A User Differential Range Error Calculating Algorithm Based on Analytic Method

To enhance the integrity, an analytic method （AM） which has less execution time is proposed to calculate the user differential range error （UDRE） used by the user to detect the potential risk. An ephemeris and clock correction calculation method is introduced first. It shows that the most important thing of computing UDRE is to find the worst user location （WUL） in the service volume. Then, a UDRE algorithm using AM is described to solve this problem. By using the covariance matrix of the error vector, the searching of WUL is converted to an analytic geometry problem. The location of WUL can be obtained directly by mathematical derivation. Experiments are conducted to compare the performance between the proposed AM algorithm and the exhaustive grid search （EGS） method used in the master station. The results show that the correctness of the AM algorithm can be proved by the EGS method and the AM algorithm can reduce the calculation time by more than 90%. The computational complexity of this proposed algorithm is better than that of EGS. Thereby this algorithm is more suitable for computing UDRE at the master station.

Orbit determination and prediction for Beidou GEO satellites at the time of the spring/autumn equinox

Geostationary(GEO) satellites form an indispensable component of the constellation of Beidou navigation system(BDS). The ephemerides, or predicted orbits of these GEO satellites(GEOs), are broadcast to positioning, navigation, and timing users. User equivalent ranging error(UERE) based on broadcast message is better than 1.5 m(root formal errors: RMS) for GEO satellites. However, monitoring of UERE indicates that the orbital prediction precision is significantly degraded when the Sun is close to the Earth's equatorial plane(or near spring or autumn Equinox). Error source analysis shows that the complicated solar radiation pressure on satellite buses and the simple box-wing model maybe the major contributor to the deterioration of orbital precision. With the aid of BDS' two-way frequency and time transfer between the GEOs and Beidou time(BDT, that is maintained at the master control station), we propose a new orbit determination strategy, namely three-step approach of the multi-satellite precise orbit determination(MPOD). Pseudo-range(carrier phase) data are transformed to geometric range(biased geometric range) data without clock offsets; and reasonable empirical acceleration parameters are estimated along with orbital elements to account for the error in solar radiation pressure modeling. Experiments with Beidou data show that using the proposed approach, the GEOs' UERE when near the autumn Equinox of 2012 can be improved to 1.3 m from 2.5 m(RMS), and the probability of user equivalent range error(UERE)<2.0 m can be improved from 50% to above 85%.

Satellite integrity monitoring for satellite-based augmentation system:an improved covariance-based method

Satellite integrity monitoring is vital to satellite-based augmentation systems,and can provide the confdence of the diferential corrections for each monitored satellite satisfying the stringent safety-of-life requirements.Satellite integrity information includes the user diferential range error and the clock-ephemeris covariance which are used to deduce integrity probability.However,the existing direct statistic methods sufer from a low integrity bounding percentage.To address this problem,we develop an improved covariance-based method to determine satellite integrity information and evaluate its performance in the range domain and position domain.Compared with the direct statistic method,the integrity bounding percentage is improved by 24.91%and the availability by 5.63%.Compared with the covariance-based method,the convergence rate for the user diferential range error is improved by 8.04%.The proposed method is useful for the satellite integrity monitoring of a satellite-based augmentation system.