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Swiss Positioning Service swipos

The Swiss Positioning Service swipos provides the official spatial reference frame of Switzerland, based on the satellite systems GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and Beidou.

Function of the Swiss Positioning Service swipos
A man with a GNSS antenna stands in a meadow and receives data of the Swiss Positioning Service swipos via mobile phone network to improve his position

swipos is based on the automatic GNSS network Switzerland (AGNES), a network of continuously operating reference stations (CORS), covering all of Switzerland. swipos enables differential GNSS measurements of highest accuracy without the need to run private CORS.

The calculations use the four global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and Beidou. To increase the GNSS-accuracy of 5-10 m, the correction service swipos uses a virtual reference station (VRS), which is interpolated for the current user position based on measurements from the surrounding ANGES stations. This method enables swipos-GIS/GEO to determine the position in real-time with a cm-range accuracy.

Name

Description

Accuracy
2σ, 95%

Applications

swipos-GIS/GEO
RTK

The high precision RTK (real-time-kinematic) positioning service provides data from the AGNES CORS network as virtual reference stations via GSM for realtime applications

horizontal:
2 cm

vertical:
4 cm

  • Cadastral surveying
  • Construction surveying
  • Utilities surveying
  • Controlling of construction machinery

swipos-
GIS/GEO
Post-Processing

Download of RINEX files, either from a CORS or for a virtual reference station for post-processing in suitable software tools.

Varies, mm-cm

  • Surveying with elevated accuracy requirements
  • Drone flight paths
  • Surveying in areas without mobile network coverage

swipos-INFRA

RINEX data from a single AGNES station in realtime as raw stream fort he use in a suitable computation software.

Varies, a few cm

  • Monitoring of infrastructure (e.g. roads, bridges, dams)
  • Monitoring of ground movement (e.g. sliding slopes, rock slides, glaciers)

swipos-NAV

Correction data from a combined reference station near Luzern, sent via GSM

horizontal: 2 m

vertical:
5 m

  • Improved navigation
  • mapping

Availability

  • The positioning services are available 24/7
  • The services are monitored during the opening hours of swisstopo
  • There is no guarantee that the services are running without errors or interruptions

During the year 2021 swipos-GIS/GEO was unavailable for 6 minutes.

swipos Shop

The swipos shop at https://shop.swipos.ch offers you:

  • Account administration
  • Current status of swipos and information about planned maintenance works
  • Visualisation of current geometric and atmospheric errors
  • Download of RINEX files of AGNES stations or a virtual reference station for post processing


Federal Office of Topography swisstopo Seftigenstrasse 264
P.O. Box
3084 Wabern
Tel.
+41 58 469 01 11

E-mail


Opening hours

Monday to Thursday
7.45 to 11.45 a.m.
1.30 to 5 p.m.
Friday
7.45 to 11.45 a.m.
1.30 to 4 p.m.


Technical support

Phone: +41 58 469 01 21
E-mail


Administration

Questions concerning registration, orders, billing:
E-mail

Federal Office of Topography swisstopo

Seftigenstrasse 264
P.O. Box
3084 Wabern

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