readme_pnt6k.txt Menu version: 28 September 2011 Instructions for first-time users on how to install PAGE-NT (PNT6, version k) 28 September 2011. Steps 1. On your PC create the following directories: (you can use any drive you want) c:\pnt6k c:\input1 c:\wisc c:\batch c:\results1 2. While in the c:\pnt6k directory, download the file called programs.exe using the following (command-line) ftp commands: ftp ftp.ngs.noaa.gov Login anonymous Passwd your complete e-mail address cd /pub/pnt6 bin (use binary mode for downloading files) get programs.exe bye 3. Unpack the 60+ files that comprise the PAGE-NT software by typing 'programs.exe'. This is a self-extracting file created using WINZIP version 14.5. You will need to specify which directory you want to put the files into (c:\pnt6k). 4. Next, change directories to c:\input1. As in step 2, log on and download the file called input1.exe using ftp. Execute the self-extracting file by typing 'input1.exe'. The files you will see are an example data set together with a set of input files for PAGE-NT. You will use this directory later to test whether PAGE-NT has been installed correctly. 5. Next, change directories to c:\results1. Log on and download the file called results1.exe using ftp. This file holds the results of PAGE-NT for the sample data set. Later you will compare the file here called 'combined.sum' with one which you will create on your PC in the input1 directory. Exit the ftp software by typing 'bye'. 6. Change directories to c:\wisc . Copy into this directory a file called 'serfil' from c:\pnt6k. This file will be used by PAGE-NT to assign 'serial numbers' to each station in the sample data set. The c:\batch directory will not be used for processing the sample data set. However, it can be used later to process your own data in batch mode (i.e., to stack up several sessions to run one after another overnight). 7. Next, you need to set up your PC to be able to run PAGE-NT. If you don't have administrator rights on your PC, you may have to work together with someone who does (i.e., your system administrator or IT support person). For Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 users: =========================================== a) In the file called c:\autoexec.bat add c:\pnt6k to the path (e.g., path=c:\pnt6k ). b) In the file called c:\winnt\system32\config.nt add the lines: files=100 device=%System Root%\system32\ansi.sys c) In control panel/System/Environment increase the size of the virtual memory (pagefile.sys) to at least 256 megabytes. d) Make a Shortcut to program pnt6k.exe in c:\pnt6k (using Explore or any of the other methods available). e) Re-boot your PC so that the changes take effect. For Windows XP users: ====================== a) Put c:\pnt6k in your path. From the Start button go to Settings/Control Panel/System. This takes you to the "System Properties" page. Go to the "Advanced" tab. Click on the "Environment Variables" button. In the "User Variables" list box you may need to add a variable called "path" or add on to an existing one. If you create a new environment variable called "path" then in the box beneath it enter "c:\pnt6k". If you already have a "path" environment variable defined, then just append ";c:\pnt6k" to the end. (if appending, don't forget that leading semicolon) b) Make sure your Virtual Memory is set high enough. From the Start button go to Settings/Control Panel/System. This takes you to the "System Properties" page. Go to the "Advanced" tab. At the top you will see a group box labelled "Performance". Click on the "Settings" button. On the "Performance Options" page, click on the "Advanced" tab. You will see a group box labelled "Virtual Memory". If the Virtual Memory is less than 256 MB, click on the "Change" button and increase it to 256 megabytes. c) Add the "ansi.sys" driver to your config.nt file. This is needed for the extended-ASCII characters used by the SPLOT program. Change directory to c:\windows\system32. Edit the file called config.nt using your favorite text editor. At the bottom add the lines: files = 100 device=%System Root%\system32\ansi.sys Note: If you already see a line that says "files=200" then obviously you don't need to add the "files=100" line. While you are in the c:/windows/system32 directory, verify that the ansi.sys file is there. d) Make a shortcut to the pnt6k.exe program in the c:\pnt6k directory (using Explore or any of the other methods available). Re-boot your PC so that the changes take effect. For Windows 7 users: ====================== a) Put