BDS near real-time maneuver detection based on triple-differenced phase observations

Abstract

The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) geostationary earth orbit (GEO) and inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) satellites need frequent orbital maneuvers to keep them in position due to various perturbations. However, common users cannot obtain the exact maneuver times, which may yield a decline in the real-time service performance of the BDS. To solve this problem, we presented a near real-time maneuver detection method for BDS based on triple-differenced phase observations, which can automatically detect the exact start and end times of satellite orbital maneuvers. In this method, the carrier-phase triple-differences residuals are firstly computed using the precise station coordinates, broadcast ephemeris and dual-frequency observations of ground tracking stations. Afterward, the residuals are be modeled using linear regression to identify maneuver times. The observations from the BDS Experimental Tracking Stations (BETS) and the reference time announced by the Beijing Satellite Navigation Center (BSNC) from Day of year (DOY) 100 to DOY 300, 2017 are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The detected maneuver periods are consistent with the announced ones, except the detected start times lag 42 min and end times advance 23 min on average. Then, the detected times are further validated by dynamic precise orbit determination (POD) after the maneuver. The phase residuals and 3D RMS of the orbit differences of maneuvered satellites proved that the accuracy of detected maneuver times is better than 5-minute. At last, the kinematic precise point positioning (PPP) validation is implemented to evaluate the effect of more accurate GEO and IGSO satellites to BDS positioning. Results show that both the convergence and accuracy of BDS PPP are improved by adding one satellite that has ended maneuvering.