Global Positioning System L1 Signals Research Articles

A gradient descend method‐based none‐line‐of‐sight‐induced code delay searching in global navigation satellite system

In urban areas with narrow streets and tall buildings, none-line-of-sight (NLOS) or multipath (MP) signals severely attenuate the positioning accuracy of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS). vector tracking loop (VT) has been employed in NLOS/MP signal detection and correction; its feasibility and superior performance have been assessed and demonstrated in previous research studies. In VT, the navigation solutions are fed back to calculate the signal tacking parameters and complete the carrier and code tracking. The NLOS/MP reception induces code delay to the code tracking. The generated local signal replicas are mixed with the received signal; the code and carrier discriminators’ outputs are employed as the measurements to estimate the navigation solutions in the VT navigation filter. In order to extract the code delay induced by the NLOS or MP, multiple correlators (MCs) are usually utilised to search for the code delay. However, more correlators will bring much heavier computation load and a real position is necessary for calculating the signal tracking parameters. The strap-down inertial navigation system (SINS) can generate short-term accurate navigation solutions. In this work, a gradient descend (GD) method is designed for extracting the NLOS/MP-induced delay in the correlators’ measurements level. The VT/SINS ultra-tightly coupled navigation system (VT-UTC) is developed to obtain mutual aiding between these individual systems. In VT-UTC, the corrected SINS navigation solutions are employed for calculating the signal tracking parameters, and reliable navigation solutions from the SINS can help to extract the code delays induced by the NLOS. Two field tests with global positioning system L1 signal are carried out for assessing the performance of the GD method in the VT-UTC framework. Comparisons between the MC and GD method show that the correlators’ computation reduces a lot since much fewer correlators are calculated in the code delay searching. Also, reliable navigation solutions from the SINS could help to calculate the signal tracking parameter while in-view GNSS satellites are limited.

Evaluation of GBAS flight trials based on BDS and GPS

Ground-based augmentation systems (GBASs) are widely used augmentation systems using satellite navigation. GBAS can improve the performance of BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) in civil aviation application. Evaluation is necessary before using a GBAS. On the basis of the flight trials conducted at the Dongying airport, evaluation results show that based on both the global positioning system (GPS) L1 signal and BDS B1I signal, ground accuracy designators (GADs) of four reference receivers are consistent with GAD-C levels. The improvement in accuracy obtained with GBAS differential process is ∼60%, and the differential position error based on the BDS B1I signal is 40% greater than that of the GPS L1 signal, because currently incomplete BDS satellites distribution is worse than that of GPS. Airborne protection levels assessments show that the approach trials based on the BDS B1I signal exhibit several false alarm events. Further analysis indicates that BDS vertical protection levels were larger because of larger pseudoinverse S result from low elevation angle and unsatisfactory geometric distribution of BDS satellites. Besides, monitors show that BDS B1I signal is more affected by ionospheric delay than GPS L1 signal, which can also contribute to false alarm events.

Ionospheric Es layer scintillation characteristics studied with Hilbert-Huang transform

A coincident event of daytime ionospheric Es layer scintillation observations is analyzed with the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) to study its layer structure. One of the coincident observations is made by a radio beacon passing through the Es layer at a slant angle received by the SCINDA (Scintillation Decision Aide) receivers located at southern Taiwan. The data indicates that the Es layer consists of scattering blocks of ∼ 650 to 970 m in size as revealed in the dominant components of the HHT analysis. The time shift in the two spaced receiving antennas implies that the daytime E region westward drift is about 36 m/s. On the other hand, the same Es layer is observed by the radio occultation (RO) experiment with the L1 signal from the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to the FORMOSAT-3/Constellation-Observing-System-for-Meteorology (FS-3/COSMIC) satellites. The GPS L1 signal passes through the Es layer horizontally. The observed signal variations reveal a dense slab structure that blocks the L1 signal to cause a diffraction pattern. The slab thickness in the vertical direction is about 780 m. The HHT analyses of the coincident observations thus conclude that the observed daytime Es layer has a vertical dense slab structure and patches of scattering blocks in the horizontal structure.

Local‐area nanosecond‐accuracy time synchronisation based on GPS L1 observations

To date, high-precision time synchronisation has been applied in many fields, such as high-precision indoor positioning, multistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and etc. This study focuses on the use of only global positioning system (GPS) L1 civilian signals to achieve regional nanosecond time synchronisation. GPS errors are analysed in this study to determine their effect on GPS timing. This study also examines the specific features of the error in fixed-position timing technology and related error reduction techniques to illustrate the feasibility of nanosecond high-precision time synchronisation with GPS L1 signals in a fixed-position timing mode. Then, the results of a specific GPS timing receiver working in a fixed-position mode and using GPS L1 signals are shown to indicate that the use of GPS L1 signals to achieve nanosecond-accuracy time synchronisation in a local area is feasible. Finally, this study also analyses the impacts of the imprecise position in a fixed-position timing mode.

