Orthometric Height Improvement in Tainan City using RTK GPS and Local Geoid Corrector Surface Models

Abstract

Various corrector surface models are proposed to mitigate systematic height errors in order to fit the orthometric heights determined by combining the Tainan City real-time kinematic (RTK) global positioning system (GPS) network and the local geoid model data to the published orthometric heights. Several data sets for Tainan City were tested and analyzed. Two geometric geoid models and one gravimetric-geometric geoid model were generated using the GPS/leveling data. Consequently, three types of orthometric heights were determined (Model I, II, and III). The selection of the optimal corrector surface model for different Models was based on a series of statistical tests. The test results show that: (1) the selection of the optimal corrector surface model is highly related to the geoid model generating method, hence the optimal corrector surface models are a fifth-degree polynomial for Model I and II and a seven-parameter similarity transformation for Model III; and (2) the determined orthometric height is accurate to 2–4 cm after applying an optimal corrector surface model.