GPS Tool Box

Creating and viewing skyplots

John Marshall

Adams 2001) and the Remondi date-time class (Hilla and

Abstract One of the best tools for diagnosing Jackson 2000). In addition to these two classes, the author
problems encountered when processing GPS data is made use of two additional existing pieces of source code
the skyplot, a simple illustration of GPS satellite used at the National Geodetic Survey (NGS), including a
trajectories over a given ground site. These plots, broadcast orbit interpolator and a Standard Product 3
also called satellite visibility diagrams, provide an (SP3) orbit interpolator. With this existing software in
intuitive feel for satellite geometry and they reveal hand, the azimuth and elevation angles are relatively easy
the impact of obstructions on satellite visibility. to obtain; the bulk of the software development effort
Most commercial GPS software is capable of cre- focused on generating the necessary input for the GMT
ating skyplots; however, freely available skyplot mapping software.
software may be difficult to find. Thanks to freely
available mapping software such as the Generic
Mapping Tools (GMT) and postscript viewing
software such as Ghostscript, GPS users can gen-
erate skyplots without concerning themselves with Generating the skyplot
the intricacies of computer graphics or with printer
drivers. Instead, skyplots can be generated by An input file titled ‘‘skyplot.inp’’ is required to define the
providing azimuth and elevation-angle input data time and location of the skyplot (Fig. 1). The first and
which can then be converted into x, y coordinates second lines of the input file contain the start and stop
for input into the existing mapping software. This times, respectively, given in year–month–day–hour–
article describes Windows-based C/C++ software minute–second format. The third line contains either the
for generating the azimuths and elevation angles, as broadcast orbit filename or the SP3 orbit file name; al-
well as software for viewing and printing the manac files are not supported. The fourth line contains the
skyplots. All the software is freely available on station name and either geocentric Cartesian coordinates
the Internet. to the nearest meter, or latitude and longitude in decimal
degrees and ellipsoidal height in meters. Finally, the
fifth line contains the elevation cutoff angle in degrees.
Orbit files and positions for GPS base stations exist at
such web sites as http://www.ngs.noaa.gov and http://
Introduction igscb.nasa.jpl.gov, for instance. If users wish, they can
modify the C/C++ source code to allow the input data to
The task of computing azimuth and elevation angles for be entered as command line arguments rather than use an
GPS satellites could be fairly daunting from a software input file.
point of view, however, thanks to existing C/C++ software Given this input file, the command ‘‘skyplot.exe’’ is issued
classes the process is relatively straightforward. Two good at the DOS command prompt to create the necessary
examples of existing C++ classes used in the author’s C/ GMT input files and a DOS batch file titled ‘‘skyplot.bat’’.
C++ skyplot program are the C++ RINEX class (Hilla and Assuming that GMT is properly loaded on your computer,
the command ‘‘skyplot.bat’’ is issued at the command
prompt to generate the postscript output file ‘‘skyplot.ps’’.
The skyplot.ps file can be viewed with Ghostscript or
Received: 10 June 2002 / Accepted: 10 July 2002 printed with a postscript-compatible printer. A skyplot
Published online: 11 October 2002 based on the example from Hofmann-Wellenhof et al.
ª Springer-Verlag 2002 (1997, p. 151) appears in Fig. 2. Advanced users of GMT
may wish to personalize the appearance of their skyplot
J. Marshall by modifying the GMT command line arguments in
National Geodetic Survey, NOAA, skyplot.bat. The command line arguments control such
1315 East–West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA features as line color, line width, and text size, for
E-mail: John.Marshall@noaa.gov example.

118 GPS Solutions (2002) 6:118–120 DOI 10.1007/s10291-002-0017-3

 GPS Tool Box

Fig. 1
Sample input file (‘‘skyplot.inp’’ file)

Fig. 2
Sample skyplot

Where to find the freeware helpful plotting tools: x, y scatter plots, dozens of map
projections, error ellipses, contouring, etc. While there is
The skyplot software described in this column and links a moderate learning curve associated with GMT, the
to all software described in previous columns of The GPS quality of the plots and GMT’s flexibility cannot be
Toolbox are available at http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/ overstated. Postscript files such as skyplot.ps can be
gps-toolbox/. The GMT software, users manual, and viewed with Ghostscript, which is available at http://
instructions for installation are available at http:// www.cs.wisc.edu/ghost/. Ghostscript consumes approx-
gmt.soest.hawaii.edu (Wessel and Smith 1991). It should imately 6 Mb of disk space whereas GMT consumes
be noted that GMT offers GPS users a wide variety of roughly 46 Mb.

GPS Solutions (2002) 6:118–120 119