Due to the easily access to the satellite images, Google Earth (GE) images have become more popular than other online virtual globes. However, the popularity of GE is not an indication of its accuracy. A considerable amount of literature has been published on evaluating the positional accuracy of GE data; however there are few studies which have investigated the subject of improving the GE accuracy. In this paper, a practical method for enhancing the horizontal positional accuracy of GE is suggested by establishing ten reference points, in University of Baghdad main campus, using different Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observation techniques: Rapid Static, Post-Processing Kinematic, and Network. Then, the GE image for the study area was captured, saved, and georefrenced based on precise positions for ten selected reference points. The findings of this research indicate that the network method gives the most accurate results than using other two methods. Closer inspection of the results shows that the network method enhanced the results in comparison with the results of Rapid Static and PPK in the east component by 50% and 60%, respectively and in the north component by 18% and 20%, correspondingly.
University of Baghdad
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