L-band scintillation and TEC variations on St. Patrick’s Day storm of 17 March 2015 over Indian longitudes using GPS and GLONASS observations

The aim of the present study is to investigate the response of ionospheric total electron content (TEC), Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) scintillations during 17 March 2015 St. Patrick’s Day geomagnetic storm over Visakhapatnam, which is popularly known as Waltair (WALT) in the literature. GPS TEC observations obtained from five IGS stations (SGOC, IISC, HYDE, LCK4 and LHAZ) and WALT during the storm have been compared. The TEC derived from GPS, GLONASS constellations and CODE global ionosphere TEC map (GIM) over WALT has also been compared. Positive storm effect during the main phase of the storm and negative storm effect during the recovery phase of the storm were observed over the said stations. The variation of northern equatorial ionisation anomaly TEC (CODE GIM TEC maps) in response to the St. Patrick’s Day storm over four Indian longitudes (\(75{^{\circ }}\hbox {E}\), \(80{^{\circ }}\hbox {E}\), \(85{^{\circ }}\hbox {E}\) and \(90{^{\circ }}\hbox {E}\)) has also been presented. Strong amplitude and phase scintillations were observed in the L-band signals of GPS and GLONASS constellations over WALT. Twelve satellite (Pseudo Random Noise) PRNs of GPS L1 and nine PRNs of each GLONASS L1 and L2-band signals were affected by strong amplitude and phase scintillation. The peak amplitude scintillation index (S4) obtained from the effected PRNs of GPS L1 signal and GLONASS L1-band signals over WALT range from 0.36 to 0.74 and 0.36 to 0.76, respectively. Strong fluctuations in rate of TEC index are noted over the said stations. This enhanced scintillation activity is mainly due to the main phase of the storm falls in the evening sector over the Indian region.

Analysis of ground transmitter interference range for GPS L1 signals in the ground test‐bed environment of a navigation satellite system

To minimise the problems associated with the development of navigation satellite systems, the authors need to verify the suitability of the system and operation technology by constructing a ground test-bed in advance. When operating a ground test-bed, they must take extra care to prevent the ground transmission signal from interfering with very-low-power satellite signals received within the service area. Therefore, in this study, they first explain the concepts necessary to analyse the interference level between ground transmission signals and satellite signals, and then discuss the simulation results of the analysis of the interrelation between the ground transmitter power output and the interference range for Global Positioning System (GPS) L1 signals in the ground test-bed environment. The results confirmed that, as the ground transmitter power output increases, the maximum interference range for GPS L1 signals increases. Moreover, considering a ground test-bed environment where six transmitters with the same transmit power were arranged at equal distances, they conclude that, as the altitudes and distances of the transmitters increase, the service area becomes wider under certain conditions.

GPS Scintillations and Losses of Signal Lock at High Latitudes During the 2015 St. Patrick's Day Storm

AbstractWe investigate the Global Positioning System (GPS) amplitude and phase scintillations during a severe geomagnetic storm on 17 March 2015. The auroral oval expanded significantly due to a strongly southward interplanetary magnetic field (Bz was −25 nT). When the auroral oval was over Skibotn in northern Norway, significant enhancements in total electron content (TEC) fluctuations, amplitude, and phase scintillation were observed. The strongest amplitude and phase scintillations were observed when a TEC blob propagated across the field of view. Strong amplitude and phase scintillations were observed near the edges of the TEC blob. The European Incoherent SCATter ultrahigh frequency radar observed significant enhancement of electron density (from 0.8 × 1011 to 1.6 × 1011 m−3) near the edge of the TEC blob in the F2 region, while the E region was only slightly enhanced. This indicates that the plasma processes and instability modes, which accounted for the strong GPS scintillations, should involve the F2 region ionosphere. We also analyzed the tracking performance of the GPS receiver during strong ionospheric scintillation condition. While the receiver maintained tracking of the GPS L1 signal, the strong amplitude scintillation resulted in a power fade up to 12 dB‐Hz. Losses of lock occurred in the GPS L2 band. Both the power fade and rapid phase fluctuation should contribute to losses of lock.

