The Feasibility of Replacing Precise Levelling with GPS In Iran

Today, with the use of Global Positioning System (GPS), it is possible to determine the geodetic height (relative to a Reference Ellipsoid) in easy mode with less time and cost. Despite of some advantages for leveling with GPS (GPS/Levelling) relative to traditional leveling, there is an important limitation which indicates the difference between Ellipsoid (as the reference datum for geodetic height) and Geoid (as the reference datum for orthometric height) named geoidal height. In order to achieve maximum accuracy in height component and then evaluating the quality results, different aspects of GPS/Levelling are considered in this study. In order to study the Feasibility of replacing precise levelling with GPS in Iran, a part of 55 km physical geodesy and geodynamic network in Azerbaijan region as well as the dense geodetic multipurpose network in Qeshm island were used. Based on different distances between each couple of points, this information, consisting of Orthometric and Geodetic heights for each point, is classified in 5 groups. The last Geoid model of Iran (IRGeoid10) with an absolute average accuracy of ±26 cm and a relative average accuracy of ±2.8 ppm are used for geoidal height. Obtained results show the accuracy of leveling height difference with GPS would be reduced by increasing the length of baseline. Index K as a criterion for determining level degree was calculated. This index shows that levelling with GPS in Iran could provide a precision of 4th degree leveling which can serve many engineering applications.