Comparison and generalization of GNSS satellite attitude models

Author(s):  
Sebastian Strasser ◽  
Simon Banville ◽  
Andreas Kvas ◽  
Sylvain Loyer ◽  
Torsten Mayer-Gürr

<p>Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) constellations such as GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou and the Japanese regional system QZSS apply various satellite attitude modes during eclipse season, which is the period when the Sun is close to the orbital plane of the satellite. Due to different satellite manufacturers and technological advances over time, these modes can vary between constellations but also between different satellite types within a constellation. For some constellations, namely Galileo and QZSS, the satellite attitude law has been officially published by the satellite operator. For most other GNSS satellite types, researchers have developed attitude models, for example using reverse kinematic precise point positioning, that approximate the actual attitude behaviour.</p><p>Outside of eclipse seasons, GNSS satellites generally apply either a nominal yaw-steering or an orbit normal attitude law. While both modes point the antennas towards Earth, the former yaws the satellite around the antenna axis to point the solar panels towards the Sun, while the latter always keeps a fixed yaw angle. When a satellite applying a yaw-steering law is in eclipse season and close to the orbit noon or midnight point, it may have to yaw faster than physically possible to keep the nominal attitude. The various attitude modes used by the satellites aim to prevent this scenario by applying a modified attitude law during this period, for example by yawing at a constant rate around orbit noon/midnight or by switching to orbit normal mode.</p><p>Comparisons of attitude files generated by analysis centers of the International GNSS Service (IGS) within the scope of its 3<sup>rd</sup> reprocessing campaign show significant differences in some cases. This contribution compares all available attitude models with the aim of finding similarities that allow for generalization, which in turn simplifies the implementation of the various attitude modes into GNSS software packages. The developed functions have been implemented into the open-source software GROOPS (https://github.com/groops-devs/groops), which makes them publicly available and documented.</p>

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 3035
Author(s):  
Songfeng Yang ◽  
Qiyuan Zhang ◽  
Xi Zhang ◽  
Donglie Liu

Precise point positioning with ambiguity resolution (PPP-AR) based on multiple global navigation satellite system (multi-GNSS) constellations is an important high-precision positioning tool. However, some unmodeled satellite and receiver biases (such as errors in satellite attitude) make it difficult to fix carrier-phase ambiguities. In order to fix ambiguities of eclipsing satellites, accurate integer clock and satellite attitude products (i.e., attitude quaternion) have been provided by the International GNSS Service (IGS). Nevertheless, the quality of these products and their positioning performance in multi-GNSS PPP-AR have not been investigated yet. Using the PRIDE PPP-AR II software associated with the corresponding rapid satellite orbit, integer clock and attitude quaternion products of Wuhan University (WUM), we carried out GPS/BDS PPP-AR using 30 days of data in an eclipsing season of 2020. We found that about 75% of GPS, 60% of BDS-2 and 57% of BDS-3 narrow-lane ambiguity residuals after integer clock corrections fall within ±0.1 cycles in the case of using nominal attitudes. However, when using attitude quaternions, these percentages will rise to 80% for GPS, 70% for BDS-2 and 60% for BDS-3. GPS/BDS daily kinematic PPP-AR after integer clock and nominal attitude corrections can usually achieve a positioning precision of about 10, 10 and 30 mm for the east, north and up components, respectively. In contrast, the counterparts are 8, 8 and 20 mm when using attitude quaternions. Compared with the case of using attitude quaternions only at the network end for the integer clock estimation, using attitude quaternions only at the user end shows a pronounced improvement of 15% in the east component and less than 10% in the north and up components. Therefore, we suggest PPP users apply integer clock and satellite attitude quaternion products to realize more efficient ambiguity fixing, especially in satellite eclipsing seasons.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 2507
Author(s):  
O-Jong Kim ◽  
Hanjoon Shim ◽  
Sunkyoung Yu ◽  
Yonghwan Bae ◽  
Changdon Kee ◽  
...  

SNUGLITE (Seoul National University Global navigation satellite system Laboratory satellITE) is a two-unit cube satellite (CubeSat) with dimensions 10 × 10 × 23 cm that requires an attitude system for missions and ground station telecommunication. A linear-quadratic-Gaussian-based optimal attitude system for the CubeSat platform has been developed using low-cost sensors, with the in-orbit verification of the attitude system being is one of main study objectives. Since launch, the SNUGLITE CubeSat has continuously broadcast in-orbit status information. In this study, a methodology for the analysis of in-orbit attitude estimation results using received data is presented, and this was achieved by comparing two sun-pointing vectors, i.e., the sun-pointing vector calculated using estimated attitude with the positions of the sun and the satellite and the reference vector generated by the power levels of the solar panels. Because the satellite position was required for the attitude analysis, the verification of the performance of the own-developed on-board Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver is also briefly described. Analyses indicate that the attitude estimation of the SNUGLITE CubeSat has achieved an in-orbit real-time pointing accuracy with a root mean square of 6.1°.


