PositioNZ GNSS & Real-time Capabilities

LINZ, in partnership with the GNS Science GeoNet project, is currently upgrading all PositioNZ stations to GNSS capability. This will enable users of PositioNZ to utilise multiple Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), of which the US GPS (Global Positioning System) is the most commonly known.

This adds access to the Russian Federation’s GLONASS system, which is at near-full capacity, doubling the number of satellites available and allowing users to position themselves in more challenging GNSS environments, such as urban canyons and close to trees and buildings. In future, the stations will be capable of collecting data from the European (Galileo), Chinese (BeiDou), and Japanese (QZS) systems that will be visible in New Zealand without hardware replacements.

As at 2 December, 12 of the 37 PositioNZ stations had been upgraded to Trimble NetR9 receivers. The remaining stations are expected to be upgraded by the end of January. On completion of the rollout, GLONASS capability will be enabled on all stations for both the RINEX and real-time data streams.

All stations in the network are now streaming free real-time GNSS data to users, as part of the PositioNZ-RT service. Communication links are continually being re-assessed to identify improvements to data latencies for users. This allows users to position themselves more accurately using a GNSS receiver connected to PositioNZ-RT via a cellular internet connection.

LINZ will also be launching an online monitoring tool that will enable users to compare latencies and completeness of the data streams. The tool will allow us to email users about planned and unplanned outages as well as system notices.

For more information, or to provide feedback, you can email customersupport@linz.govt.nz with ‘PositioNZ-RT’ in the subject line.