Comparison of Single-Site Ionospheric Delays Derived from Geometry-Free and Geometry-Based Approaches with an Analysis of Orbit and Clock Error Effects

The reparameterization of the geometry-free and geometry-based approaches to derive single-site ionospheric delays using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements is described. Kalman filtering is used to compute the geometry-free and geometry-based ionospheric delays in a forward computation procedure, aiming for a real-time application case. The numerical similarity and differences between the geometry-free and geometry-based ionospheric delays are assessed in terms of both formal and experimental errors (precision). The differences between geometry-free and geometry-based ionospheric delays are derived using two types of precise orbit and clock products. The effects of the precise orbit and clock residual errors are analyzed. The correlation coefficients between the L1 and L2 wide-lane ambiguities with the ionospheric delay are derived and analyzed. It is discovered that the geometry-based ionospheric delay is negatively correlated with geometry-based wide-lane ambiguities, while the geometry-free ionospheric delay and wide-lane ambiguities are much less correlated. A simulation analysis indicates that the impacts on geometry-based ionospheric delay estimates are partly coincided with the actual time-variant errors of the used orbit and clock in the line-of-sight direction.

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Inventory of Locations of Old Mining Works Using LiDAR Data: A Case Study in Slovakia

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13126981 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 6981

Author(s):

Marcela Bindzarova Gergelova ◽

Slavomir Labant ◽

Jozef Mizak ◽

Pavel Sustek ◽

Lubomir Leicher

Keyword(s):

Satellite System ◽

Precise Determination ◽

Lidar Data ◽

Positional Accuracy ◽

Current Form ◽

Mining History ◽

Mining Works ◽

Gnss Measurements ◽

Global Navigation Satellite

The concept of further sustainable development in the area of administration of the register of old mining works and recent mining works in Slovakia requires precise determination of the locations of the objects that constitute it. The objects in this register have their uniqueness linked with the history of mining in Slovakia. The state of positional accuracy in the registration of objects in its current form is unsatisfactory. Different database sources containing the locations of the old mining works are insufficient and show significant locational deviations. For this reason, it is necessary to precisely locate old mining works using modern measuring technologies. The most effective approach to solving this problem is the use of LiDAR data, which at the same time allow determining the position and above-ground shape of old mining works. Two localities with significant mining history were selected for this case study. Positional deviations in the location of old mining works among the selected data were determined from the register of old mining works in Slovakia, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) measurements, multidirectional hill-shading using LiDAR, and accessible data from the open street map. To compare the positions of identical old mining works from the selected database sources, we established differences in the coordinates (ΔX, ΔY) and calculated the positional deviations of the same objects. The average positional deviation in the total count of nineteen objects comparing documents, LiDAR data, and the register was 33.6 m. Comparing the locations of twelve old mining works between the LiDAR data and the open street map, the average positional deviation was 16.3 m. Between the data sources from GNSS and the registry of old mining works, the average positional deviation of four selected objects was 39.17 m.

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Sea Topography of the Ionian and Adriatic Seas Using Repeated GNSS Measurements

Water ◽

10.3390/w13060812 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 812

Author(s):

Sotiris Lycourghiotis

Keyword(s):

Satellite System ◽

Geoid Model ◽

Sea Surface Topography ◽

Mean Sea Surface ◽

The Mean ◽

A New Technique ◽

Gnss Measurements ◽

Global Navigation Satellite ◽

Constant Slope ◽

Ionian And Adriatic Seas

The mean sea surface topography of the Ionian and Adriatic Seas has been determined. This was based on six-months of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements which were performed on the Ionian Queen (a ship). The measurements were analyzed following a double-path methodology based on differential GNSS (D-GNSS) and precise point positioning (PPP) analysis. Numerical filtering techniques, multi-parametric accuracy analysis and a new technique for removing the meteorological tide factors were also used. Results were compared with the EGM96 geoid model. The calculated differences ranged between 0 and 48 cm. The error of the results was estimated to fall within 3.31 cm. The 3D image of the marine topography in the region shows a nearly constant slope of 4 cm/km in the N–S direction. Thus, the effectiveness of the approach “repeated GNSS measurements on the same route of a ship” developed in the context of “GNSS methods on floating means” has been demonstrated. The application of this approach using systematic multi-track recordings on conventional liner ships is very promising, as it may open possibilities for widespread use of the methodology across the world.

