Phase Center Variations Research Articles

Improving LEO precise orbit determination with BDS PCV calibration

As the new members of the Chinese Fengyun-3 meteorological satellites series, the Fengyun-3C (FY-3C) and Fengyun-3D (FY-3D) satellites were launched in 2013 and 2017, respectively. For the first time, both FY-3C and FY-3D satellites carry a high-precision BDS and GPS dual-system space-borne receiver to fulfill their stringent requirement of precise orbit determination (POD). The fusion of BDS and GPS onboard observations can significantly improve the spatial geometry, robustness and reliability of low earth orbit (LEO) POD. In order to achieve high-quality orbit recovery from the onboard GNSS observations, the in-flight calibration of phase center variation (PCV) is a prerequisite. In this contribution, we calibrate the BDS PCV for improving the orbit precision of both FY-3C and FY-3D satellites for the first time. The results show that with the GPS PCV corrections, the residuals of GPS carrier phase observations present a reduction of about 17.6% and 21.9% for FY-3C and FY-3D satellites, respectively, and overlap differences of the GPS-only orbit are reduced on average by 3 and 5 mm. After correcting for BDS PCV, the GPS and BDS combined (GC) POD achieves a better orbit precision for both FY-3C and FY-3D satellites. The application of BDS PCV corrections can contribute to a reduction of up to 12% in BDS phase residuals and a decrease of up to 3 mm in orbit overlap differences in 1-dimension. It indicates that the introduction of the BDS PCV model can significantly improve the orbit precision. Similar orbit precision can be achieved when using the GPS PCV model to replace the BDS PCV model in the GC POD. It demonstrates that for onboard receivers, the GPS PCV model can be used to correct PCV errors of BDS signals, which is commonly used in precise point positioning of ground stations when the BDS PCV is not available. Furthermore, we find that it is feasible to generate an integrated PCV model from both onboard BDS and GPS observations. After application of the integrated PCV model, the FY-3C and FY-3D orbits of GC POD present a better precision than the solution using the single-system PCV model and the largest precision improvement of about 1 mm can be recognized in the radial component. With such a high-quality orbit, FY-3C and FY-3D satellites can be expected to make more contributions to meteorological studies and applications.

Parabolic profile pyramidal horn antenna with lower phase centre variation and 3 dB beamwidth in S‐band

A parabolic profile pyramidal horn antenna with flaring in both the E- and H-plane is presented in this study. The proposed structure having aperture dimensions of 518.10 × 408.36 mm2 is designed and fabricated for S-band (2.2–3.3 GHz). Due to increase in the flaring by 3.35 ° in the E-plane and 3.18 ° in the H- plane compared to the optimal typical pyramidal horn antenna (TPHA), a half-power beamwidth (HPBW) of less than 16.20 ° in both the planes with higher gain is achieved in the proposed antenna. The maximum phase centre (PC) variation, phase and amplitude variation of the electric field across the aperture in the proposed design are half compared to TPHA throughout the band, thus having good PC stability and lower phase error. The cross-polarisation level and the measured return loss of <25 and 15 dB, respectively, is achieved throughout the band, thus providing a good impedance matching and single dominant mode of propagation, i.e. TE10. With the lower HPBW and higher gain, the proposed antenna can be used in applications where point directive beam is required such as wireless power transfer to charge sensors and batteries of quad-copter and so on.

Research on Attitude Models and Antenna Phase Center Correction for Jason-3 Satellite Orbit Determination.

We focused on the researches of two models used for Jason-3 precise orbit determination (POD)—Jason-3 attitude modes and receiver phase center variation (PCV) model. A combined attitude mode for the Jason-3 satellite is designed based on experimental analysis used in some special cases, such as in the absence of quaternions or when inconvenient to use. We researched the linking of satellite attitude with antenna phase center. Specially, to verify the validity of the combined attitude, we analyzed the effects of different attitude modes on receiver phase center offset (PCO) estimation, PCO correction and POD. Meanwhile, the difference analysis of PCO correction based on attitude modes also contains the combined attitude modeling processes. The POD results showed that the orbital accuracies with the combined attitude are slightly more stable than those with attitude event file. By introducing receiver PCVs into POD, the mean residuals root-mean-square (RMS) is reduced by 1.9 mm and orbital 3D-RMS position difference is improved by 5.7 mm. The eight schemes were designed to integratedly verify the effectiveness of different attitude modes and receiver PCVs model. The results conclude that the accuracy using the combined attitude is higher than that of event file, which also prove the feasibility of the combined attitude in integrated POD and it can be as a revision of attitude event file. Using all mentioned attitude modes, the orbital accuracy by introducing PCVs can be improved by the millimeter level. The integrated effects of attitude modes and receiver PCVs on POD are almost consistent with the effects of a single variable. The optimal results of Jason-3 POD indicate that orbital mean radial RMS is close to 1 cm, and the 3D-RMS position difference is within 3 cm.