c:\pnt6k in your path. *The following steps may need to be done by a System Administrator: - From the start button, click on Computer and then click on "System properties" on the top tool bar. - On the left side, scroll down to select "Advanced system settings". - In the Advanced section click the Environment Variables button. - Highlight the Path variable and click the Edit button. - Add ;c:\pnt6k to the end of the path. Note: I installed pnt6k on a Windows 7 PC here at NGS. It ran fine although the menus did look quite a bit different. The baseline components were only slightly different (0.2 to 0.3 mm) -- maybe this is caused by the difference in round-off error for the 64-bit Windows 7 Operating System versus the 32-bit Windows XP. Windows 7 has a "compatibility mode" for 32-bit programs like those in PAGE-NT, so hopefully it will run on all Windows 7 PCs. 8. Copy default-txt.WISC into default.txt (this has the older options that were used to create the User's Manual back in 1997). Next you need to edit this default.txt file in c:\pnt6k so that it matches the drive letters and directories which you have just created on your PC. If you do not have a favorite text editor use NotePad. You can look for any lines that begin with the characters: c:\d1\pnt6k. You also want to replace all the 'John Doe' lines with your own name. It is especially critical to make sure the paths for the cors_08.bin and igs08.bin files are correct (igs08_wwww.atx should have no path, just the filename). Look at Appendix A in the pdf file called pnt6man.pdf to see which lines in default.txt might possibly need to be changed. 9. Start PAGE-NT by clicking on the icon created in step 7. Click on Input files and then 'Choose Directory'. Highlight the c:\input1 directory and click 'Load'. The six example files will have been pre-selected for you. Click on 'Input File Summary' and you should see four RINEX observation files, one RINEX navigation message file, and one precise ephemeris. Next, click Exit to return to the main menu. Then under Station Information click on POM File Summary. You should see a table which lists the antenna type and monument->L1 Phase Center heights for each station in the sample data set. Click exit to return to the main menu. Now you are ready to test PAGE-NT using the sample data set. Click 'Run' on the main menu; the run menu will appear. Click the checkbox next to '1. Merge all RINEX files (MERGEDB)'. Then click the checkbox next to '6. Do the Final Combined Baseline Solution (PAGES)'. Finally, click the button marked 'Run Now'. PAGE-NT will start running steps 1 through 6 on the sample data set. Several MS-DOS/Command Prompt screens will appear as the various programs are run. After the steps are finished, and all the pop-up screens disappear, click the 'Cancel' button on the Run menu to return to the main menu. To examine the final combined results from step 6 in PAGE-NT, follow these steps. In the main menu under View Output click 'View a file'. This will open the Notepad program. Under File click 'Open' and then type in 'combined.sum' as the File name. Near the top of this file you should see a line which says: OVERALL RMS = 0.0162 (METERS). The final adjusted baseline components are listed at the bottom of the file: ST 1 TO ST 2 DELTA X DELTA Y DELTA Z ----------------------------------------------------------- wis1 TO phel 14045.4453 -33056.5161 -30699.5034 wis1 TO brul 35064.1758 -13320.0371 -11350.3582 wis1 TO hawr 41814.8644 -56579.8649 -52475.8618 NORMAL TERMINATION If your combined.sum file matches these results to within a few centimeters then the software is operating correctly on your PC. 10. If your combined.sum file does not match the baseline components given above, or if you do not get a combined.sum file from step 6 at all, then there may be files missing in c:\pnt6k or your PC may not be set up to run the PAGE-NT programs yet. Try downloading and unpacking all the files again and check that your virtual memory is large enough (256 megabytes should be plenty). 