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Present-day orogenic processes in the western Kalpin nappe explored by interseismic GNSS measurements and coseismic InSAR observations of the 2020 Mw 6.1 Kalpin event

Geophysical Journal International ◽

10.1093/gji/ggab097 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ping He ◽

Yangmao Wen ◽

Shuiping Li ◽

Kaihua Ding ◽

Zhicai Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Source Parameters ◽

Satellite System ◽

Tien Shan ◽

Dislocation Model ◽

Maximum Displacement ◽

Finite Fault ◽

Instantaneous Deformation ◽

Gnss Measurements ◽

Global Navigation Satellite ◽

Finite Fault Model

Summary As the largest and most active intracontinental orogenic belt on Earth, the Tien Shan (TS) is a natural laboratory for understanding the Cenozoic orogenic processes driven by the India-Asia collision. On 19 January 2020, a Mw 6.1 event stuck the Kalpin region, where the southern frontal TS interacts with the Tarim basin. To probe the local ongoing orogenic processes and potential seismic hazard in the Kalpin region, both interseismic and instantaneous deformation derived from geodetic observations are employed in this study. With the constraint of interseismic global navigation satellite system (GNSS) velocities, we estimate the décollement plane parameters of the western Kalpin nappe based on a two-dimensional dislocation model, and the results suggest that the décollement plane is nearly subhorizontal with a dip of ∼3° at a depth of 24 km. Then, we collect both Sentinel-1 and ALOS-2 satellite images to capture the coseismic displacements caused by the 2020 Kalpin event, and the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) images show a maximum displacement of 7 cm in the line of sight near the epicentral region. With these coseismic displacement measurements, we invert the source parameters of this event using a finite-fault model. We determine the optimal source mechanism in which the fault geometry is dominated by thrust faulting with an E–W strike of 275° and a northward dip of 11.2°, and the main rupture slip is concentrated within an area 28.0 km in length and${\rm{\,\,}}$10.3 km in width, with a maximum slip of 0.3 m at a depth of 6–8 km. The total released moment of our preferred distributed slip model yields a geodetic moment of 1.59 × 1018 N$\cdot $m, equivalent to Mw 6.1. The contrast of the décollement plane depth from interseismic GNSS and the rupture depth from coseismic InSAR suggests that a compression still exists in the Kalpin nappe forefront, which is prone to frequent moderate events and may be at risk of a much more dangerous earthquake.

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Assessing the quality of ionospheric models through GNSS positioning error: methodology and results

GPS Solutions ◽

10.1007/s10291-019-0918-z ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Adrià Rovira-Garcia ◽

Deimos Ibáñez-Segura ◽

Raul Orús-Perez ◽

José Miguel Juan ◽

Jaume Sanz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Satellite System ◽