A Wideband Corrugated Ridged Horn Antenna With Enhanced Gain and Stable Phase Center for X- and Ku-Band Applications

In this letter, a structure and design procedure of a novel double-flared conical horn antenna with an improved gain and a stable phase center is presented. The antenna incorporates a hybrid ridged and corrugated structure. A double-ridged section is responsible for ensuring a wideband operation, whereas the corrugated section supports the hybrid mode. The antenna impedance bandwidth (VSWR < 2) is 6–20 GHz. An excellent performance is demonstrated for both the X- and Ku-bands. In particular, the antenna exhibits 12–18 dBi gain over both operating bands, a constant 44°, 10 dB beamwidth radiation pattern over the Ku-band and a close-to-constant 65° beamwidth over the X-band. The design is validated using both numerically and experimentally. The measurement and simulation indicate that the phase center variation in the X- and the Ku-bands is less than 2 and 1.5 cm, respectively.

A Wideband Circularly Polarized Crossed-Slot Antenna With Stable Phase Center

A wideband circularly polarized crossed-slot antenna with a stable phase center is investigated in this letter. The proposed antenna consists of a crossed-slot radiator and a Γ-shaped feeding structure. Orthogonal modes can be excited by perturbing the crossed slot to realize circular polarization. Both simulation and measurement of the designed antenna demonstrate a –10 dB impedance bandwidth of 43.8% and a 3 dB axial-ratio bandwidth of 42.6%, covering all the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) bands. Due to the overall symmetry of the radiation crossed slot, a phase center of the proposed antenna remains stable within a wide beam of 100° covering the whole GNSS bands, with phase center variation retained below 5°.

Galileo and QZSS precise orbit and clock determination using new satellite metadata

During 2016–2018, satellite metadata/information including antenna parameters, attitude laws and physical characteristics such as mass, dimensions and optical properties were released for Galileo and QZSS (except for the QZS-1 optical coefficients). These metadata are critical for improving the accuracy of precise orbit and clock determination. In this contribution, we evaluate the benefits of these new metadata to orbit and clock in three aspects: the phase center offsets and variations (PCO and PCV), the yaw-attitude model and solar radiation pressure (SRP) model. The updating of Galileo PCO and PCV corrections, from the values estimated by Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt and Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum to the chamber calibrations disclosed by new metadata, has only a slight influence on Galileo orbits, with overlap differences within only 1 mm. By modeling the yaw attitude of Galileo satellites and QZS-2 spacecraft (SVN J002) according to new published attitude laws, the residuals of ionosphere-free carrier-phase combinations can be obviously decreased in yaw maneuver seasons. With the new attitude models, the 3D overlap RMS in eclipse seasons can be decreased from 12.3 cm, 14.7 cm, 16.8 cm and 34.7 cm to 11.7 cm, 13.4 cm, 15.8 cm and 32.9 cm for Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV), Full Operational Capability (FOC), FOC in elliptical orbits (FOCe) and QZS-2 satellites, respectively. By applying the a priori box-wing SRP model with new satellite dimensions and optical coefficients, the 3D overlap RMS are 5.3 cm, 6.2 cm, 5.3 cm and 16.6 cm for Galileo IOV, FOCe, FOC and QZS-2 satellites, with improvements of 11.0%, 14.7%, 14.0% and 13.8% when compared with the updated Extended CODE Orbit Model (ECOM2). The satellite laser ranging (SLR) validation reveals that the a priori box-wing model has smaller mean biases of − 0.4 cm, − 0.4 cm and 0.6 cm for Galileo FOCe, FOC and QZS-2 satellites, while a slightly larger mean bias of − 1.0 cm is observed for Galileo IOV satellites. Moreover, the SLR residual dependencies of Galileo IOV and FOC satellites on the elongation angle almost vanish when the a priori box-wing SRP model is applied. As for satellite clocks, a visible bump appears in the Modified Allan deviation at integration time of 20,000 s for Galileo Passive Hydrogen Maser with ECOM2, while it almost vanishes when the a priori box-wing SRP model and new metadata are applied. The standard deviations of clock overlap can also be significantly reduced by using new metadata.

