A kinematic real-time PPP approach with estimating signal in space range errors

Abstract

Since 2013, the International GNSS Service (IGS) real-time service (RTS) has been providing precise orbit and clock corrections for ten years, which enables real-time positioning at the decimeter level. High precision positioning relies heavily on accurate orbit and clock. However, constrained by the relatively short observation duration, the accuracy of real-time products are often worse than the final products. Previous studies indicate that compensating for errors in orbit and clock can improve positioning accuracy. Based on this theory, we proposed an improved positioning model, which incorporates the signal-in-space range error (SISRE) into the ionosphere-free combination observation equation and treats it as a parameter in the Kalman filter. Through the analysis of SISRE, we find that the time-varying characteristic of the parameter follows a random walk assumption. To find the optimal parameter settings of the SISRE parameters, a two-dimensional sensitivity analysis is employed, and a set of recommended values are provided. In the simulated kinematic positioning experiments, the proposed method achieves positioning accuracies of 17.3 cm, 19.6 cm, and 18.0 cm for GPS, BDS-3, and Galileo, respectively, representing a 10–20 % improvement over traditional methods. In real-time PPP experiment, the accuracy reaches 21.7 cm, indicating a 12.9 % improvement compared to traditional methods.