11. The PAGE-NT User's Guide is in c:\pnt6k in a file called pnt6man.pdf. Read through this manual using Adobe Acrobat Reader or Adobe Acrobat for additional details on installing and using PAGE-NT. ****************************************************************** **** Getting new, updated input files from the NGS ftp server **** ****************************************************************** There are five files used by PAGE-NT that are frequently updated: cors_08.bin, igs08.bin, the ANTEX file (igs08_wwww.atx), ant_info.003, and rcvr_ant.tab. Whenever a new version of the *.bin files is created, it will be placed in the /pub/pnt6 directory on the NGS annoymous ftp server (ftp.ngs.noaa.gov). The rcvr_ant.tab file will be updated occasionally from the IGS website. PAGE-NT users should download the latest version of these files whenever they begin processing a new GPS project. The new updated files should be placed in the main PAGE-NT directory on their PC (c:\pnt6k). * cors_08.bin and igs08.bin: For historical reasons these files are sometimes called the site_info files (their names on the UNIX computers were site_info.cors and site_info.igs). As their name suggests, these files store the coordinates, velocities, ocean loading parameters, receiver information, and antenna information for all CORS and IGS sites. They actually store a history of all the receiver and antenna changes that have occured at each site. As new sites are added, and as existing sites go through equipment changes, these two files are updated. When downloading these files from the NGS anonymous ftp server, use the "binary" mode. These also should be placed in the c:\pnt6k directory to overwrite any older *.bin files. * igs08_1648.atx: As new antennas are calibrated by IGS they are added to a new antex file (igs08_wwww.atx), where wwww is the GPS week when the new file was made. This antex file is read by pages when determining the station coordinates/baseline vectors. The menus in PAGE-NT use a file called igs08_wwww.lbl. When the Station Information menu starts it looks in the c:\pnt6k directory on the PC to see if the igs08_wwww.lbl file exists. If not, it creates one by reading the igs08_wwww.atx file and stripping out all the antenna names. Whenever you download a new igs08_wwww.atx file you should also delete the old igs08_wwww.lbl file. Then run the Station Information menu to create a new igs08_wwww.lbl file, one with the same list of antenna names as the new igs08_wwww.atx file. Then, if you want, you can also modify the new igs08_wwww.lbl file with a text editor and copy your most commonly-used antenna names to the top of the file. This saves a little time; you won't have to scroll through all 200 or so antenna names to find the ones you use most often. Since the igs08_wwww.lbl file is just used to make selections, it doesn't hurt to have duplicate entries in it for the most common antennas. The latest ANTEX file is at http://igscb.jpl.nasa.gov/igscb/station/general/ * igsngs08_1648.atx: Currently, the IGS has a policy that no single- frequency or lower-grade GNSS antennas will be put into the ANTEX file. Thus there are many antennas (~ 150) that are in the NGS ant_info.003 file but not in the antex file. Some of these are integrated receiver/ antennas that are used in some survey campaigns but not as CORS. Since pages can use either an ANTEX file (*.atx) or the ant_info.003 file, but not both at the same time, it was necessary to create a composite ANTEX file with the extra 150 or so NGS antennas inserted alphabetically. These NGS patterns had to be converted from relative to absolute before they could be added; they are only dependent on elevation angle. The combined file (made by Steve Hilla) is called igsngs08_1648.atx . **NOTE: Folks at NGS (Giovanni Sella and Bruce Ward) now have software to automatically generate a combined IGS+NGS (IGS08) antex file called "ngs08.atx" from the latest igs08_wwww.atx file and the ant_info.003 calibrations stored in the NGS database. This ngs08.atx file can be used in PAGE-NT in place of igsngs08_1648.atx or igs08_wwww.atx . See the Composite Absolute Calibrations section on the ANTCAL webpage and click on the file labelled "ANTEX (new IGS format)". The link is: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/ANTCAL/ * rcvr_ant.tab: Recently the menus were modified to allow the analyst to update the RINEX Observation File headers. The menus were designed so that first the user must complete the Station Infor- mation menu, entering in the correct antenna name, antenna height, and receiver manufacturer for a site, using the information from a paper field log for any non-CORS site. The user can then click on the "Modify the RINEX header" button on the very bottom of Station Information menu. The user can pull in the antenna name, antenna height, four-character station name, xyz-coordinates, and north- and east-offset data just entered on the Station Information menu by clicking the "Load ALL Page-NT values" button. The user can then modify several