BKG GNSS Data Center

The BKG GNSS Data Center (GDC) is the GNSS data service of Germany's Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG). It provides observation data from permanent GNSS reference stations, and products derived from them, to an international user community. It has been a Regional Data Centre of the International GNSS Service (IGS) since 1996 and is a data centre of the EUREF Permanent Network (EPN).

The archive holds observational, navigational and meteorological data from more than 500 stations worldwide, drawn from the German GREF network, the European EPN and the global IGS network. The stations track GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS, NavIC and SBAS signals. Files come in the standard RINEX exchange format and can be downloaded over HTTPS and anonymous FTP, or found through a web RINEX search, station list and file browser. Derived products, generated mainly by IGS and EUREF analysis centres, include satellite orbits and clocks, Earth rotation parameters, station positions and velocities, and tropospheric and ionospheric products. The GDC also publishes quality information on the data and products.

For real-time use, BKG's Ntrip broadcasters (igs-ip.net, euref-ip.net and products.igs-ip.net) stream station observations and IGS Real-Time Service orbit and clock corrections. The corrections use the RTCM SSR format and support real-time Precise Point Positioning. Archive access is open, and real-time streams need a free registration. BKG also develops the open-source BKG Ntrip Client (BNC) for stream conversion, RINEX quality checks and PPP, and supplies the BKG Professional Ntrip Caster software.