The Effect of TLS Radome on GNSS Precise Positioning

This article presents the results of a test carried out to check the usability of spherical TLS targets as GNSS antenna radomes (herein called TLS radomes). On different days, the survey was conducted using two GNSS antennas, one of them with a TLS radome. Measurements were made using 2 roof pillars on the rooftop as base-rover pillars with little obstruction. The measurements were carried out for approximately 1 hour in every scenario. The software used for data processing is MATLAB-based software and the raw data were processed using the double difference (DD) strategy to obtain optimal results. The results of the data processing indicated that the TLS radome has no significant influence on availability and accuracy of estimated position. The signals are slightly attenuated by the radome (1-2 dBHz) and the noise level is slightly increased but both effects are negligible for practical purposes. However, we found that the antenna should be calibrated with the TLS radome to clarify apparent minor phase center eccentricities (1-2 mm) and to reduce systematic effects with long periods (few minutes) and amplitudes up to about 5 mm which are likely due to phase center variations.

GNSS antenna phase center variation calibration for attitude determination on short baselines

CubETH is a satellite project aimed at technology demonstration. One of the mission goals is the determination of the attitude of the 10 × 10 × 10 cm3 spacecraft with GNSS. First tests revealed that Phase Center Variations (PCV) dominate the error budget. In consequence, a simple field method for PCV calibration of antenna systems was developed. The estimated PCV confirms the hypothesis of mutual influence of the antennas. A simulation study using the estimated pattern and a validation with real data proved that the PCV calibrations significantly enhance the accuracy of the attitude determination. The root mean square error of the estimated attitude of a platform with three antennas located within 15 cm of each other could be reduced from 6° to 4.5°. The newly developed calibration method is easy to carry out and will help to enhance the accuracy of GNSS attitude determination systems.

Advanced Sidereal Filtering for Mitigating Multipath Effects in GNSS Short Baseline Positioning

Advanced sidereal filtering (ASF) is an observation-domain sidereal filtering that adopts the repeat time of each individual satellite separately rather than the mean repeat time, adopted by the modified sidereal filtering (MSF). To evaluate the performance of ASF, we apply the method to filter the multipath for a short baseline based on a dual-antenna Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver. The errors from satellite and receiver clocks, satellite orbit, troposphere, ionosphere, and antenna phase center variations are greatly eliminated by single difference between the two antennas because they are connected to the same receiver clock. The performances of ASF are compared with MSF to evaluate the gain for multipath mitigation. Comparisons indicate that ASF slightly outperforms MSF when the repeat time values of all satellites incorporated in data processing are within the normal range (86,145–86,165 s), but the difference of variance reduction rate between ASF and MSF is statistically significant. When the data of a satellite with repeat time outside the normal range are included, the performances of MSF become much worse, but ASF is almost not affected. This advantage of ASF over MSF is important because the proportion of the days on which at least one satellite’s repeat time exceeds the normal range reaches 71.19% based on the statistics on the data of 2014 and 2015. After applying ASF multipath corrections on the test days, the averages of standard deviations of north, east, and up component are reduced from 3.8 to 2.1 mm, 3.2 to 1.7 mm, and 7.6 to 4.3 mm, respectively. Comparison between applying ASF with the single-day model and with the seven-day model indicates that the former is generally more effective in multipath reduction.

Validating and comparing GNSS antenna calibrations

GNSS antennas have no fixed electrical reference point. The variation of the phase centre is modelled and tabulated in antenna calibration tables, which include the offset vector (PCO) and phase centre variation (PCV) for each frequency according to the elevations and azimuths of the incoming signal. Used together, PCV and PCO reduce the phase observations to the antenna reference point. The remaining biases, called the residual offsets, can be revealed by circulating and rotating the antennas on pillars. The residual offsets are estimated as additional parameters when combining the daily GNSS network solutions with full covariance matrix. We present a procedure for validating the antenna calibration tables. The dedicated test field, called Revolver, was constructed at Metsähovi. We used the procedure to validate the calibration tables of 17 antennas. Tables from the IGS and three different calibration institutions were used. The tests show that we were able to separate the residual offsets at the millimetre level. We also investigated the influence of the calibration tables from the different institutions on site coordinates by performing kinematic double-difference baseline processing of the data from one site with different antenna tables. We found small but significant differences between the tables.

