The
material that follows is very tentative and further data is being collected to
confirm the validity.
The
plot below shows the longitude (East-West) error from smooth the average of 20
days data. Note the measured longitude
appears to move east during the day and west during the night. As the error in the plot is the measured
value minus the true value, this would correspond with the measured longitude
being slightly biased away from the sun.

The
latitude plot is quite different.
Intuitively, if the sun has an effect, that effect should be roughly the
same (whatever it is) near sunrise and sunset.
That appears to be roughly true.
At about those times, the location appears to be farther south (as the
errors in the plot is the measured latitude minus true latitude).

The
plot below is the un-smoothed 20 day average of the altitude errors. This plot is shown to compare with the next
one to demonstrate how much smoothing improves our ability to perceive the
general trends.

The
plot below is the smoothed average, as was shown for latitude and
longitude. It is a fairly good sine
wave. As this was a Garmin, 12XL, the
known vertical positive offset is seen.
Added to that is a gradual increase in the measured height during the
day and a gradual decrease in the measured height at night.

The
apparent effects above are tentative as more experimental data needs to be
examined.
( Return to http://www.erols.com/dlwilson/gps.htm
)