Ionospheric Delay ◽

Single Frequency ◽

Positioning Error ◽

Dual Frequency ◽

Error Sources ◽

Ionospheric Models ◽

Evaluation Metric ◽

Global Navigation Satellite

Abstract Single-frequency users of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) must correct for the ionospheric delay. These corrections are available from global ionospheric models (GIMs). Therefore, the accuracy of the GIM is important because the unmodeled or incorrectly part of ionospheric delay contributes to the positioning error of GNSS-based positioning. However, the positioning error of receivers located at known coordinates can be used to infer the accuracy of GIMs in a simple manner. This is why assessment of GIMs by means of the position domain is often used as an alternative to assessments in the ionospheric delay domain. The latter method requires accurate reference ionospheric values obtained from a network solution and complex geodetic modeling. However, evaluations using the positioning error method present several difficulties, as evidenced in recent works, that can lead to inconsistent results compared to the tests using the ionospheric delay domain. We analyze the reasons why such inconsistencies occur, applying both methodologies. We have computed the position of 34 permanent stations for the entire year of 2014 within the last Solar Maximum. The positioning tests have been done using code pseudoranges and carrier-phase leveled (CCL) measurements. We identify the error sources that make it difficult to distinguish the part of the positioning error that is attributable to the ionospheric correction: the measurement noise, pseudorange multipath, evaluation metric, and outliers. Once these error sources are considered, we obtain equivalent results to those found in the ionospheric delay domain assessments. Accurate GIMs can provide single-frequency navigation positioning at the decimeter level using CCL measurements and better positions than those obtained using the dual-frequency ionospheric-free combination of pseudoranges. Finally, some recommendations are provided for further studies of ionospheric models using the position domain method.

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A New Method to Improve the Detection of Co-Seismic Ionospheric Disturbances using Sequential Measurement Combination

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s19132948 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 (13) ◽

pp. 2948 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Seonho Kang ◽

Junesol Song ◽

Deokhwa Han ◽

Bugyeom Kim ◽

Hyoungmin So ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Time Derivative ◽

Tohoku Earthquake ◽

Satellite System ◽

Detection Performance ◽

Ionospheric Delay ◽

New Method ◽

Ionospheric Disturbances ◽

The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake ◽

Sequential Measurement ◽

Global Navigation Satellite

Earthquakes generate energy that propagates into the ionosphere and incurs co-seismic ionospheric disturbances (CIDs), which can be observed in ionospheric delay measurements. In most cases, the CID has a weak signal strength, because the energy in the atmosphere transferred from the earthquake dissipates as it travels toward the ionosphere. It is particularly hard to observe at reference stations that are located far from the epicenter. As the number of Global Navigation Satellite System stations and their positions are restricted, it is important to employ weak CID data in the analysis by improving the detection performance of CIDs. In this study, we suggest a new method of detecting CIDs, which mainly uses a sequential measurement combination of the carrier phase-based ionospheric delay data, with a 1-second interval. The proposed method’s performance was compared with conventional methods, including band-pass filters and a representative time-derivative method, using data from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. As a result, the maximum CID-to-noise ratio can be increased by a maximum of 13% when the proposed method is used, and consequently, the detection performance of the CID can be improved.

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Validation of Preliminary Results of Thermal Tropopause Derived from FY-3C GNOS Data

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs11091139 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (9) ◽

pp. 1139 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ziyan Liu ◽

Yueqiang Sun ◽

Weihua Bai ◽

Junming Xia ◽

Guangyuan Tan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Correlation Coefficients ◽

Satellite System ◽

Research Field ◽

Temperature Profiles ◽

Temperature Deviation ◽

Climate Research ◽

Long Term Stability ◽

Research Fields ◽

Global Navigation Satellite

The state-of-art global navigation satellite system (GNSS) occultation sounder (GNOS) onboard the FengYun 3 series C satellite (FY-3C) has been in operation for more than five years. The accumulation of FY-3C GNOS atmospheric data makes it ready to be used in atmosphere and climate research fields. This work first introduces FY-3C GNOS into tropopause research and gives the error evaluation results of long-term FY-3C atmosphere profiles. We compare FY-3C results with Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) and radiosonde results and also present the FY-3C global seasonal tropopause patterns. The mean temperature deviation between FY-3C GNOS temperature profiles and COSMIC temperature profiles from January 2014 to December 2017 is globally less than 0.2 K, and the bias of tropopause height (TPH) and tropopause temperature (TPT) annual cycle derived from both collocated pairs are about 80–100 m and 1–2 K, respectively. Also, the correlation coefficients between FY-3C GNOS tropopause parameters and each radiosonde counterpart are generally larger than 0.9 and the corresponding regression coefficients are close to 1. Multiple climate phenomena shown in seasonal patterns coincide with results of other relevant studies. Our results demonstrate the long-term stability of FY-3C GNOS atmosphere profiles and utility of FY-3C GNOS data in the climate research field.