2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-85
Author(s):  
Sonia Maria Alves Costa ◽  
Alberto Luis Da Silva ◽  
Marco Aurélio De Almeida Lima ◽  
Newton José De Moura Júnior

Atualmente, o SIRGAS (Sistema de Referência Geocêntrico para as Américas) é realizado por uma rede GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) permanente denominada SIRGAS-CON, com cerca de 240 estações em funcionamento permanente, distribuídas na América do Sul, Central e Caribe. Os Centros de Análise SIRGAS foram estabelecidos com a finalidade de determinar sistematicamente as coordenadas das estações SIRGAS-CON, seguindo padrões estabelecidos internacionalmente, a fim de apoiar a manutenção do sistema e as atividades do Grupo de Trabalho SIRGAS-GT I (Sistema de Referência). Desde agosto de 2008 a Coordenação de Geodésia do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística-IBGE assumiu oficialmente as atividades de um Centro de Análise. Este é um trabalho cuja dedicação é crescente uma vez que o número de estações no continente Sul Americano vem aumentando rapidamente nos últimos anos. Desta atividade diária são geradas dentre outros resultados, as séries temporais das coordenadas de cada estação, possibilitando assim a determinação dos deslocamentos das estações em função da movimentação da crosta terrestre, os movimentos locais como subsidência e/ou soerguimento crustal, causados por fenômenos naturais, como por exemplo, terremotos, além de efeitos sazonais causados por fatores diversos. Paralelamente a atividade de processamento dos dados GNSS, o IBGE também realiza semanalmente a combinação das soluções semanais dos nove Centros de Processamento SIRGAS. Esta combinação tem por objetivo comparar os resultados com os obtidos pelo DGFI (Deutsches Geodätisches Forschungsinstitut), o qual disponibiliza a solução final semanal da rede SIRGAS-CON. Por se tratar de resultados precisos, a mudança em alguma informação no processamento pode acarretar alterações nas coordenadas determinadas e, conseqüentemente, descontinuidades nas séries temporais de cada estação. Recentemente, em 17 de abril de 2011 (semana GPS 1632), as órbitas (finais e rápidas), as correções dos relógios dos satélites e o modelo de calibração das antenas disponibilizado pelo International GNSS Service - IGS, passaram a estar referidos à nova realização do IGS, denominada IGS08. Conseqüentemente, a partir dessa data, os processamentos GPS que utilizam os produtos IGS terão seus resultados referidos a este novo sistema de referência, o que poderá acarretar descontinuidades nas coordenadas. O objetivo desse trabalho é apresentar a estratégia de processamento atualmente em operação, bem com uma nova estratégia visando à melhoria dos resultados. Outro objetivo é apresentar alguns resultados do processamento e combinação semanal realizados pelo IBGE, bem como esclarecer as alterações ocorridas com a adoção da nova versão da Rede de Referência Global para soluções GNSS, o IGS08 e uma análise preliminar da conseqüência desta mudança.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Iinuma ◽  
Motoyuki Kido ◽  
Yusaku Ohta ◽  
Tatsuya Fukuda ◽  
Fumiaki Tomita ◽  
...  

Crustal deformation of the seafloor is difficult to observe solely using global navigation satellite system (GNSS). The GNSS-acoustic (GNSS-A) technique was developed to observe seafloor crustal deformation, and it has produced a steady series of successful observations with remarkable results related to crustal deformation associated with huge earthquakes around the Japanese Islands. However, utilizing GNSS-A incurs very large financial and human costs as it requires the use of a research vessel as a surface platform and has a limited observation frequency, which is less than once a year at seafloor stations along the Japan Trench. To conduct frequent observations, an automatic GNSS-A data acquisition system was developed that operates via an unmanned surface vehicle (wave glider). The first observations using this system were performed at a seafloor station off Aomori Prefecture in July 2019. The wave glider was equipped with two GNSS antennas, an acoustic transducer, a microelectromechanical system gyroscope, and associated control and logging units. Data acquisition and autonomous activation of the seafloor stations were successfully executed by controlling the power supply to the payload via satellite communication with the wave glider. The glider rarely strayed off the configured course and the solar panels generated sufficient power to perform the observations although the weather was mostly cloudy. The GNSS-A data processing results show that the position of the station was determined with the same accuracy and precision as in previous observations performed using a research vessel.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (16) ◽  
pp. 5420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Angrisano ◽  
Gino Dardanelli ◽  
Anna Innac ◽  
Alessandro Pisciotta ◽  
Claudia Pipitone ◽  
...  