Research Into a Recovery Method of GNSS Authorized Service Signal Component

A code recovery method of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) authorized service (AS) signal component is described under the condition of a high signal-to-noise ratio. The correctness of the spreading code verification can be used to monitor the health status of satellite payloads. Pseudo code recovery is a precondition to verify the validity of pseudo code. For a specified GNSS signal multiplexing approach, the distribution of baseband signal phase points on a constellation diagram is established. The open service signal component and the AS signal component correlate with each other on the unit circle. By wiping off the signal carrier, each signal component can be recovered according to the phase table of the transmitted signal. Different states of the global positioning system L1 signal is introduced, and the AS signal component recovery performance under different constant enveloping modulations is analyzed. This paper provides a reference for the analysis, evaluation, and system optimization design of a GNSS signal. Relevant research results can be applied to satellite signal quality monitoring and electronic reconnaissance.

Simulation and Performance Evaluations of the New GPS L5 and L1 Signals

The Global Positioning System (GPS) signals are used for navigation and positioning purposes by a diverse set of users. As a part of GPS modernization effort L5 has been recently introduced for better accuracy and availability service. This paper intends to study and simulate the GPS L1/L5 signal in order to fulfill the following two objectives. The first aim is to point out some important features/differences between current L1 (whose characteristics have been fairly known and documented) and new L5 GPS signal for performance evaluation purpose. The second aim is to facilitate receiver development, which will be designed and assembled later for the actual acquisition of GPS data. Simulation has been carried out for evaluation of correlation properties and link budgeting for both L1 and L5 signals. The necessary programming is performed in Matlab.

Performance assessment of GPS receivers during the September 24, 2011 solar radio burst event

The sudden outburst of in-band solar radio noise from the Sun is recognized as one of the potential Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) sources that directly impact the performance of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers. On September 24, 2011, the solar active region 1302 unleashed a moderate M7.1 soft X-ray flare associated with a very powerful radio burst at 1415 MHz. The Solar Radio Burst (SRB) event spanned over three distinct episodes of solar radio noise emission that reached the maximum radio flux density of 114,144 Solar Flux Units (SFU) at 13:04:46 UTC. This paper analyzes the impact of September 24, 2011 SRB event on the performance of a significant subset of NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers located in the sunlit hemisphere. The performance assessment is carried out in terms of Carrier-to-Noise power spectral density ratio (C /N 0 ) degradation, dual-frequency pseudorange measurements availability, pseudorange residual errors, and dual-frequency positioning errors in the horizontal and vertical dimensions. We observed that during the SRB event the GPS C /N 0 is reduced at most by 13 dB on L1 and 24 dB on L2. The C /N 0 degradation caused the loss of lock on GPS L1 and L2 signals and significant code-tracking errors. We noticed that many stations experienced less than four satellite measurements, which are the minimum required number of measurements for position estimation. The deteriorated satellite-receiver geometry due to loss of signal lock and significant code-tracking errors during the solar radio burst event introduced large positioning errors in both the horizontal and vertical dimensions. Rise in vertical positioning error of 303 m and rise in horizontal positioning of 55 m could be noticed during the solar radio burst event.

Detection of Bohai Bay Sea Ice Using GPS-Reflected Signals

For preventing the effects of sea ice disaster, traditional methods for detecting sea ice have some disadvantages, such as inadequate robustness against weather and high cost of real-time detection. This paper evaluates the usage of Global Positioning System (GPS)-reflected signals for accurate real-time Earth observations to study the changes in the sea surface state through remote sensing (RS). GPS L1 signals received after reflection from Bohai Bay were analyzed for their sea-ice content. The results are in good agreement with a reflected power ratio model [the ratio of the direct right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) signals and the reflected left-handed circular polarization (LHCP) signals] and sea ice concentration. The average of the reflected power ratio on the sea ice surface (0.41) is much smaller than that on the sea water surface (2.61).

Physical Reflectivity and Polarization Characteristics for Snow and Ice-Covered Surfaces Interacting with GPS Signals

