BeiDou-3 orbit and clock quality of the IGS Multi-GNSS Pilot Project

Within the Multi-GNSS Pilot Project (MGEX) of the International GNSS Service (IGS), precise orbit and clock products for the BeiDou-3 global navigation satellite system (BDS-3) are routinely generated by a total of five analysis centers. The processing standards and specific properties of the individual products are reviewed and the BDS-3 orbit and clock product performance is assessed through direct inter-comparison, satellite laser ranging (SLR) residuals, clock stability analysis, and precise point positioning solutions. The orbit consistency evaluated by the signal-in-space range error is on the level of 4-8 cm for the medium Earth orbit satellites whereas SLR residuals have RMS values between 3 and 9 cm. The clock analysis reveals sytematic effects related to the elevation of the Sun above the orbital plane for all ACs pointing to deficiencies in solar radiation pressure modeling. Nevertheless, precise point positioning with the BDS-3 MGEX orbit and clock products results in 3D RMS values between 7 and 8 mm.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

gLAB upgrade with BeiDou navigation system signals

The gLAB tool suit is an educational and professional multipurpose GNSS data processing software. It has been developed by gAGE/UPC under a contract of the European Space Agency (ESA). The current version of gLAB allows full GPS data processing with High Accuracy Positioning capability (at the centimetre level), but only a very limited data handling of Galileo and GLONASS. The Chinese Global Satellite Navigation System Beidou was not included in the initial requirements of ESA. The target of this project is to upgrade gLAB with the necessary functions to allow this software to compute user solutions with the Beidou signals

Undifferenced and Uncombined GNSS Time Transfer and its Space Applications

This thesis presents a framework for developing a state-of-the-art undifferenced and uncombined (UDUC) time transfer technique for space applications. It addresses challenges in GNSS time transfer, such as multi-frequency signal modelling, satellite clock estimation, and hardware delay variations. The thesis introduces the UDUC POD method for GNSS time transfer in space and explores the feasibility of constructing a LEO-based space-time reference. This PhD dissertation is among the first to investigate the UDUC GNSS time transfer

Precise Point Positioning Augmentation for Various Grades of Global Navigation Satellite System Hardware

The next generation of low-cost, dual-frequency, multi-constellation GNSS receivers, boards, chips and antennas are now quickly entering the market, offering to disrupt portions of the precise GNSS positioning industry with much lower cost hardware and promising to provide precise positioning to a wide range of consumers. The presented work provides a timely, novel and thorough investigation into the positioning performance promise. A systematic and rigorous set of experiments has been carried-out, collecting measurements from a wide array of low-cost, dual-frequency, multi-constellation GNSS boards, chips and antennas introduced in late 2018 and early 2019. These sensors range from dual-frequency, multi-constellation chips in smartphones to stand-alone chips and boards. In order to be comprehensive and realistic, these experiments were conducted in a number of static and kinematic benign, typical, suburban and urban environments. In terms of processing raw measurements from these sensors, the Precise Point Positioning (PPP) GNSS measurement processing mode was used. PPP has become the defacto GNSS positioning and navigation technique for scientific and engineering applications that require dm- to cm-level positioning in remote areas with few obstructions and provides for very efficient worldwide, wide-array augmentation corrections. To enhance solution accuracy, novel contributions were made through atmospheric constraints and the use of dual- and triple-frequency measurements to significantly reduce PPP convergence period. Applying PPP correction augmentations to smartphones and recently released low-cost equipment, novel analyses were made with significantly improved solution accuracy. Significant customization to the York-PPP GNSS measurement processing engine was necessary, especially in the quality control and residual analysis functions, in order to successfully process these datasets. Results for new smartphone sensors show positioning performance is typically at the few dm-level with a convergence period of approximately 40 minutes, which is 1 to 2 orders of magnitude better than standard point positioning. The GNSS chips and boards combined with higher-quality antennas produce positioning performance approaching geodetic quality. Under ideal conditions, carrier-phase ambiguities are resolvable. The results presented show a novel perspective and are very promising for the use of PPP (as well as RTK) in next-generation GNSS sensors for various application in smartphones, autonomous vehicles, Internet of things (IoT), etc