In this work, the performance of the multi-GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Precise Point Positioning (PPP) technique, in static mode, is analyzed. Specifically, GPS (Global Positioning System), GLONASS, and Galileo systems are considered, and quantifying the Galileo contribution is one of the main objectives. The open source software RTKLib is adopted to process the data, with precise satellite orbits and clocks from CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) and CLS (Collecte Localisation Satellites) analysis centers for International GNSS Service (IGS). The Iono-free model is used to correct ionospheric errors, the GOT-4.7 model is used to correct tidal effects, and Differential Code Biases (DCB) are taken from the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Luftund Raumfahrt (DLR) center. Two different tropospheric models are tested: Saastamoinen and Estimate ZTD (Zenith Troposhperic Delay). For the proposed study, a dataset of 31 days from a permanent GNSS station, placed in Palermo (Italy), and a dataset of 10 days from a static geodetic receiver, placed nearby the station, have been collected and processed by the most used open source software in the geomatic community. The considered GNSS configurations are seven: GPS only, GLONASS only, Galileo only, GPS+GLONASS, GPS+Galileo, GLONASS+Galileo, and GPS+GLONASS+Galileo. The results show significant performance improvement of the GNSS combinations with respect to single GNSS cases.


Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (24) ◽  
pp. 5578
Author(s):  
Fangzhao Zhang ◽  
Jean-Pierre Barriot ◽  
Guochang Xu ◽  
Marania Hopuare

Since Bevis first proposed Global Positioning System (GPS) meteorology in 1992, the precipitable water (PW) estimates retrieved from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) networks with high accuracy have been widely used in many meteorological applications. The proper estimation of GNSS PW can be affected by the GNSS processing strategy as well as the local geographical properties of GNSS sites. To better understand the impact of these factors, we compare PW estimates from two nearby permanent GPS stations (THTI and FAA1) in the tropical Tahiti Island, a basalt shield volcano located in the South Pacific, with a mean slope of 8% and a diameter of 30 km. The altitude difference between the two stations is 86.14 m, and their horizontal distance difference is 2.56 km. In this paper, Bernese GNSS Software Version 5.2 with precise point positioning (PPP) and Vienna mapping function 1 (VMF1) was applied to estimate the zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD), which was compared with the International GNSS Service (IGS) Final products. The meteorological parameters sourced from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and the local weighted mean temperature ( T m ) model were used to estimate the GPS PW for three years (May 2016 to April 2019). The results show that the differences of PW between two nearby GPS stations is nearly a constant with value 1.73 mm. In our case, this difference is mainly driven by insolation differences, the difference in altitude and the wind being only second factors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 4020
Author(s):  
Wenju Fu ◽  
Lei Wang ◽  
Ruizhi Chen ◽  
Haitao Zhou ◽  
Tao Li ◽  
...  

Kinematic orbit determination (KOD) of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites only using single-frequency global navigation satellite system (GNSS) data is a suitable solution for space applications demanding meter-level orbit precision. For some small LEO satellites with the sun-pointing attitude mode, the rotation of the GNSS antenna radiation pattern changes the observation noise characteristics. Since the rotation angle information of the antenna plane may not be available for most low-cost missions, the true elevation cannot be computed and a general elevation-dependent weighting model remains invalid for the onboard GNSS observations. Furthermore, the low-stability GNSS receiver clock oscillator of the LEO satellite at high speeds makes single-frequency cycle slip detection ineffective and difficult since the clock steering events occur frequently. In this study, we investigated the improved KOD strategy to improve the performance of orbit solution using single-frequency GPS and BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) observations collected from the Luojia-1A satellite. The weighting model based on exponential function and signal strength is proposed according to the analysis of satellite attitude impact, and a joint single-frequency detection algorithm of receiver clock jump and cycle slip is investigated as well. Based on the GPS/BDS-combined KOD results, it is demonstrated that the clock jump and cycle slip can be properly detected and observations can be effectively utilized with the proposed weighting model considering satellite attitude, which significantly improves the availability and accuracy of orbit solution. The number of available epochs is increased by 12.9% benefitting from this strategy. The orbital root mean square (RMS) precision improvements in the radial, along-track, and cross-track directions are 22.1%, 16.4%, and 6.5%, respectively. Combining BDS observations also contributes to orbit precision improvement, which reaches up to 28.8%.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-148
Author(s):  
Nestoras Papadopoulos ◽  
Melissinos Paraskevas ◽  
Ioannis Katsafados ◽  
Georgios Nikolaidis ◽  
Euagelos Anagnostou