In-flight performance analysis of MEMS GPS receiver and its application to precise orbit determination of APOD-A satellite

An experimental satellite mission termed atmospheric density detection and precise orbit determination (APOD) was developed by China and launched on 20 September 2015. The micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) GPS receiver provides the basis for precise orbit determination (POD) within the range of a few decimetres. The in-flight performance of the MEMS GPS receiver was assessed. The average number of tracked GPS satellites is 10.7. However, only 5.1GPS satellites are available for dual-frequency navigation because of the loss of many L2 observations at low elevations. The variations in the multipath error for C1 and P2 were estimated, and the maximum multipath error could reach up to 0.8m. The average code noises are 0.28m (C1) and 0.69m (P2). Using the MEMS GPS receiver, the orbit of the APOD nanosatellite (APOD-A) was precisely determined. Two types of orbit solutions are proposed: a dual-frequency solution and a single-frequency solution. The antenna phase center variations (PCVs) and code residual variations (CRVs) were estimated, and the maximum value of the PCVs is 4.0cm. After correcting the antenna PCVs and CRVs, the final orbit precision for the dual-frequency and single-frequency solutions were 7.71cm and 12.91cm, respectively, validated using the satellite laser ranging (SLR) data, which were significantly improved by 3.35cm and 25.25cm. The average RMS of the 6-h overlap differences in the dual-frequency solution between two consecutive days in three dimensions (3D) is 4.59cm. The MEMS GPS receiver is the Chinese indigenous onboard receiver, which was successfully used in the POD of a nanosatellite. This study has important reference value for improving the MEMS GPS receiver and its application in other low Earth orbit (LEO) nanosatellites.

Real-time precise orbit determination of LEO satellites using a single-frequency GPS receiver: Preliminary results of Chinese SJ-9A satellite

Spaceborne Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers are widely used for orbit determination of low-Earth-orbiting (LEO) satellites. With the improvement of measurement accuracy, single-frequency receivers are recently considered for low-cost small satellite missions. In this paper, a Schmidt-Kalman filter which processes single-frequency GPS measurements and broadcast ephemerides is proposed for real-time precise orbit determination of LEO satellites. The C/A code and L1 phase are linearly combined to eliminate the first-order ionospheric effects. Systematic errors due to ionospheric delay residual, group delay variation, phase center variation, and broadcast ephemeris errors, are lumped together into a noise term, which is modeled as a first-order Gauss-Markov process. In order to reduce computational complexity, the colored noise is considered rather than estimated in the orbit determination process. This ensures that the covariance matrix accurately represents the distribution of estimation errors without increasing the dimension of the state vector. The orbit determination algorithm is tested with actual flight data from the single-frequency GPS receiver onboard China’s small satellite Shi Jian-9A (SJ-9A). Preliminary results using a 7-h data arc on October 25, 2012 show that the Schmidt-Kalman filter performs better than the standard Kalman filter in terms of accuracy.

Sentinel-1A – First precise orbit determination results

Sentinel-1A is the first satellite of the European Copernicus programme. Equipped with a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instrument the satellite was launched on April 3, 2014. Operational since October 2014 the satellite delivers valuable data for more than two years. The orbit accuracy requirements are given as 5cm in 3D. In order to fulfill this stringent requirement the precise orbit determination (POD) is based on the dual-frequency GPS observations delivered by an eight-channel GPS receiver.The Copernicus POD (CPOD) Service is in charge of providing the orbital and auxiliary products required by the PDGS (Payload Data Ground Segment). External orbit validation is regularly performed by comparing the CPOD Service orbits to orbit solutions provided by POD expert members of the Copernicus POD Quality Working Group (QWG). The orbit comparisons revealed systematic orbit offsets mainly in radial direction (approx. 3cm). Although no independent observation technique (e.g. DORIS, SLR) is available to validate the GPS-derived orbit solutions, comparisons between the different antenna phase center variations and different reduced-dynamic orbit determination approaches used in the various software packages helped to detect the cause of the systematic offset. An error in the given geometry information about the satellite has been found. After correction of the geometry the orbit validation shows a significant reduction of the radial offset to below 5mm. The 5cm orbit accuracy requirement in 3D is fulfilled according to the results of the orbit comparisons between the different orbit solutions from the QWG.

