LEO satellite clock modeling and its benefits for real-time LEO PPP timing

Abstract

In the kinematic Precise Orbit Determination (POD) process for low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, a significant correlation exists between the orbital and clock parameters. Here, a LEO satellite clock model is proposed to enhance the Precise Point positioning (PPP) timing and time synchronization during the LEO orbit/clock determination. The GRACE-FO satellite was utilized to achieve PPP timing and time transfer for LEO satellites with the real-time (RT) products provided by three analysis centers, namely Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), GMV Aerospace and Defense (GMV), and Wuhan Technical University (WHU). For the frequency stability of the PPP timing for LEO satellites, the short-term stability (1280 s) is about 10−13 level, and the long-term stability (10,240 s) is about 10−14 level. Compared with the traditional PPP method (Scheme1), the LEO satellite clock model (Scheme2) is capable of significantly reducing the noise, regardless of whether it is PPP timing or PPP time synchronization. The frequency stability of Scheme 1 shows an improvement in short-term stability (1280 s) by about 8 %-72 % and the max improvement of the long-term stability (10240 s) by approximately 39 %, the result also shows a better improvement in LEO time synchronization.