scholarly journals Multi-GNSS Combined Orbit and Clock Solutions at iGMAS

Sensors ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 457
Author(s):  
Wei Zhou ◽  
Hongliang Cai ◽  
Guo Chen ◽  
Wenhai Jiao ◽  
Qianqian He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Precise Point Positioning ◽  
Precise Orbit Determination ◽  
Solar Radiation Pressure ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Combination Method ◽  
Laser Ranging ◽  
Unified Framework ◽  
Linear Pattern ◽  
Analysis Center ◽  
Range Error

Global navigation services from the quad-constellation of GPS, GLONASS, BDS, and Galileo are now available. The international GNSS monitoring and assessment system (iGMAS) aims to evaluate the navigation performance of the current quad systems under a unified framework. In order to assess impact of orbit and clock errors on the positioning accuracy, the user range error (URE) is always taken as a metric by comparison with the precise products. Compared with the solutions from a single analysis center, the combined solutions derived from multiple analysis centers are characterized with robustness and reliability and preferred to be used as references to assess the performance of broadcast ephemerides. In this paper, the combination method of iGMAS orbit and clock products is described, and the performance of the combined solutions is evaluated by various means. There are different internal precisions of the combined orbit and clock for different constellations, which indicates that consistent weights should be assigned for individual constellations and analysis centers included in the combination. For BDS-3, Galileo, and GLONASS combined orbits of iGMAS, the root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 5 cm is achieved by satellite laser ranging (SLR) observations. Meanwhile, the SLR residuals are characterized with a linear pattern with respect to the position of the sun, which indicates that the solar radiation pressure (SRP) model adopted in precise orbit determination needs further improvement. The consistency between combined orbit and clock of quad-constellation is validated by precise point positioning (PPP), and the accuracies of simulated kinematic tests are 1.4, 1.2, and 2.9 cm for east, north, and up components, respectively.

scholarly journals Validation of Multi-Year Galileo Orbits Using Satellite Laser Ranging

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 4634
Author(s):  
Enzhe Tao ◽  
Nannan Guo ◽  
Kexin Xu ◽  
Bin Wang ◽  
Xuhua Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Precise Orbit Determination ◽  
Solar Radiation Pressure ◽  
Satellite System ◽  
Satellite Laser Ranging ◽  
Laser Ranging ◽  
Systematic Bias ◽  
Important Indicator ◽  
Wing Model ◽  
Orbit Modeling

Satellite laser ranging (SLR) observations provide an independent validation of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) orbits derived using microwave measurements. SLR residuals have also proven to be an important indicator of orbit radial accuracy. In this study, SLR validation is conducted for the precise orbits of eight Galileo satellites covering four to eight years (the current longest span), provided by multiple analysis centers (ACs) participating in the multi-GNSS experiment (MGEX). The purpose of this long-term analysis (the longest such study to date), is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of orbit product quality, its influencing factors, and the effect of perturbation model updates on precise orbit determination (POD) processing. A conventional ECOM solar radiation pressure (SRP) model was used for POD. The results showed distinct periodic variations with angular arguments in the SRP model, implying certain defects in the ECOM system. Updated SRP descriptions, such as ECOM2 or the Box-Wing model, led to significant improvements in SLR residuals for orbital products from multiple ACs. The standard deviation of these residuals decreased from 8–10 cm, before the SRP update, to about 3 cm afterward. The systematic bias of the residuals was also reduced by 2–4 cm and the apparent variability decreased significantly. In addition, the effects of gradual SRP model updates in the POD were evident in orbit comparisons. Orbital differences between ACs in the radial direction were reduced from the initial 10 cm to better than 3 cm, which is consistent with the results of SLR residual analysis. These results suggest SLR validation to be a powerful technique for evaluating the quality of POD strategies in GNSS orbits. Furthermore, this study has demonstrated that perturbation models, such as SRP, provide a better orbit modeling for the Galileo satellites.

scholarly journals A Priori Solar Radiation Pressure Model for BeiDou-3 MEO Satellites

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 1605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingyuan Yan ◽  
Chenchen Liu ◽  
Guanwen Huang ◽  
Qin Zhang ◽  
Le Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Precise Orbit Determination ◽  
Orbital Plane ◽  
Solar Radiation Pressure ◽  
The Body ◽  
Systematic Variation ◽  
Laser Ranging ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Wing Model ◽  
Orbit Model