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Precise Orbit Determination for GNSS Maneuvering Satellite with the Constraint of a Predicted Clock

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs11161949 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (16) ◽

pp. 1949 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Xiaolei Dai ◽

Yidong Lou ◽

Zhiqiang Dai ◽

Caibo Hu ◽

Yaquan Peng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Orbit Determination ◽

Precise Orbit Determination ◽

Satellite System ◽

Navigation Satellite ◽

Precise Orbit ◽

Gps Satellites ◽

Global Navigation Satellite ◽

Cross Track ◽

Along Track ◽

Backward Integration

Precise orbit products are essential and a prerequisite for global navigation satellite system (GNSS) applications, which, however, are unavailable or unusable when satellites are undertaking maneuvers. We propose a clock-constrained reverse precise point positioning (RPPP) method to generate the rather precise orbits for GNSS maneuvering satellites. In this method, the precise clock estimates generated by the dynamic precise orbit determination (POD) processing before maneuvering are modeled and predicted to the maneuvering periods and they constrain the RPPP POD during maneuvering. The prediction model is developed according to different clock types, of which the 2-h prediction error is 0.31 ns and 1.07 ns for global positioning system (GPS) Rubidium (Rb) and Cesium (Cs) clocks, and 0.45 ns and 0.60 ns for the Beidou navigation satellite system (BDS) geostationary orbit (GEO) and inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO)/Median Earth orbit (MEO) satellite clocks, respectively. The performance of this proposed method is first evaluated using the normal observations without maneuvers. Experiment results show that, without clock-constraint, the average root mean square (RMS) of RPPP orbit solutions in the radial, cross-track and along-track directions is 69.3 cm, 5.4 cm and 5.7 cm for GPS satellites and 153.9 cm, 12.8 cm and 10.0 cm for BDS satellites. When the constraint of predicted satellite clocks is introduced, the average RMS is dramatically reduced in the radial direction by a factor of 7–11, with the value of 9.7 cm and 13.4 cm for GPS and BDS satellites. At last, the proposed method is further tested on the actual GPS and BDS maneuver events. The clock-constrained RPPP POD solution is compared to the forward and backward integration orbits of the dynamic POD solution. The resulting orbit differences are less than 20 cm in all three directions for GPS satellite, and less than 30 cm in the radial and cross-track directions and up to 100 cm in the along-track direction for BDS satellites. From the orbit differences, the maneuver start and end time is detected, which reveals that the maneuver duration of GPS satellites is less than 2 min, and the maneuver events last from 22.5 min to 107 min for different BDS satellites.

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Simulation analysis and performance of a feasible GNSS system with multi-beam antennas deployment operating in Galileo frequency bands

International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies ◽

10.1017/s1759078712000529 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 4 (5) ◽

pp. 537-543

Author(s):

Constantinos T. Angelis

Keyword(s):

Simulation Analysis ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Satellite System ◽

Access Time ◽

Maximum Efficiency ◽

Satellite Systems ◽

Space Agency ◽

Simulation Results ◽

And Performance ◽

Global Navigation Satellite

New Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) systems under development, such as Galileo, are very promising for future global positioning-based applications. A vast research is undergoing a final stage of implementation in order to fulfill the primary purpose of European Space Agency for developing and then sustaining of 30 (27 + 3 spares) Galileo satellites in orbit. This article presents simulation results for a realistic deployment of multibeam antennas, with a new modified theoretical pattern, in GNSS Satellite Systems. The proposed multibeam antennas use 61-spot beams for maximum efficiency in terms of satellite coverage and accessing high quality of service. In order to prove the reliability and feasibility of this work, various simulations were conducted using the upcoming Galileo system as a platform taking into consideration real-world conditions. Gain analysis versus elevation, Bit Error Rate (BER) and access time simulation results show that the viability of the proposed multibeam antenna deployment is established.