AbstractHellenic Military Geographical Service (HMGS) has established and measured various networks in Greece which constitute the geodetic infrastructure of the country. One of them is the triangulation network consisting of about 26.000 pillars all over Greece. Classical geodetic measurements that held by the Hellenic Military Geographic Service (HMGS) through the years have been used after adjustment for the state reference frame which materializes the current Hellenic Geodetic Reference System of 1987 (HGRS87). The aforementioned Reference System (RS) is a static one and is in use since 1990. Through the years especially in the era of satellite navigation systems many Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) networks have been established. The latest such network materialized by HMGS is ongoing and covers until now more than the 2/3 of the country. It is referenced by International GNSS Service (IGS) permanent stations and consists a local densification IGS08 Reference Frame. Firstly, this gives the opportunity to calculate transformation parameters between the two systems and a statistical analysis of the residuals leads to intermediate conclusions. After that and in conjunction with existing past transformations, tectonic deformations and their directions are concluded. Moreover past GPS observations on the same pillars in compare to the newer ones give also a sense of tectonic displacements. Greece is one of the most tectonically active countries in Europe and the adoption of a modern kinematic or semi-kinematic geodetic datum is a necessity as it should incorporate a deformation model like 3d velocities on the reference frame realization. The detection of geodynamic changes is a continuous need and should be taken into consideration at each epoch.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcos Valle Bueno ◽  
Alexssandra Dayane Soares de Campos ◽  
Jaqueline Trombetta da Silva ◽  
Lessandro Coll Faria ◽  
Fabrício da Silva Terra ◽  
...  

Abstract. Levees are small land dikes made every rice-cultivation season that allow for flood irrigation in rice fields. Currently, levees are demarcated by utilizing a laser technology (LT) system. However, with current technological advances, the demarcation of levees with the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and real-time kinematics (RTK) correction has been highlighted in rice production systems in southern Brazil. The objective of this study was to compare the performance between LT and GNSS-RTK systems applied in the demarcation of levees that are used in flooded rice fields. To this end, an experimental area of approximately 27 ha located in Jaguarão, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, was used. From a digital elevation model, the area was subdivided into three subareas according to the mean slope: flat (0.16%), intermediate (0.36%), and gently undulated (1.3%). The total length of the levees for the three subareas was 8 km. The relative performances of both demarcation systems were evaluated by analyzing the vertical and horizontal behavior of the levees and the water layer spatial distribution. The results indicated that the demarcation of levees by GNSS-RTK systems is more accurate than that by the LT system, especially in flat areas. In these areas, the GNSS-RTK demarcation system permits a reduction in the total number of levees, as well as an increase in the vertical equidistance between levees and/or an increase in the height of the levee itself. The length of the levee is shorter than in a demarcation using the GNSS-RTK system. Keywords: Contour line, Irrigation, Lowlands, Precision agriculture.


Author(s):  
Vyacheslav E. Tereshchenko ◽  

The measurements of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) obtained from different reference stations: Novosibirsk Region reference stations network, Russian state reference stations network ‒ Fundamental Astronomical and Geodetic Networks (FAGN) and stations of International GNSS service (IGS) are checked and analyzed. The relevance of the usage of regional (commercial or industrial) reference stations in state foundation geodetic framework for formation of a unified system of coordinate-time and navigation support is shown. The article describes quality analysis results of the GNSS measurements by the main criteria: number of rejected measurements, ionospheric delay, multipath effect, signal-to-noise ratio, receiver clock slips. The main errors affecting satellite measurements are estimated. The conclusions about the possibility of including the Novosibirsk Region reference stations network into one of the levels of the state foundation geodetic framework are drawn. The comparison of quality of the GNSS measurements showed that according to all criteria of quality the GNSS measurements of the Novosibirsk Region reference stations network are not worse than GNSS measurements of FAGN. According to all criteria the GNSS measurements of the Novosibirsk Region reference stations network approximately corresponds to GNSS measurements of IGS stations, except the signal-to-noise ratio criterion.


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