Due to the cuboid satellite body of BeiDou-3 satellites, the accuracy of their orbit showed a trend of systematic variation with the sun-satellite-earth angle (ε) using the Extend CODE Orbit Model (ECOM1). Therefore, an a priori cuboid box-wing model (named the cuboid model) is necessary to compensate ECOM1. Considering that the body-dimensions and optical properties of the BeiDou-3 satellites used to construct the box-wing model have not yet been fully released, the adjustable box-wing model (ABW) was used for precise orbit determination (POD). The a priori cuboid box-wing model was directly estimated by the precision radiation accelerations, obtained from ABW POD. When using ECOM1 model, for 14 < β < 40°, a linear systematic variation of D0 related to the elevation of the sun above the orbital plane (β-angle) with a slope of 0.048 nm/s2/°, was found for C30. After adding the cuboid model to assist ECOM1 (named Cuboid + ECOM1), the slope was reduced to 0.005 nm/s2/°, and for C20 satellite, the standard deviation (STD) of D0 was improved, from 1.28 to 0.85 nm/s2 (34%). For satellite laser ranging (SLR) validation, when using the ECOM1 model, the systematic variation with the ε angle was about 14 cm for C20 and C30. After using the Cuboid + ECOM1 model, the variation was significantly reduced to about 5 cm. For C20 and C21, compared with the ECOM1 model, the root mean square (RMS) of the ECOM2 and Cuboid + ECOM1 model was improved by about 0.54 (10.3%) and 0.43 cm (8.7%). For C29 and C30, the RMS of ECOM2 and Cuboid + ECOM1 model was improved for about 0.7 (10.9%) and 1.6 cm (25.6%). Finally, the RMS of the SLR residuals of 4.37 to 4.88 cm was achieved for BeiDou-3 POD.

scholarly journals Comparisons of CODE and CNES/CLS GPS satellite bias products and applications in Sentinel-3 satellite precise orbit determination

GPS Solutions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bingbing Duan ◽  
Urs Hugentobler
Keyword(s):  
Linear Combination ◽  
Orbit Determination ◽  
Fractional Part ◽  
Precise Orbit Determination ◽  
Satellite Orbit ◽  
Satellite Orbits ◽  
Satellite Clock ◽  
Analysis Center ◽  
Wide Lane ◽  
Total Difference

AbstractTo resolve undifferenced GNSS phase ambiguities, dedicated satellite products are needed, such as satellite orbits, clock offsets and biases. The International GNSS Service CNES/CLS analysis center provides satellite (HMW) Hatch-Melbourne-Wübbena bias and dedicated satellite clock products (including satellite phase bias), while the CODE analysis center provides satellite OSB (observable-specific-bias) and integer clock products. The CNES/CLS GPS satellite HMW bias products are determined by the Hatch-Melbourne-Wübbena (HMW) linear combination and aggregate both code (C1W, C2W) and phase (L1W, L2W) biases. By forming the HMW linear combination of CODE OSB corrections on the same signals, we compare CODE satellite HMW biases to those from CNES/CLS. The fractional part of GPS satellite HMW biases from both analysis centers are very close to each other, with a mean Root-Mean-Square (RMS) of differences of 0.01 wide-lane cycles. A direct comparison of satellite narrow-lane biases is not easily possible since satellite narrow-lane biases are correlated with satellite orbit and clock products, as well as with integer wide-lane ambiguities. Moreover, CNES/CLS provides no satellite narrow-lane biases but incorporates them into satellite clock offsets. Therefore, we compute differences of GPS satellite orbits, clock offsets, integer wide-lane ambiguities and narrow-lane biases (only for CODE products) between CODE and CNES/CLS products. The total difference of these terms for each satellite represents the difference of the narrow-lane bias by subtracting certain integer narrow-lane cycles. We call this total difference “narrow-lane” bias difference. We find that 3% of the narrow-lane biases from these two analysis centers during the experimental time period have differences larger than 0.05 narrow-lane cycles. In fact, this is mainly caused by one Block IIA satellite since satellite clock offsets of the IIA satellite cannot be well determined during eclipsing seasons. To show the application of both types of GPS products, we apply them for Sentinel-3 satellite orbit determination. The wide-lane fixing rates using both products are more than 98%, while the narrow-lane fixing rates are more than 95%. Ambiguity-fixed Sentinel-3 satellite orbits show clear improvement over float solutions. RMS of 6-h orbit overlaps improves by about a factor of two. Also, we observe similar improvements by comparing our Sentinel-3 orbit solutions to the external combined products. Standard deviation value of Satellite Laser Ranging residuals is reduced by more than 10% for Sentinel-3A and more than 15% for Sentinel-3B satellite by fixing ambiguities to integer values.

scholarly journals Precise point positioning with GPS and Galileo broadcast ephemerides

GPS Solutions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Carlin ◽  
André Hauschild ◽  
Oliver Montenbruck
Keyword(s):  
Precise Point Positioning ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Process Noise ◽  
Functional Models ◽  
Ambiguity Estimation ◽  
Point Positioning ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Range Error ◽  
Space Range