Impact of GPS antenna phase center and code residual variation maps on orbit and baseline determination of GRACE

Precision Orbit Determination (POD) is a prerequisite for the success of many Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellite missions. With high-quality, dual-frequency Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, typically precisions of the order of a few cm are possible for single-satellite POD, and of a few mm for relative POD of formation flying spacecraft with baselines up to hundreds of km. To achieve the best precision, the use of Phase Center Variation (PCV) maps is indispensable. For LEO GPS receivers, often a-priori PCV maps are obtained by a pre-launch ground campaign, which is not able to represent the real space-borne environment of satellites. Therefore, in-flight calibration of the GPS antenna is more widely conducted.This paper shows that a further improvement is possible by including the so-called Code Residual Variation (CRV) maps in absolute/undifferenced and relative/Double-differenced (DD) POD schemes. Orbit solutions are produced for the GRACE satellite formation for a four months test period (August-November, 2014), demonstrating enhanced orbit precision after first using the in-flight PCV maps and a further improvement after including the CRV maps. The application of antenna maps leads to a better consistency with independent Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) and K-band Ranging (KBR) low-low Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking (ll-SST) observations. The inclusion of the CRV maps results also in a much better consistency between reduced-dynamic and kinematic orbit solutions for especially the cross-track direction. The improvements are largest for GRACE-B, where a cross-talk between the GPS main antenna and the occultation antenna yields higher systematic observation residuals.For high-precision relative POD which necessitates DD carrier-phase ambiguity fixing, in principle frequency-dependent PCV maps would be required. To this aim, use is made of an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) that is capable of optimizing relative spacecraft dynamics and iteratively fixing the DD carrier-phase ambiguities. It is found that PCV maps significantly improve the baseline solution. CRV maps slightly enhance the baseline precision, more significantly they lead to a much better initialization of the ambiguity fixing. The GRACE single-satellite orbit solutions compare to within a few cm 3-dimensionally with state-of-the-art external orbit solutions and SLR observations, whereas for the baseline a consistency of better than 0.7mm with KBR observations is achieved.

Multivariate analysis of GPS position time series of JPL second reprocessing campaign

The second reprocessing of all GPS data gathered by the Analysis Centers of IGS was conducted in late 2013 using the latest models and methodologies. Improved models of antenna phase center variations and solar radiation pressure in JPL’s reanalysis are expected to significantly reduce errors. In an earlier work, JPL estimates of position time series, termed first reprocessing campaign, were examined in terms of their spatial and temporal correlation, power spectra, and draconitic signal. Similar analyses are applied to GPS time series at 89 and 66 sites of the second reanalysis with the time span of 7 and 21 years, respectively, to study possible improvements. Our results indicate that the spatial correlations are reduced on average by a factor of 1.25. While the white and flicker noise amplitudes for all components are reduced by 29–56 %, the random walk amplitude is enlarged. The white, flicker, and random walk noise amount to rate errors of, respectively, 0.01, 0.12, and 0.09 mm/yr in the horizontal and 0.04, 0.41 and 0.3 mm/yr in the vertical. Signals reported previously, such as those with periods of 13.63, 14.76, 5.5, and 351.4 / n for $$n=1,2,{\ldots },8$$ days, are identified in multivariate spectra of both data sets. The oscillation of the draconitic signal is reduced by factors of 1.87, 1.87, and 1.68 in the east, north and up components, respectively. Two other signals with Chandlerian period and a period of 380 days can also be detected.

Spaceborne GPS receiver antenna phase center offset and variation estimation for the Shiyan 3 satellite

In determining the orbits of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites using spaceborne GPS, the errors caused by receiver antenna phase center offset (PCO) and phase center variations (PCVs) are gradually becoming a major limiting factor for continued improvements to accuracy. Shiyan 3, a small satellite mission for space technology experimentation and climate exploration, was developed by China and launched on November 5, 2008. The dual-frequency GPS receiver payload delivers 1Hz data and provides the basis for precise orbit determination within the range of a few centimeters. The antenna PCO and PCV error characteristics and the principles influencing orbit determination are analyzed. The feasibility of PCO and PCV estimation and compensation in different directions is demonstrated through simulation and in-flight tests. The values of receiver antenna PCO and PCVs for Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and Shiyan 3 satellites are estimated from one month of data. A large and stable antenna PCO error, reaching up to 10.34cm in the z-direction, is found with the Shiyan 3 satellite. The PCVs on the Shiyan 3 satellite are estimated and reach up to 3.0cm, which is slightly larger than that of GRACE satellites. Orbit validation clearly improved with independent k-band ranging (KBR) and satellite laser ranging (SLR) measurements. For GRACE satellites, the average root mean square (RMS) of KBR residuals improved from 1.01cm to 0.88cm. For the Shiyan 3 satellite, the average RMS of SLR residuals improved from 4.95cm to 4.06cm.

