• Journal of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.79-88
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• 2020

We determined Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite visibilities in signal-blockage simulations and then analyzed Position Dilution of Precision (PDOP) fluctuations obtained from those simulated satellite geometries. PDOP values under harsh signal-blockage simulation conditions become very high compared to those calculated with real observations. Especially when the number of observed satellites is four, which is the minimum requirement for GPS positioning, PDOP values instantaneously reached several hundreds or even several tens of thousands. It was also found that the volume of the tetrahedron composed with four satellites decreases significantly. When the correlation of the tetrahedron volume and PDOP was analyzed, we reached the following conclusions: PDOP values less than 4 can be acquired when the volume is larger than 103.2 × 10¹⁹ ㎥, and PDOP values increase beyond 50 when the volume is less than 6.0 × 10¹⁹ ㎥.