Collecting volunteered geographic information from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS): experiences from the CAMALIOT project

Abstract

Raw observations (carrier-phase and code observations) from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) can now be accessed from Android mobile phones (Version 7.0 onwards). This paves the way for GNSS data to be utilized for low-cost precise positioning or in ionospheric or tropospheric applications. This paper presents results from data collection campaigns using the CAMALIOT mobile app. In the first campaign, 116.3 billion measurements from 11,828 mobile devices were collected from all continents. Although participation decreased during the second campaign, data are still being collected globally. In this contribution, we demonstrate the potential of volunteered geographic information (VGI) from mobile phones to fill data gaps in geodetic station networks that collect GNSS data, e.g. in Brazil, but also how the data can provide a denser set of observations than current networks in countries across Europe. We also show that mobile phones capable of dual-frequency reception, which is an emerging technology that can provide a richer source of GNSS data, are contributing in a substantial way. Finally, we present the results from a survey of participants to indicate that participation is diverse in terms of backgrounds and geography, where the dominant motivation for participation is to contribute to scientific research.

Keywords

• citizen science
• crowdsourcing
• volunteered geographic information (vgi)
• global navigation satellite system (gnss)
• mobile apps
• earth observation