DORIS data processing in the INASAN Analysis Center and the contribution to ITRF2014

We present results of the DORIS data processing for the ITRF2014 carried out in the Institute of Astronomy, Russian Academy of Sciences (short INA) for the time period 1993.0–2015.0. The evaluated SINEX free-network (inawd08) weekly solutions for station positions and polar motion have been submitted to the IDS Combination Center. We applied the upgraded models of the gravity field, troposphere, and used corrected data for SPOT-5 satellite which permitted us to improve the result precision for Helmert transformation parameters and EOP. The agreement with the IERS C04 solution turns out better than 0.1 mas with a dispersion of 1 mas. The evaluated amplitudes of annual geocenter variations derived from inawd08 weekly solutions are 3.4±0.5mm, 4.4±0.5mm, and 3.3±1.0mm for X, Y, and Z components, respectively. The recovered amplitudes and phases are in a good agreement with the geophysical models. The results of two single satellite campaigns related to the scale increase in 2012 and 1994 for IDS combination are studied. Unlike other Analysis Centers, we did not apply a phase center law for ground antennas. It was shown that the correction for the phase center variation (PCV) of ground DORIS antennas results in the shift of the mean scale factor by 1.24ppb (i.e., ∼8mm) with respect to the case without correction. The PCV model and the satellites HY-2A and SARAL are included into the INA latest solutions (inawd10) after the submission for the ITRF2014. The future work is discussed.

Phase centre performance evaluation for GNSS adaptive array

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) adaptive array suffers from phase distortions owing to beam forming processing which in turn affect the navigation precision. In high precision GNSS applications, the distortions must be evaluated. Traditional phase performance evaluation approach is based on the fixed reception pattern antenna. A new approach to evaluate phase performance of adaptive array is presented. The method takes into account the interfering scenes and the average phase centre variation performance for different adaptive algorithm and array geometry can be obtained.

DORIS Starec ground antenna characterization and impact on positioning

In a geodetic radio frequency observing system the phase center offsets and phase center variations of ground antennae are a fundamental component of mathematical models of the system observables. In this paper we describe work aimed at improving the DORIS Starec ground antenna phase center definition model. Seven antennas were analyzed in the Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR), a dedicated CNES facility. With respect to the manufacturer specified phase center offset, the measured antennae varied between −6mm and +4mm due to manufacturing variations. To solve this problem, discussions were held with the manufacturer, leading to an improvement of the manufacturing process. This work results in a reduction in the scatter to ±1mm. The phase center position has been kept unchanged and associated phase law has been updated and provided to users of the International DORIS Service (IDS). This phase law is applicable to all Starec antennas (before and after manufacturing process consolidation) and is azimuth independent. An error budget taking into account these updated characteristics has been established for the antenna alone: ±2mm on the horizontal plane and ±3mm on the up component, maximum error values for antennas named type C (Saunier et al., 2016) produced with consolidated manufacturing process. Finally the impact of this updated characterization on positioning results has been analyzed and shows a scale offset only of the order of +12mm for the Terrestrial Reference Frame.

Determining normal heights with the use of Precise Point Positioning

In this paper, the authors analysed the Precise Point Positioning (PPP) performance in determination of normal heights using observations from a test network consisting of ten sites. One-week observation interval was processed using standard PPP approach and Multi-Station PPP (MS-PPP) with ambiguity resolution using the NAvigation Package for Earth Observation Satellites v. 3.3.1 software. In post-processing corrections like the Earth rotation parameters, ocean loadings, antenna phase centre offsets and variations etc. needed to obtain the most accurate position were utilised. By processing the various lengths observing sessions (1 hour, 30 minutes, 15 minutes) the authors examined the degradation of the position determination precision with shortening the observation time. In the study both high-end receivers used most often at CORS, as well as commercial two-frequency receivers were utilised. Normal heights were obtained using PL–geoid–2011 model. The results of the research show that PPP is a viable alternative for Relative GNSS Positioning in the case of GNSS levelling.