Precise orbit determination for TH02-02 satellites based on BDS3 and GPS observations

The Tianhui-202(TH02-02)satellite formation,as a supplement to the microwave mapping satellite system Tianhui-201(TH02-01),is the first Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar(InSAR)satellite formation-flying system that supports the tracking of BeiDou global navigation Satellite system(BDS3)new B1C and B2a signals.Meanwhile,the twin TH02-02 satellites also support the tracking of Global Positioning System(GPS)L1&L2 and BDS B1I&B3I signals.As the spaceborne receiver employs two independent boards to track the Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)satellites,we design an orbit determination strategy by estimating independent receiver clock offsets epoch by epoch for each GNSS to realize the multi-GNSS data fusion from different boards.The performance of the spaceborne receiver is evaluated and the contribution of BDS3 to the kinematic and reduced-dynamic Precise Orbit Determination(POD)of TH02-02 satellites is investigated.The tracking data onboard shows that the average number of available BDS3 and GPS satellites are 8.7 and 9.1,respectively.The carrier-to-noise ratio and carrier phase noise of BDS3 B1C and B2a signals are comparable to those of GPS.However,strong azimuth-related systematic biases are recognized in the pseudorange multipath errors of B1C and B3I.The pseudorange noise of BDS3 signals is better than that of GPS after eliminating the multipath errors from specific signals.Taking the GPS-based reduced-dynamic orbit with single-receiver ambiguity fixing technique as a reference,the results of BDS3-only and BDS3+GPS combined POD are assessed.The Root Mean Square(RMS)of orbit comparison of BDS3-based kinematic and reduced-dynamic POD with reference orbit are better than 7 cm and 3 cm in three-Dimensional direction(3D).The POD performance based on B1C&B2a data is comparable to that based on B1I&B3I.The precision of BDS3+GPS combined kinematic orbit can reach up to 3 cm(3D RMS),which has a more than 25%improvement relative to the GPS-only solution.In addition,the consistency between the BDS3+GPS combined reduced-dynamic orbit and the GPS-based ambiguity-fixed orbit is better than 1.5 cm(3D RMS).

Enhanced baseline determination for formation flying LEOs by relative corrections of phase center and code residual variations

Formation flying Low Earth Orbiters(LEOs)are important for implementing new and advanced concepts in Earth observation missions.Precise Baseline Determination(PBD)is a prerequisite for LEOs to complete specified mission targets.PBD is usually performed based on space-borne GNSS data,the relative corrections of phase center and code residual variations play crucial roles in achieving the best relative orbit accuracy.Herein,the influences of antenna Relative Phase Centre Variations(RPCVs)and Single-Difference(SD)Melbourne-Wu¨bbena(MW)Combination Residuals Variations(SD MWVs)on PBD are studied.The methods were tested using flight data from Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment(GRACE)and GRACE Follow-On(GRACE-FO).Results showed that the maximum values for RPCVs and SD MWVs were 14 mm and 0.32 cycles,respectively.Then,the RPCVs correction significantly enhanced the baseline accuracy;the K-Band Ranging(KBR)measurement consistency improved by 30.1%and 37.5%for GRACE and GRACE-FO,respectively.The application of SD MWVs further improved the accuracy and reliability of PBD results.For GRACE,the ambiguities fixing success rate increased from 85.1%to 97.9%and a baseline consistency of 0.57 mm was achieved for the KBR measurements.It was found that the correction of both RPCVs and SD MWVs reduced the carrier phase observation minus computation residuals from double-difference ionosphere-free combination.In addition,in-flight data processing demonstrated that RPCVs and SD MWVs estimations for the current period could be used for the previous and subsequent periods.