The Global Positioning System (GPS) reflected signal has been demonstrated to remotely sense the oceans, land surfaces and the cryosphere, including measuring snow depth, soil moisture, vegetation growth and wind direction. Since the Earth surface’s characteristics are very complex, the surface reflectivity process and interaction with GPS signals is not well understood. In this study, we investigate the surface’s reflectivity and variability of snow and ice surfaces interacting with GPS L1 and L2 signals in order to retrieve multipath signals and infer surface characteristics by using the direct and reflected polarizations of each signal. Firstly, the effects of both GPS satellite elevation angle and GPS receiver’s antenna height variations on the multipath signal variability have been investigated by numerical formulations. Secondly, the specular reflection coefficients’ features and the total surface polarization for liquid and solid surfaces are discussed. Moreover, the linear polarization and circular polarizations (co-polarized and cross-polarized) as well as their corresponding convolution functions are developed horizontally and vertically. The results show that the multipath signals are more sensitive to the satellite elevation angle variations than to changes in the GPS receiver’s antenna height. The convolution function demonstrates that the snowy surface has a minimum reflectance in circular polarization but maximum reflectance in linear polarization. GPS signals reflecting from an ice-covered surface show a maximum value in circular polarization reflectance and a minimum for linear polarization reflectance. Moreover, the values for reflection from soils are between those for snow and ice in all polarization types. The placement of soil surface reflectance values between snowy and icy surface ones may be noteworthy in new remote sensing applications.

Reduction in the ionospheric error for a single-frequency GPS timing solution using tomography

Single-frequency Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers do not accurately compensate for the ionospheric delay imposed upon a GPS signal. They rely upon models to compensate for the ionosphere. This delay compensation can be improved by measuring it directly with a dual-frequency receiver, or by monitoring the ionosphere using real-time maps. This investigation uses a 4D tomographic algorithm, Multi Instrument Data Analysis System (MIDAS), to correct for the ionospheric delay and compares the results to existing single and dualfrequency techniques. Maps of the ionospheric electron density, across Europe, are produced by using data collected from a fixed network of dual-frequency GPS receivers. Single-frequency pseudorange observations are corrected by using the maps to find the excess propagation delay on the GPS L1 signals. Days during the solar maximum year 2002 and the October 2003 storm have been chosen to display results when the ionospheric delays are large and variable. Results that improve upon the use of existing ionospheric models are achieved by applying MIDAS to fixed and mobile single-frequency GPS timing solutions. The approach offers the potential for corrections to be broadcast over a local region, or provided via the internet and allows timing accuracies to within 10 ns to be achieved.

A 35-mW 3.6-mm/spl 2/ fully integrated 0.18-μm CMOS GPS radio

A single-chip CMOS Global Positioning System (GPS) radio has been integrated using only a couple of external passive components for the input matching network and one external reference for the synthesizer. The receiver downconverts the GPS L1 signal at 1575.42 MHz to an IF of 9.45 MHz. The complete front-end and frequency synthesizer section have been integrated: low noise amplifier, image rejection mixer, IF active filter, and the full phase-locked loop synthesizer, including voltage-controlled oscillator and loop filter. The front-end measured performances are 81-dB maximum gain, 5.3-dB noise figure, and >30-dB image rejection. The synthesizer features a phase noise of -95 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset and a total integrated phase noise of less than 7/spl deg/ rms in the 500-Hz-1.5-MHz band. The front-end and the synthesizer draw, respectively, 11 and 9 mA from a 1.8-V supply. The architecture of the front-end and synthesizer has been geared to high level of integration and reduction of silicon area at the lowest possible power consumption. Consequently, the one reported here is the smallest and most integrated CMOS GPS receiver reported so far.

Nighttime equatorial ionosphere: GPS scintillations and differential carrier phase fluctuations

The presence of scintillation‐producing irregularities in the nighttime equatorial ionosphere, in the path of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals received at an equatorial station, causes dual‐frequency measurements of the differential carrier phase of GPS L1 and L2 signals to have a contribution from phase scintillations on the two signals. Dual‐frequency data for fluctuations in the total electron content (TEC) along the path of GPS signals to the equatorial station Ancon (1.5° dip), sampled at a rate of 1 Hz, are used to separate this contribution from the slower TEC variations. Rapid fluctuations in the differential carrier phase, usually on timescales < 100 s, which result from diffraction, are seen to follow the pattern of intensity scintillations on the L1 signal. Intensity scintillations are also related to the variations in TEC which arise from density fluctuations associated with ionospheric irregularities. An approximate version of the transport‐of‐intensity equation, based on a phase screen description of the irregularities, suggests that a quantitative measure of intensity scintillations may be provided by the derivative of rate of change of TEC index (DROTI), obtained from the second derivative of TEC. This equation also yields the dependence of the scaling factor between DROTI and S4 on the Fresnel frequency. Comparison of DROTI computed from relative TEC data to corresponding S4 indices indicates that there may be lesser uncertainity in a quantitative relation between the two than between the index ROTI, introduced in recent years, and S4. Power spectral analysis of TEC fluctuations and simultaneous intensity scintillations on L1 signal, recorded at Ancon, does not indicate any simple dependence of the scaling factor between DROTI and S4 on the spectral characteristics.