other fields in the RINEX header like the marker number, observer name, agency name, receiver serial number, receiver type, receiver firmware version, and antenna serial number. The International GNSS Service (IGS) maintains a file of official antenna, receiver, and radome names. This file is called: rcvr_ant.tab . A copy of this file is stored in the c:\pnt6k directory and is read in by the menu programs. This allows the user to view the rcvr_ant.tab file from inside the menus, and to do cut-and-paste operations so as to select an official receiver name from the rcvr_ant.tab file and then paste it to the proper receiver name field in the RINEX header menu before overwriting the RINEX header. The user can also cut-and-paste radome names and single-frequency antenna names from the rcvr_ant.tab file. You should download a new rcvr_ant.tab file from time to time from the NGS ftp server, or from the IGS website: http://igscb.jpl.nasa.gov/igscb/station/general *** FOR MORE THAN 50 STATIONS *** pages.exe and mergedb.exe have been set up to handle 50 stations. If you need to process more than 50 stations in one session you can use the mergedb125.exe and pages125.exe files. You should first rename the original pages.exe file to pages50.exe. And likewise, the mergedb.exe file can be renamed mergedb50.exe. Then copy the 125-station versions: copy mergedb125.exe mergedb.exe copy pages125.exe pages.exe Now you're ready to run up to 125 stations. The menus and other programs will always handle up to 125 stations. We have started with the 50-station mergedb and pages because they run about twice as fast as the 125-station versions when you're only processing about a dozen or so stations. Note that both versions of the pages.exe program are set up (i.e., the internal arrays are dimensioned) to handle about 24 to 26 hours of data. This is usually enough, but if you do have a receiver collecting data for 3 or 4 days you will need to split the data set into several 24-hour pieces. This can be done with TEQC or with the manufacturer's RINEX conversion software. =================================================== Additional Comments On Specific Programs =================================================== SITELIST - (a.k.a. sitelistF) Recently the sitelist program was updated to require that the reference frame be specified whenever one uses the -p (pomfile) or -e (give data valid at some epoch) options. When making a POM file, one also has to specify an antenna filename(-A). The new POM files that are made by sitelist (ver 1108.11) also now have extra data at the bottom of the file that describes exactly how the MON->L1PC heights were computed using the CORS antenna height from the siteinfo files, and the antenna offsets from the antex (or ant_info.003) file. See sitelist.txt for more details. PAGES - The latest pages.exe handles the 2nd Block IIF SV, and the equation for the "L6" combination has been modified (see the section below entitled "L6 Frequency option"). As with the last release, pages reads the new MIT ocean loading grid file (otl_FES2004.grid). This is a very large grid file (~ 730 MB) but it is a global file that provides the ocean loading coefficients for new stations that are not in the siteinfo files (igs08.bin and cors_08.bin). There are extra pages.skl options needed to use this file and these are given in the file called default-txt.usingIGS08. CATSP3C - the older cat_sp3 and joinSP3 programs only work with SP3-a files. This new program allows you to join two or three *.sp3c files together without having to convert them to SP3-a format first. This is a command line program like the others, so it needs to be run in a command prompt window. The newest version preserves the last three comment records from the input IGS sp3-c files. The fourth comment contains information about the models used to compute the orbit. This information is reported near the top of the pages.sum file. Tropo Gradients --------------- Since 2007, the PAGES program can solve for horizontal tropospheric gradients to more accurately model the azimuth-dependency of the troposphere due to terrain and wind effects. PAGES will solve for piecewise-continuous North-South and East-West gradient coefficients at some interval (in units of days). If the interval is 1.00 days, there are four gradient parameters: a N-S and an E-W parameter, at the beginning and the end of each day. This option requires three new lines for the pages.skl file: ESTIMATE TROPO GRADIENTS 1.00 MAKE TROPO GRADIENTS PIECEWISE CONTINUOUS This