Ionospheric Regional modeling Algorithm based on GNSS Precise Point Positioning

Precise point positioning (PPP) is an absolute spatial positioning technology different from carrier phase relative positioning. With the continuous development of Global navigation satellite system (GNSS), multi-constellation GNSS further provides PPP with more abundant observation information and useful spatial geometric observations, which improves positioning performance and robustness. In recent years, the un-difference and un-combined precise point positioning (UPPP) has been continuously developing. Firstly, we introduce the basic theory of GNSS positioning and compare the position performance between UPPP and ionospheric-free PPP (IF PPP). The positioning performance of the four mainstream GNSS systems, GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and Beidou, the PPP floating-point solutions of the four satellite systems all converge within 60 minutes and their error are less than 10cm. Secondly, a two-dimensional (2-d) model is proposed to fit the vertical total electronic content (VTEC) in the ionosphere with the ionospheric delays extracted by UPPP. With the model constraining the ionospheric delay in UPPP, the convergence is 2 minutes shorter than using the global ionospheric map (GIM) from IGS. Thirdly, to solve the limitation of the traditional methods in 2d representation, a method is proposed represent the ionosphere in 3D, called Compressed Sensing Tomography (CST). Comparing the simulated single-difference slant total electron content (STEC) and the input single- difference STEC between satellites, the root mean square (RMS) of the reference station’s error is less than 1 TEC uni

Desarrollo de algoritmos para el tratamiento de datos GNSS : su aplicación a los escenarios GPS modernizado y Galileo

Tesis inédita de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Matemáticas, Sección Departamental de Física de la Tierra, Astronomía y Astrofísica I (Geofísica y Meteorología) (Astronomía y Geodesia), leída el 24-07-2012Nowadays, the major GNSS systems are the american GPS and the russian GLONASS, however, in a near future the european project Galileo and the chinesse system COMPASS will become part of the current GNSS scenario. These systems will transmit for the first time three different frequencies, giving place to a multi-system and multi-frequency scenario which will dramatically push the boundaries of the positioning techniques. Currently, one of the most studied positioning techniques is known as Precise Point Positioning (PPP), which is aimed at estimating precise receiver position from undifferenced GNSS code and carrier phase observations and precise satellite products. In this thesis, some new and original algorithms for static PPP have been developed, which are able to deal with the future multi-system and multifrequency GNSS observations. The new algorithms have been named MAP3. In the new approach, the least squares theory is applied twice to estimate the ionospheric delay, initial ambiguities and smoothed pseudodistances from undifferenced observations, which in turn are used to recover the receiver position and its clock offset. MAP3 provides position estimations with an accuracy of 2.5 cm after 2 hours observation and 7 mm in 1 day, being at the same level as other PPP programs and even better results are obtained with MAP3 in short observation periods. Moreover, MAP3 have provided some of the first results in positioning from GIOVE observations and GPC products. In addition, these algorithms have been applied in the analysis of the influence of ionospheric disturbances on the point positioning, concluding that the presence of a high ROT (Rate of TEC), observed at equatorial latitudes, reflects a significant degradation of the point positioning from dual-frequency observations.Actualmente, los únicos sistemas globales de navegación por satélites operativos son GPS y GLONASS, sin embargo, en un futuro cercano el proyecto europeo Galileo y el sistema chino COMPASS entrarán a formar parte del actual escenario GNSS. Estos sistemas emplearán por primera vez, tres frecuencias distintas, dando lugar a un escenario multi-frecuencia que revolucionará las técnicas de posicionamiento. Entre las técnicas actuales de posicionamiento con GNSS destaca el Posicionamiento Preciso Puntual (PPP), que consiste en determinar la posición de un receptor a partir de observaciones de código y fase no differenciadas y productos precisos. En este trabajo de tesis se han desarrollado unos nuevos y originales algoritmos para PPP estático, llamados MAP3, capaces de procesar observaciones GNSS multifrecuencia y multi-sistema del futuro escenario GNSS y determinar la posición de un receptor de forma precisa y exacta. Los algoritmos MAP3 se dividen en dos partes en las cuales se ha aplicado la teoría mínimos cuadrados y se han obtenido expresiones explícitas para estimar el retraso ionosférico, ambigüedades de fase inicial y pseudodistancias suavizadas, que se emplean para determinar la posición del receptor y el offset de su reloj. MAP3 proporciona una estimación de la posición con una exactitud de 2.5 cm tras 2 horas de observación y de 7 mm tras 24 h, resultados que mejoran los obtenidos hasta el momento con otros programas para PPP en periodos cortos de tiempo. Además, MAP3 han proporcionado los primeros resultados en el posicionamiento con observaciones GIOVE y productos del GPC. Por otro lado, estos algoritmos se han aplicado al análisis de los efectos de ciertas perturbaciones ionosféricas en el posicionamiento concluyendo que la presencia de un ROT (Rate of TEC) elevado, observado en latitudes ecuatoriales, refleja una degradación significativa del posicionamiento puntual con observaciones doble frecuencia.Unidad Deptal. de Astronomía y GeodesiaFac. de Ciencias MatemáticasTRUEunpu

