Characterization of GPS/GIOVE sensor stations in the CONGO network

The Cooperative Network for GIOVE Observation (CONGO) is a global network of real-time capable multi-constellation GNSS receivers, which has been established by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the German Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) as a test bed for experimentation with the new Galileo signals. The CONGO network employs a variety of different antennas and receivers which have become available for public use over the last 2 years. Following an overview of the network and the employed user equipment, the paper discusses the achieved GPS/GIOVE tracking performance. This includes a characterization of antenna gain patterns as well as receiver noise and multipath errors. Special attention is given to the discussion of inter-system biases. The nature and variation of these biases is illustrated based on a set of three different receivers operated in a zero-baseline configuration at the Wettzell site.