/or Hatanaka compressed RINEX.

The AUSPOS software will determine how the data is compressed based on the filename eg:

• *.Z for UNIX compression;
• *.YYd for Hatanaka compression;
• *.zip for ZIP compression;
• *.gz for gzip compression.

Please note that ZIP archives are forced to have only one file per archive. The file naming convention is XXXXDDDS.YYd for Hatanaka compressed RINEX.

The data will be processed at a 30 second observation interval (the IGS standard). If your data hasn't been collected at a 30 second rate, the extra or non-matching observations will be ignored. Please note that all IGS data has been recorded at the 0 and 30 second point of every minute, so your data must be compatible at this level.

You should NOT submit the broadcast navigation data.

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Question 2.2 - What is RINEX data?

RINEX stands for "Receiver Independent Exchange Standard", and was developed for the easy exchange of GPS data from different types of GPS receivers. RINEX is an ASCII format and provides a consistent data format for all geodetic GPS receivers. More information on the RINEX format is available here.

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Question 2.3 - How do I make RINEX?

Most GPS receiver manufacturers provide software to convert propriety data formats into RINEX, however, there are other options. The UNAVCO software TEQC is an excellent tool for format translation and data validation. TEQC is free software and can be downloaded off the Internet, executable software is available for a wide variety of computer architectures - for more information see the UNAVCO TEQC software.

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