AbstractFor more than 20 years, precise point positioning (PPP) has been a well-established technique for carrier phase-based navigation. Traditionally, it relies on precise orbit and clock products to achieve accuracies in the order of centimeters. With the modernization of legacy GNSS constellations and the introduction of new systems such as Galileo, a continued reduction in the signal-in-space range error (SISRE) can be observed. Supported by this fact, we analyze the feasibility and performance of PPP with broadcast ephemerides and observations of Galileo and GPS. Two different functional models for compensation of SISREs are assessed: process noise in the ambiguity states and the explicit estimation of a SISRE state for each channel. Tests performed with permanent reference stations show that the position can be estimated in kinematic conditions with an average three-dimensional (3D) root mean square (RMS) error of 29 cm for Galileo and 63 cm for GPS. Dual-constellation solutions can further improve the accuracy to 25 cm. Compared to standard algorithms without SISRE compensation, the proposed PPP approaches offer a 40% performance improvement for Galileo and 70% for GPS when working with broadcast ephemerides. An additional test with observations taken on a boat ride yielded 3D RMS accuracy of 39 cm for Galileo, 41 cm for GPS, and 27 cm for dual-constellation processing compared to a real-time kinematic reference solution. Compared to the use of process noise in the phase ambiguity estimation, the explicit estimation of SISRE states yields a slightly improved robustness and accuracy at the expense of increased algorithmic complexity. Overall, the test results demonstrate that the application of broadcast ephemerides in a PPP model is feasible with modern GNSS constellations and able to reach accuracies in the order of few decimeters when using proper SISRE compensation techniques.

Examination and Enhancement of solar radiation pressure model for BDS-3 satellites

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Li ◽  
Yongqiang Yuan ◽  
Shi Huang ◽  
Chengbo Liu ◽  
Jiaqing Lou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Radiation Pressure ◽  
Elevation Angle ◽  
Precise Orbit Determination ◽  
Orbital Plane ◽  
Solar Radiation Pressure ◽  
Earth Orbit ◽  
Precise Orbit ◽  
Orbit Perturbation ◽  
Geo Satellites

&lt;p&gt;With the successful launch of the last Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite in June 2020, China has completed the construction of the third generation BeiDou navigation satellites system (BDS-3). BDS-3 global services have been initiated in July 2020 with the constellation of 3 GEO, 3 Inclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO) and 24 Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites. In order to further improve the performance of BDS-3 services, the quality of BDS-3 precise orbit product needs further enhancements.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160; The solar radiation pressure (SRP) is the main non-conservative orbit perturbation for GNSS satellites and is the key to improve BDS-3 precise orbit determination. In this study, we focus on the SRP models for BDS-3 satellites. Firstly, the widely used Extended CODE Orbit Model with five parameters (ECOM-5) is assessed. With one-year observations of 2020 from both iGMAS and MGEX networks, the five parameters of ECOM model (D0, Y0, B0, Bc and Bs) are estimated for each BDS-3 satellite. The D0 estimates show an obvious dependency on the elevation angle of the Sun above the satellite orbital plane (denoted as &amp;#946;). In addition, large variations can be noticed in eclipse seasons, which indicate the dramatic changes of SRP. The Y0 estimates vary from -0.6 nm/s&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; to 0.6 nm/s&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; for MEO, -1.0 to 1.0 nm/s&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; for IGSO and -1.0 to 1.5 nm/s&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; for GEO satellites. The B0 estimates of several satellites exhibit a clear dependency on the &amp;#946; angle. The largest variation of B0 appears at C45 and C46, changing from 1.0 nm/s&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; at 15 deg to 8.3 nm/s&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; at 64 deg, which implies that the solar panels of these two satellites may have an obvious rotation lag. To compensate the deficiencies of BDS-3 SRP modeling, we introduce several additional parameters into ECOM-5 model (e.g. introducing higher harmonic terms). The POD performances can be improved by about 10% and 40% for BDS-3 MEO/IGSO and GEO satellites, respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160; Except for the empirical model, we also study the semi-empirical SRP model such as the a priori box-wing model. Since the geometrical and optical properties from BDS-3 metadata are general and rough, we apply more detailed geometrical and optical coefficients for BDS-3 satellites. The POD performance can be improved by about 10% compared to empirical SRP models. Furthermore, considering Earth radiation pressure will have an impact of about 1.3 cm in radial component for MEO satellites.&lt;/p&gt;

GRACE and GRACE-FO Level-1 V04 Data Processing Status

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Mccullough ◽  
Tamara Bandikova ◽  
William Bertiger ◽  
Carmen Boening ◽  
Sung Byun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Processing ◽  
Attitude Determination ◽  
Precise Orbit Determination ◽  
Mass Change ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Analysis Center ◽  
Level 1 ◽  
Gravity Recovery