Position, velocity and time measurement with multiple constellation data from GPS, GALILEO, GLONASS and BEIDOU

Il presente lavoro si propone di illustrare la teoria, il metodo e le modalità del calcolo della PVT, ovvero della posizione, della velocità e del sincronismo temporale, di un utente sulla Terra o di un satellite in orbita bassa (dotato di ricevitore multiGNSS), utilizzando un software integrato che sfrutti tutti i segnali provenienti da tutte le costellazioni a copertura globale in quel momento visibili. Nel caso presente si sono utilizzati i segnali da GPS, Galileo, GLONASS e BeiDou, rilevati grazie ad un ricevitore fornito dall'Università di Padova (STONEX S580), sia per la determinazione della posizione, sia per implementare il calcolo della velocità attraverso l'effetto Doppler. Questo lavoro, in futuro, potrebbe portare a contributi nello sviluppo di tecnologie innovative in molti settori, quali: navigazione autonoma e trasporti, difesa e aerospazio, agricoltura e molti altri.This work intends to outline the theory and the methods for the computation of position, velocity and time (PVT) of a user on the surface of the Earth or of a LEO satellite (Low Earth Orbit). An integrated software written in MATLAB and PERL has been used; it processes all the signals transmitted by all the constellations visible in that precise moment and in that precise place. The software's core uses the Weighted Least Squares algorithm, which permits the efficient computation of position, speed, timing and tropospheric delay in a few iterations. In this thesis, signals from GPS, Galileo, BeiDou and GLONASS have been used, specifically for the computation of the speed, which is calculated from the Doppler Effect. These signals were detected through a receiver STONEX Cube-a S580 provided by the University of Padua. A good precision in determination of both positioning and speed has been achieved and also the PNT of a LEO satellite (Sentinel 3A) has been determined successfully, using data also to study J2 perturbations on the orbit. The principal aim of this thesis is to provide an efficient and precise software able to process pseudorange and Doppler shift multi-constellation data, to enhance, in its future evolutions, the precise positioning of a receiver on Earth's surface and in orbit, with interesting applications in many different fields such as defence, transportations and automotive, attitude determination in space and many others