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Investigating the GALILEO and BeiDou orbit accuracy derived from rapid products

Academic Perspective Procedia ◽

10.33793/acperpro.03.01.62 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 316-321

Author(s):

Sermet Ogutcu ◽

Salih Alcay ◽

Omer Faruk Atiz

Keyword(s):

Orbit Determination ◽

Precise Orbit Determination ◽

Solar Radiation Pressure ◽

Satellite Orbit ◽

Satellite System ◽

Precise Orbit ◽

Yaw Attitude ◽

Global Navigation Satellite ◽

Cross Track ◽

Mean Square Errors

In recent years, the advances of the new Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) constellations including, Galileo and BeiDou (BDS), have undergone dramatic changes. Some analysis centers (ACs) produce precise orbit and clock products of Galileo and BeiDou constellations. Currently, three types of Galileo and BeiDou satellite orbit and clock products are available &ndash; namely, precise, rapid and ultra-rapid products &ndash;. Ultra-rapid and rapid products are generally used for time-constrained applications. Precise orbit determination (POD) of Galileo and BeiDou is much challenging compared with GPS and GLONASS constellations due to the officially undetermined receiver phase center offset (PCO), variations (PCV) of Galileo and BeiDou constellations and, also some other not well-defined factors such as yaw-attitude models and solar radiation pressure. In this study, GALILEO orbit accuracy is investigated using rapid products produced by Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE) GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) and Wuhan University (WUHAN), while GFZ and WUHAN rapid products are used for BeiDou constellation only. One month (January) of data in 2020 is used to compute errors of radial, along-track, and cross-track components of Galileo and BeiDou orbit derived by rapid products compared with the CODE final Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) product which is assumed as the reference product. The results show that no significant differences between the products are found for Galileo orbit. For BeiDou orbit, WUHAN rapid product produced the smaller root mean square errors (RMSEs) of orbit components compared with the GFZ rapid product.

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Comparison and Validation of the Ionospheric Climatological Morphology of FY3C/GNOS with COSMIC during the Recent Low Solar Activity Period

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs11222686 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (22) ◽

pp. 2686 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Weihua Bai ◽

Guangyuan Tan ◽

Yueqiang Sun ◽

Junming Xia ◽

Cheng Cheng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Correlation Coefficients ◽

Satellite System ◽

Weddell Sea ◽

Activity Period ◽

High Profile ◽

Four Seasons ◽

Weddell Sea Anomaly ◽

Winter Anomaly ◽

Global Navigation Satellite ◽

Solar Activity Period

With the accumulation of the ionospheric radio occultation (IRO) data observed by Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) occultation sounder (GNOS) onboard FengYun-3C (FY3C) satellite, it is possible to use GNOS IRO data for ionospheric climatology research. Therefore, this work aims to validate the feasibility of FY3C/GNOS IRO products in climatology research by comparison with that of Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC), laying the foundation for its application in climatology study. Since previous verification works of FY3C/GNOS were done by comparison with ionosondes, this work matched NmF2/hmF2 of FY3C/GNOS and COSMIC into data pairs to verify the profile-level accuracy of FY3C/GNOS IRO data. The statistical results show that the overall correlation coefficients of both NmF2 and hmF2 are above 0.9, the overall bias and std of NmF2 differences between FY3C/GNOS and COSMIC are −2.19% and 17.48%, respectively, and the bias and std of hmF2 differences are −3.29 and 18.01 km, respectively, indicating a high profile-level precision consistency between FY3C/GNOS and COSMIC. In ionospheric climatology comparison, we divided NmF2/hmF2 of FY3C/GNOS into four seasons, then presented the season median NmF2/hmF2 in 5° × 10° grids and compared them with that of COSMIC. The results show that the ionospheric climatological characteristics of FY3C/GNOS and COSMIC are highly matched, both showing the typical climatological features such as equatorial ionosphere anomaly (EIA), winter anomaly, semiannual anomaly, Weddell Sea anomaly (WSA) and so on, though minor discrepancies do exist like the differences in magnitude of longitude peak structures and WSA, which verifies the reliability of FY3C/GNOS IRO products in ionospheric climatology research.

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