option is routinely used for the orbit processing with a tropo gradient interval of 1.0 days. There have been reports that this option does not work well for short baselines or short sessions, where there is not enough elevation angle difference for the program to distinguish between the tropo unknowns for one end of a short baseline versus the other end, and/or there is not enough data for the program to correctly separate the tropo unknowns, integer ambiguities, and station coordinates. Thus these three lines have been left out of the default.txt file, and should only be used when processing 24-hr sessions with all baseline lengths over 100 km. ANTEX versus ant_info.003 ------------------------- PAGES can read either ant_info.003 files or ANTEX files. The ANTEX files are preferred since they contain the same satellite antenna patterns and offsets that are used in deriving the current IGS precise orbits. TROPO Model ----------- PAGES has a new seasonal model called Global Pressure and Temperature (GPT) and new tropospheric mapping functions called the Global Mapping Functions (GMF). These take the place of the older Niell Mapping Functions and provide better results in polar regions. Short Sessions -------------- PAGE-NT uses a fairly simple algorithm for fixing integers. For some baselines with short time spans (15 or 30 minutes of data) PAGE-NT may have problems fixing the integers correctly. It is recommended that PAGE-NT only be used with sessions that have at least 2 hours of data. L6 Frequency option ------------------- The Geosciences Research Division (GRD) has experimented with a new "L6" option that switches on a "weighted" ion-free combination. The contribution of the L2 data will be weighted according to baseline length. So for a line under 5 km, the weighting factor for L2 will be close to zero and the solution will be similar to an L1-only solution for that baseline. For baselines over 30 km in length, the weighting factor will be close to one and thus the L2 data will get used in much the same way as for a regular ion-free (L3) solution. PAGE-NT users should only run a frequency "6" solution after steps 1 thru 6 have been run with a normal L3 solution (so that all of the cycle slip repairs and integer fixing in step 5 will be done as usual). The "L6" algorithm has been updated recently and seems to work fine for baselines between 5 and 30 kilometers. PAGE-NT users may want to do their own comparisons between L1, L3, and L6 solutions using baselines in the 5 to 30 km range. The MENUS - The menu programs can read either ant_info.003 files or ANTEX files. If an ANTEX file called igs08_1648.atx is read, the menu programs will create a file called "igs08_1648.lbl", which is then used for the drop-down list of antennas in the Station Information menu. If they read an ant_info.003 file, they will create e.g. an "ng070608.lbl" file, where 070608 is the yr/mon/day when the ant_info.003 file was created (as listed on the first line of the ant_info.003 file). Thus, the menus now check that the current *.lbl file matches the antenna file specified in the default.txt file. SINEX2G - The sinex2g program was modified to read ANTEX files. It reads the SINEX CODEs in the ANTEX file, which give the official name of the ANTEX file: e.g., "igs08_1648". The 1648 is the GPS week when the ANTEX file was updated with additional satellite/ground antenna patterns. For the I-record in the G-File, this GPS week is converted into a date (year/month/day) which represents the first day of that GPS week. Sinex2g will also now recognize antex file names like igsngs08_1648.atx or ngs08.atx. The antex file names are written to the I-record in the G-File but without the *.atx extension. Other notes: 1a) The default.txt file has a C::EO section that should be set up as follows to use the MIT ocean-loading grid: C::EO ========= EXTRA OPTIONS for Pages.skl =================================== 21 EPOCH FOR OUTPUT 1997 1 1 0 0 0.0 observation standard error 0.050e+00 0.020e+00 USE FRAME ITRF00 adjust at mon use phase pattern horiz ocean-loading grid file c:\d1\pnt6k\otl_FES2004.grid ocean-loading center-of-mass corrections M2 NCDF_FES2004 -1.2661E-03 -1.4298E-03 -1.3724E-03 8.2077E-04 1.1479E-03 2.3005E-04 S2 NCDF_FES2004 -1.7763E-04 -5.7273E-04 -5.3350E-04 -3.1591E-04 -5.1370E-05 2.8184E-04 N2 NCDF_FES2004 -3.2372E-04 -2.8986E-04 -2.7121E-04 1.9849E-04 2.6018E-04 -1.4302E-04 K2 NCDF_FES2004 -1.1814E-04 -1.5250E-04 -1.1223E-04 -1.0889E-05 -1.5751E-05 1.2367E-04 K1 NCDF_FES2004 -1.1370E-03 4.4839E-03 -1.8539E-03 -8.6426E-04 -9.1022E-04 -1.7823E-03 O1 NCDF_FES2004 -1.6802E-04 2.9702E-03 -1.3985E-03 -2.2975E-04 -8.8858E-04 -6.4989E-04 P1 NCDF_FES2004 -3.6495E-04 1.4941E-03 -6.1436E-04 -2.9129E-04 -2.9261E-04 -5.7461E-04 Q1 NCDF_FES2004 3.0709E-05 4.5472E-04 -2.7831E-04 -2.9313E-05 -2.1734E-04 -4.1637E-05 Mf NCDF_FES2004 -5.0643E-04 -7.3040E-05 -2.2065E-04 4.1472E-04 -1.0212E-04 8.2276E-05 Mm NCDF_FES2004 -2.7885E-04 2.0596E-05 4.6882E-05 1.8399E-04 -7.4897E-06 1.3209E-05 Ssa NCDF_FES2004 -1.4899E-04 2.6146E-06 1.3687E-04 3.5475E-05 -2.4093E-05 3.1666E-07 C::SI ========= SINEX Information ============================================= The "use phase pattern horiz" line tells PAGES to use the North and East offsets for each ground antenna, from the ANTEX file or from the ant_info.003 file. 1b) If you are only using CORS data, the ocean loading will come from the *.bin files. With 24-hours of data, solving for tropo gradients will improve the vertical accuracy. Thus, in this case, the C::EO section can be shortened to 10 lines (notice that the line immediately after the C::EO line specifies the number of lines to be read -- make sure this number is correct). C::EO ========= EXTRA OPTIONS for Pages.skl =================================== 10 EPOCH FOR OUTPUT 1997 1 1 0 0 0.0 ESTIMATE TROPO GRADIENTS 1.00 MAKE TROPO GRADIENTS PIECEWISE CONTINUOUS observation standard error 0.050e+00 0.020e+00 USE FRAME ITRF00 adjust at mon use phase pattern horiz C::SI ========= SINEX Information ============================================= 2) The ANTEX file has two kinds of antenna patterns. Those that depend on elevation angle only (1D or NOAZI patterns), and those that are dependent on both azimuth and elevation angle (2D patterns). Many of the ground antennas in the ANTEX file have only 1D patterns. Pages will use the 2D patterns if they are available. In the ANTEX file, all ground antennas without a radome must end in "NONE". Note that the format is (a15,1x,a4), i.e., there must always be at least one blank between the 15- character antenna name and the 4-character radome name. 3) The sample Wisconsin data provided with PAGE-NT was collected in 1997. There is now a North Carolina CORS site called "hayw" in the cors_08.bin file. If you wish to give a demonstration of PAGE-NT to someone using this data, you will notice that I renamed hayw2610.97o to hwrd2610.97o. There is also a file called default-txt.WISC, which can be renamed to default.txt -- to use the same options that were used in creating the PAGE-NT User's Manual (back then, Ocean Loading was always turned off). 4) Reference Frames: IGS05 vs. IGS08. Usually one tries to have the orbits, antex file, and constrained site coordinates in the same reference frame. However, we will never have IGS05 coordinates coordinates and velocities for the CORS since we skipped over IGS05 and went from ITRF00 directly to IGS08 for the cors_08.bin file. So if you are using an IGS05 orbit (between 2 Jan 1994 and 16 Apr 2011) then you should say "USE FRAME IGS08" in your default.txt file, and use the latest igs08_wwww.atx file (or the equivalent IGS+NGS antex file). Even when constraining just IGS sites that do have IGS05 coordinates in the igs08.bin file, it is better to use frame IGS08 because the IGS08 coordinates and velocities are better than IGS05, and the list of breaks for the various sites is more complete. IGS08 = frame code "27"; recall that the full set of G-File Reference Frame Codes is listed in Annex N of the bluebook: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/FGCS/BlueBook/pdf/Annex_N.pdf ** Beware if you are downloading your precise ephemerides from the IGS cental bureau website -- they still have the "old" orbit files, not the new "IGS05" orbits from the repro1 effort. It may be safer to get the newer IGS05 orbits from the NGS CORS server; these are available from January 2, 1994 to 16 April, 2011. All IGS final orbits for days beginning April 17, 2011 are in the IGS08 frame. The new software is available on the NGS anonymous ftp server: ftp ftp.ngs.noaa.gov User: anonymous Password: your e-mail address cd /pub/pnt6 You can download and read the pnt6man.pdf file in programs.exe for additional details on installing and using PAGE-NT. From time-to-time, NGS offers classes on PAGE-NT at its Corbin Training Center (located near Fredericksburg, VA, approximately an hour and a half south of Silver Spring, MD, and an hour south of Washington, D.C.). For further details visit: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/corbin/