RINEX Data
Knowing what your RINEX files contain will facilitate the workflow.
RINEX is one solution to represent all information required to resolve precise positions or any GNSS application.
One advantage of RINEX is that it is 100% open and thoroughly documented.
One disadvantage being that precise navigation requires many information, a single RINEX is not enough for that.
Also GNSS applications span is too broad and several RINEX subformat exist: they all serve different purposes.
It also took many years to RINEX to answer the need of precise navigations and modern constellations appeared as well.
In any case, working with modern revision is highly recommended.
Advanced operations like solving navigation solutions will require to gather several different RINEX files.
This tutorial serie will teach what kind of file is needed for a desired operation.
It will also teach how to use open data sources to gather this kind of data.
Our tools will let you load and inject such a set of files to perform the desired operation.
RINEX files that follow the standard specifications only span 24 hours.
If you're working with open data published by laboratories: this is what your files will represent.
Although this definition sounds benign at first, it comes with side effects that prevent the most
advanced solutions to converge, especially when working with old RINEX revisions.
For example, those would contain a given parameter estimated to be the best "solution" for the current 24 hour time frame. That best "solution" is rarely ideal for 24 hours, especially when talking about atmospheric biases.
Also the next best "solution" will most likely differ a lot for the next day. This tends to create glitches at midnight when moving from one RINEX to the other
See the introduction paragraph from this article
Newer RINEX revisions like NAV V4 are trying to bring a solution to that.
Note that our tools support the latest RINEX revisions.
Also note that our file interface will let you gather more than 24 hour of data, because you can
combine as many files as you need. Checkout the dedicated part of our tutorials.
No tool is perfect. GNSS applications are also too broad for us to cover everything.
You may experience issues that were never faced before.
Like RINEX, our toolset is 100% open. That means you can access the code,
improve it yourself and make it answer your need.
The best thing to do before wasting too much time, is to open an Issue or a Discussion, either on Github.com or through our Discord channel:
see the links in the front page.
