Automatic orbit quality control for near real-time GPS zenith tropospheric delay estimation

Abstract

We implement an automatic orbit quality control procedure in order to reduce the effect of satellite orbit error for near real-time estimating of zenith total delay (ZTD). We estimate the three Keplerian parameters of the GPS orbits that represent the main error sources (semi-major axis, inclination, and argument of perigee). We start with an a priori constraint corresponding to the typical orbit accuracy for each parameter and adjust it iteratively according to its estimated value and variance. This data analysis procedure shows an improvement of 20% in ZTD rms compared to a strategy based only on the quality index provided with the IGS predicted orbits. A real-time test with IGS ultra-rapid orbits also shows significant improvement compared to fixing IGS ultra-rapid orbits. This strategy allows for a totally automated estimation of orbital parameters directly from the real-time GPS data, without altering the accuracy of the ZTD estimates.