Frequently Asked Questions

Last updated: 2020-06-11

Expand All | Collapse All

0. What happened to GIPSY-OASIS?

1. Who needs a GipsyX license?

All users of GipsyX are required to operate with an active license.
A separate license is typically required for each research group, including different research groups with the same institution or company.
Users are advised to apply for a license renewal at least 3 months before the current license expires.

2. How do I request a copy of the GipsyX software?

Research and education users should submit a license request from the Software page.
For commerical and government-use license requests please contact David Murphy.

3. What is the processing time for a GipsyX license application?

The typical processing time for a GipsyX license application is 6 weeks, but users are advised to allow at least 3 months.

4. What is the most recent version of GipsyX?

5. On what platforms does GipsyX run?

GipsyX is designed to run on the most recent Redhat Enterprise Linux releases (6-8) and their clones (CentOS, Scientific Linux). We also provide support for the two most recent LTS Ubuntu (16.04, 18.04). GipsyX may also run on other Linux flavors, but we do not test on them and can only provide limited install support.
We offer an experimental Mac OS version of GipsyX with limited support.
GipsyX is 64-bit only, but we do offer a choice between versions with and without support for AVX extensions (a set of vector instructions available on newer CPU (post ~2012) that offer substantial performance improvements but which are not backwards compatible).

6. What are the memory requirements for GipsyX?

GipsyX requirements scale with the size of the problem. In general, 2GB of memory should be adequate for most use cases (PPP, LEO POD).
Larger problems take up more memory. For example, for a 45 station POD run with 30 satellites, the run would require about 4.5 GB of memory.
However, GipsyX also has an option to write to hard disk instead of memory for larger problems.

7. Where can I find documentation on GipsyX?

The reference paper on GipsyX is: Bertiger, W. et al. (2020) GipsyX/RTGx, a new tool set for space geodetic operations and research, Advances in Space Research, ISSN 0273-1177, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2020.04.015
A documentation tarball is available in the GipsyX software download area, which includes the GipsyX course materials.
Documentation is provided with the software through help pages accompanying each software module.
Some older documentation and training materials are also available on the Documentation page.

8. Is GipsyX training available?

A GipsyX class is usually held at least once a year.
A GipsyX user group forum is usually held annually around the location and date of the AGU Fall Meeting.
Material from the most recent class is provided in each GipsyX release in the documentation tarball.
To inquire about hosting a GipsyX class at your institution, please contact Dave Murphy

9. How do I log into the GipsyX documentation area?

The login for the documentation area is the same as for the GIPSY Forum (see next FAQ).
Note that it can take up to a few hours for forum logins to transfer to the documentation area.

10. Is there an online forum where to ask questions and get support for GipsyX?

There is a user forum available here.
The GIPSY Forum is a place for the licensed GIPSY-OASIS and GipsyX user community to share their experiences with each other, and to assist each other with GipsyX usage.
The GIPSY Forum is moderated by members of the GipsyX development team.
A valid GIPSY-OASIS or GipsyX license point of contact is required to register for GipsyX Forum access.

11. What types of positioning applications are possible with GipsyX?

Using a single user interface (gd2e.py), GipsyX can perform:

Static point positioning of a terrestrial station.
Kinematic point positioning of terrestrial station.
Kinematic point positioning of airplanes.
Precise orbit determination of individual and constellations of Earth orbiting satellites.
Processing of Multi-GNSS Data (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, etc).
Single receiver ambiguity resolved point-positioning (static, kinematic or orbit determination), using JPL's orbit and clock products (See the Data Products page). For example, "Single receiver phase ambiguity resolution with GPS data", 2010, Bertiger et al., J. Geodesy, Volume 84, Number 5, 327-337, DOI: 10.1007/s00190-010-0371-9.

12. What is the most recent version of GIPSY-OASIS?

Version 6.4.1 was released in January 2020. We do not anticiapte any future releases.

13. What is the relationship between GIPSY-OASIS and GipsyX?

GIPSY-OASIS is a suite of FORTRAN programs, Perl modules, cshell, and Python modules originating from the late 1980s and early 1990s for processing GPS data.
GipsyX is a completely new program suite, written in C++ and Python. GipsyX was designed from the ground up to support arbitrary GNSS constellations and flexible data types.
GipsyX and GIPSY-OASIS do not share any code, though they share similar file formats.

14. What is the current status of GIPSY-OASIS?

GIPSY-OASIS End-Of-Life is 2023-07-01. Development of GIPSY-OASIS is over and no future versions will be released.
Ongoing support for GIPSY-OASIS (e.g. orbit and clock products, goa-var updates, answering forum questions) is provided on a limited basis, but is likely to cease shortly after end-of-life.
New GIPSY-OASIS licenses are not being granted. Renewals for existing licensees will be decided on a case-by-case basis.
Existing GIPSY-OASIS license holders are strongly encouraged to transition to GipsyX.

15. What types of orbit and clock products for GNSS constellations are required by GipsyX?

Internal GipsyX-specific orbit and clock products are used for all GipsyX processing.
GipsyX provides an igs2GipsyX program to convert IGS product formats (including MGEX products) into native GipsyX formats (caution: IGS currently provides no bias-fixing information).

16. Where do I find JPL's orbit and clock solutions for the GPS constellation?

JPL's orbit and clock solutions for the GPS constellation are available in GIPSY native format and IGS format. Please refer to the Data Products page for data locations.

17. What is the latency of JPL's orbit and clock solutions for the GPS constellation?

Three types of products are available:

Ultra-Rapid solutions are available with a latency of <2 hours after the last available measurement.
Rapid solutions are available with a latency of 14 hours after the end of a day.
Final solutions are available with a latency of approximately 10 days.

See data products for more information.

18. Does JPL provide Multi-GNSS orbit and clock products?

JPL has provided a test set of multi-GNSS, 300s, rapid style products for GPS, Glonass, and Galieleo on the sideshow server spanning 2019-04-01 through 2019-09-29.
JPL does not currently provide a regularly-updated multi-GNSS product, but work is ongoing to produce such a product.

19. Is there an automatic GPS positioning service using JPL's software?