National 2000’ GPS control network of China

An accurately unified national GPS network with more than 2500 stations, named “National 2000’ GPS Control Network”, signed the epoch 2000.0, has been established by integrating the existing six nationwide GPS networks of China set up by different departments with different objectives. This paper presents the characteristics of the existing GPS networks, summarizes the strategies in the integrated adjustment of the GPS network, including functional model, stochastic model as well as the adjustment principle modification. By modifying the adjustment strategies according to the characteristics of the existing GPS networks and under the support of the IGS stations, the accuracy of the integrated national GPS network is greatly improved. The datum differences among the sub networks disappear, the systematic error influences are weakened, and the effects of the outliers on the estimated coordinates and their variances are controlled. It is shown that the average standard deviation for the horizontal component is smaller than 1.0 cm, the vertical component is smaller than 2.0 cm, and the three-dimensional (3-D) position of geocenter coordinates is smaller than 3.0 cm. The exterior checking accuracy for the 3-D position is averagely better than 1.0 cm.