Post-processed kinematic positioning runs the same carrier-phase solution as RTK, but in the office, using raw observations logged on the vessel and at a base station or reference network. Processing forward and backward through the data recovers ambiguities lost in real time, and combined with the inertial data it yields a smoothed trajectory for the whole day. PPK removes the dependence on radio links and rescues lines run in float.
No radio link past the headland, just log raw and we'll PPK it tonight.
Also heard as
- post-processed kinematic
Related terms
RTK
Real-time kinematic: GNSS positioning that uses carrier-phase corrections from a base station to reach centimetres live.
SBET
Smoothed best estimate of trajectory: the post-processed position and attitude file applied to multibeam data.
Float
Describes an RTK solution whose carrier-phase ambiguities are not yet fixed, giving only decimetre-level accuracy.
GNSS
Global navigation satellite systems: satellite positioning such as GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou, used together.