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Characteristics of inter-frequency clock bias for Block IIF satellites and its effect on triple-frequency GPS precise point positioning

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Abstract

The latest generation of GPS satellites, termed Block IIF, provides a new L5 signal. Multi-frequency signals open new prospects for precise positioning and fast ambiguity resolution and have become the trend in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) development. However, a new type of inter-frequency clock bias (IFCB), i.e., the difference between the current clock products computed with L1/L2 and the satellite clocks computed with L1/L5, was noticed. Consequently, the L1/L2 clock products cannot be used for L1/L5 precise point positioning (PPP). In order to solve this issue, the IFCB should be estimated with a high accuracy. Datasets collected at 129 globally distributed Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) stations from 2015 are employed to investigate the IFCB. The results indicate that the IFCB is satellite dependent and varies with the relative sun–spacecraft–earth geometry. Other factors, however, may also contribute to the IFCB variations according to the harmonic analysis of the single-day IFCB time series. In addition, the results show that the IFCB exhibits periodic signal with a notable period of 43,080 s and the peak-to-peak amplitude is 0.023–0.269 m. After considering a time lag of 240 s, the average cross-correlation coefficient between the IFCB series of two consecutive days is 0.943, and the prediction accuracy of IFCB is 0.006 m. A triple-frequency PPP model that takes the IFCB into account is proposed. When using 3-h datasets, the positioning accuracy of triple-frequency PPP can be improved by 19, 13 and 21 % compared with the L1/L2-based PPP in the east, north and up directions, respectively.

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Acknowledgments

The contribution of data from IGS is appreciated. This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41474025) and Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment and Geodesy, Ministry of Education, Wuhan University (Grant No. 15-02-06).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geodesy and Geomatics, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Lin Pan, Xiaohong Zhang, Xingxing Li, Jingnan Liu & Xin Li

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center for Geospatial Technology, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Lin Pan & Xiaohong Zhang

  3. Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment and Geodesy, Ministry of Education, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Lin Pan & Xiaohong Zhang

  4. German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), Telegrafenberg, 14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Xingxing Li

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  1. Lin Pan
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  2. Xiaohong Zhang
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  3. Xingxing Li
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  4. Jingnan Liu
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  5. Xin Li
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Correspondence to Xiaohong Zhang or Xingxing Li.

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Pan, L., Zhang, X., Li, X. et al. Characteristics of inter-frequency clock bias for Block IIF satellites and its effect on triple-frequency GPS precise point positioning. GPS Solut 21, 811–822 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-016-0571-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-016-0571-8

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