Satellite clock time offset prediction in global navigation satellite systems

In an operational sense, satellite clock time offset prediction (SCTOP) is a fundamental requirement in global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) tech- nology. SCTOP uncertainty is a significant component of the uncertainty budget of the basic GNSS pseudorange measurements used in standard (i.e not high-precision), single-receiver applications. In real-time, this prediction uncertainty contributes directly to GNSS-based positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) uncertainty. In short, GNSS performance in intrinsically linked to satellite clock predictability. Now, satellite clock predictability is affected by two factors: (i) the clock itself (i.e. the oscillator, the frequency standard etc.) and (ii) the prediction algorithm. This research focuses on aspects of the latter. Using satellite clock data—spanning across several years, corresponding to multiple systems (GPS and GLONASS) and derived from real measurements— this thesis first presents the results of a detailed study into the characteristics of GNSS satellite clocks. This leads onto the development of strategies for modelling and estimating the time-offset of those clocks from system time better, with the final aim of predicting those offsets better. The satellite clock prediction scheme of the International GNSS Service (IGS) is analysed, and the results of this prediction scheme are used to evaluate the performance of new methods developed herein. The research presented in this thesis makes a contribution to knowledge in each of the areas of characterisation, modelling and prediction of GNSS satellite clocks. Regarding characterisation of GNSS satellite clocks, the space-borne clocks of GPS and GLONASS are studied. In terms of frequency stability—and thus predictability—it is generally the case that the GPS clocks out-perform GLONASS clocks at prediction lengths ranging from several minutes up to one day ahead. There are three features in the GPS clocks—linear frequency drift, periodic signals and and complex underlying noise processes—that are not observable in the GLONASS clocks. The standard clock model does not capture these features. This study shows that better prediction accuracy can be obtained by an extension to the standard clock model. The results of the characterisation and modelling study are combined in a Kalman filter framework, set up to output satellite clock predictions at a range of prediction intervals. In this part of the study, only GPS satellite clocks are considered. In most, but not all cases, the developed prediction method out- performs the IGS prediction scheme, by between 10% to 30%. The magnitude of the improvement is mainly dependent upon clock type

Evaluating the differences and accuracies between GNSS applications using PPP

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are satellite systems with global coverage. There are currently several GNSS systems in operation today including the United States NAVSTAR Global Positioning System, Russian GLONASS, Chinese Beidou and the European Union’s Galileo system. The Galileo and Beidou systems are currently undergoing upgrading in order to achieve more sustainable and comprehensive worldwide exposure, ultimately providing users with a broader option of systems and wider more reliable coverage. In recent years, in addition to the GPS constellation, the ability to utilise extra satellites made available through the GLONASS and Beidou systems has enhanced the capabilities and possible applications of the precise point positioning (PPP) method. Precise Point Positioning has been used for the last decade as a cost-effective alternative to conventional DGPS-Differential GPS with an estimated precision adequate for many applications. PPP requires handling different types of errors using proper models. PPP precision varies with the use of observations from different satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS and mixed GPS/GLONASS/Beidou) and the duration of observations. However, the fundamental differences between GPS, GLONASS, Beidou and Galileo and the lack of a fully tested global tracking network of multi-Global Navigation Satellite Systems necessitate the evaluation of their combined use. More studies are required in order to confirm the reliability and accuracy of the results obtained by the various methods of PPP. This is outside the scope of this paper. This research paper will evaluate and analyse the accuracy and reliability between different GNSS systems using the Precise Point Positioning technique with emphasis on the function and performance of single systems compared with combined GNSS systems. A methodology was designed to ensure accurate and reliable results have been achieved. Solutions generated from identical data will be compared for bias, accuracy and reliability between single standalone GPS and combined GNSS systems. This study focused on the performance of these systems over a twenty four hour observation period, decimated into 1, 2, 6, 12 and 24 hours. The study found that the reliability and performance of GNSS systems over standalone GPS was insignificant over a twenty four hour period. In fact, where satellite availability and constellation are at a premium, standalone GPS systems can produce equivalent quality results compared with combined GNSS. Having said this, the combined GNSS systems achieved quicker convergence times than standalone systems. With limited access and availability to resources, in particular GNSS receivers, the results can be seen as preliminary testing enhancing the knowledge of GNSS users. Nonetheless, this dissertation covers a wide range of topics and field testing providing relevant reliable data on the accuracy, precision and performance of both standalone and combined Global Navigation Satellite Systems