Use of the Navy Satellite System in Geodetic Surveying

The question of how multiple-pass data from the Navy Satellite System can be processed to yield an optimal estimate of the latitude, longitude, and elevation of a point on the Earth's surface is considered. It is demonstrated that the problem can be treated by use of modern estimation techniques. Two methods are considered: Kalman estimation and weighted least-squares estimation. The variance of the estimation errors is compared for a simulated sequence of 50 satellite passes.