&lt;p&gt;The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO), launched in May 2018, provides invaluable information about mass change in the Earth system, continuing the legacy of GRACE. Fundamental requirements for successful mass change recovery are precise orbit determination and inter-satellite ranging, determination of the relative clock alignment of the ultra-stable oscillators (USOs), precise attitude determination, and accelerometry. NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the official Level-1 data processing and analysis center, and is currently processing software version 04. Here we present analysis of the aforementioned GRACE-FO sensor data, as well a preview of an upcoming GRACE reprocessing, and a discussion of measurement performance.&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals Impact of ECOM Solar Radiation Pressure Models on Multi-GNSS Ultra-Rapid Orbit Determination

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 3024
Author(s):  
Yang Liu ◽  
Yanxiong Liu ◽  
Ziwen Tian ◽  
Xiaolei Dai ◽  
Yun Qing ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Radiation Pressure ◽  
Orbit Determination ◽  
Precise Orbit Determination ◽  
Solar Radiation Pressure ◽  
Satellite System ◽  
Ambiguity Fixing ◽  
Global Navigation Satellite ◽  
The Impact

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) ultra-rapid precise orbits are crucial for global and wide-area real-time high-precision applications. The solar radiation pressure (SRP) model is an important factor in precise orbit determination. The real-time orbit determination is generally less accurate than the post-processed one and may amplify the instability and mismodeling of SRP models. Also, the impact of different SRP models on multi-GNSS real-time predicted orbits demands investigations. We analyzed the impact of the ECOM 1 and ECOM 2 models on multi-GNSS ultra-rapid orbit determination in terms of ambiguity resolution performance, real-time predicted orbit overlap precision, and satellite laser ranging (SLR) validation. The multi-GNSS observed orbital arc and predicted orbital arcs of 1, 3, 6, and 24 h are compared. The simulated real-time experiment shows that for GLONASS and Galileo ultra-rapid orbits, compared to ECOM 1, ECOM 2 increased the ambiguity fixing rate to 89.3% and 83.1%, respectively, and improves the predicted orbit accuracy by 9.2% and 27.7%, respectively. For GPS ultra-rapid orbits, ECOM 2 obtains a similar ambiguity fixing rate as ECOM 1 but slightly better orbit overlap precision. For BDS GEO ultra-rapid orbits, ECOM 2 obtains better overlap precision and SLR residuals, while for BDS IGSO and MEO ultra-rapid orbits, ECOM 1 obtains better orbit overlap precision and SLR residuals.

scholarly journals Investigating the GALILEO and BeiDou orbit accuracy derived from rapid products

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 &amp;ndash; namely, precise, rapid and ultra-rapid products &amp;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.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study on the Solar Radiation Pressure Modeling in GPS Precise Orbit Determination

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 3388
Author(s):  
Longjiang Tang ◽  
Jungang Wang ◽  
Huizhong Zhu ◽  
Maorong Ge ◽  
Aigong Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
High Precision ◽  
Radiation Pressure ◽  
Orbit Determination ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Precise Orbit Determination ◽  
Solar Radiation Pressure ◽  
International Gnss Service ◽  
Precise Orbit ◽  
Wing Model

For Global Positioning System (GPS) precise orbit determination (POD), the solar radiation pressure (SRP) is the dominant nongravitational perturbation force. Among the current SRP models, the ECOM and box-wing models are widely used in the International GNSS Service (IGS) community. However, the performance of different models varies over different GPS satellites. In this study, we investigate the performances of different SRP models, including the box-wing and adjustable box-wing as a priori models, and ECOM1 and ECOM2 as parameterization models, in the GPS POD solution from 2017 to 2019. Moreover, we pay special attention to the handling of the shadow factor in the SRP modeling for eclipsing satellites, which is critical to achieve high-precision POD solutions but has not yet been fully investigated. We demonstrate that, as an a priori SRP model, the adjustable box-wing has better performance than the box-wing model by up to 5 mm in the orbit day boundary discontinuity (DBD) statistics, with the largest improvement observed on the BLOCK IIR satellites using the ECOM1 as a parameterization SRP model. The box-wing model shows an insignificant orbit improvement serving as the a priori SRP model. For the eclipsing satellites, the three-dimensional (3D) root mean square (RMS) values of orbit DBD are improved when the shadow factor is applied only in the D direction (pointing toward to Sun) than that in the three directions (D, Y, and B) in the satellite frame. Different SRP models have comparable performance in terms of the Earth rotation parameter (ERP) agreement with the IERS EOP 14C04 product, whereas the magnitude of the length of day (LoD) annual signal is reduced when the shadow factor is applied in the D direction than in the three directions. This study clarifies how the shadow factor should be applied in the GPS POD solution and demonstrates that the a priori adjustable box-wing model combined with ECOM1 is more suitable for high-precision GPS POD solutions, which is useful for the further GNSS data analysis.

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