Your Drone Questions. Answered. YDQA: Ep 123- "What’s the Difference Between OPUS and Trimble RTX for Drone Mapping?"
Welcome back to Your Drone Questions. Answered, brought to you by Drone Launch Academy!
This week, we’re diving into a listener-suggested topic: GNSS post-processing services. If you’re flying mapping missions and need to establish accurate base station coordinates for your PPK (post-processed kinematic) workflow, services like OPUS and Trimble CenterPoint RTX can be game-changers.
In this episode, I break down:
- What GNSS post-processing services are and why they matter for drone pilots
- A comparison between OPUS (NGS/NOAA, U.S.) and Trimble CenterPoint RTX
- Logging best practices (intervals, duration, and timing of uploads)
- Key limitations, including constellation support and receiver compatibility
- Practical advice on when and how to use these services in your workflow
We’ll also touch on how these tools compare to other correction methods like RTK networks, and why understanding what’s happening “behind the scenes” is valuable when evaluating cloud-based processing platforms.
🎧 For more background on RTK vs. PPK workflows, check out Episode 101 of the show.
🔗 Resources mentioned in this episode:
https://geodesy.noaa.gov/OPUS/