Abstract
Due to their low cost and low power consumption, single-frequency GPS receivers are considered suitable for low-cost space applications such as small satellite missions. Recently, requirements have emerged for real-time accurate orbit determination at sub-meter level in order to carry out onboard geocoding of high-resolution imagery, open-loop operation of altimeters and radio occultation. This study proposes an improved real-time kinematic positioning method for LEO satellites using single-frequency receivers. The C/A code and L1 phase are combined to eliminate ionospheric effects. The epoch-differenced carrier phase measurements are utilized to acquire receiver position changes which are further used to smooth the absolute positions. A kinematic Kalman filter is developed to implement kinematic orbit determination. Actual flight data from China’s small satellite SJ-9A are used to test the navigation performance. Results show that the proposed method outperforms traditional kinematic positioning method in terms of accuracy. A 3D position accuracy of 0.72 and 0.79 m has been achieved using the predicted portion of IGS ultra-rapid products and broadcast ephemerides, respectively.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China through cooperative agreement No. 11002008 and has been funded in part by Ministry of Science and Technology of China through cooperative agreement No. 2014CB845303.
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Chen, P., Zhang, J. & Sun, X. Real-time kinematic positioning of LEO satellites using a single-frequency GPS receiver. GPS Solut 21, 973–984 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-016-0586-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-016-0586-1