A Two-step Estimation Method of Troposphere Delay with Consideration of Mapping Function Errors

Mapping function errors are usually not taken into consideration, when space geodetic data observed by VLBI, GNSS and some other techniques are utilized to estimate troposphere delay, which could, however, probably bring non-ignorable errors to solutions. After analyzing the variation of mapping function errors with elevation angles based on several-year meteorological data, this paper constructed a model of this error and then proposed a two-step estimation method of troposphere delay with consideration of mapping function errors. The experimental results indicate that the method put forward by this paper could reduce the slant path delay residuals efficiently and improve the estimation accuracy of wet tropospheric delay to some extent.