A Rapid-Convergence Precise Point Positioning Approach Using Double Augmentations of Low Earth Orbit Satellite and Atmospheric Information

Abstract

The precise point positioning (PPP) technique generally takes tens of minutes to converge, severely limiting its use. This longer convergence time is mainly due to the slower variation of satellite geometry in space and the stronger correlation of unknown parameters to be estimated. Fortunately, the lower orbit altitude of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites contributes to the fast variation of the satellites’ spatial geometry. In addition, high-precision atmospheric delay information has become readily available, which can help decrease unknown parameters’ correlation. This study proposes a double-augmentation PPP approach with accelerated convergence by tightly integrating the LEO/atmosphere-augmented information. The GNSS observations in both mid-latitude and low-latitude areas, and simulated LEO observations under a Walker/polar mixed constellation, are used to validate the double-augmentation PPP approach. Test results in both areas indicate that the double-augmentation PPP can converge within 0.8 min, improving the convergence time by over 73%, and over 83% compared to the LEO-only augmented PPP and atmosphere-only augmented PPP.