Abstract
GLONASS has been transmitting the code division multiple access navigation signals on the third band L3 for six GLONASS-M + and three GLONASS-K satellites, in addition to the legacy frequency division multiple access signals on L1 and L2. However, the significant inconsistency between the phase bias of different ionospheric-free (IF) combinations for GLONASS-M + satellites, known as the phase inter-frequency clock bias (IFCB), hinders the utilization of GLONASS triple-frequency positioning. We discuss the coupling relationship between GLONASS IFCB and the phase center offset (PCO) and propose a new IFCB estimation model considering the PCO differences between L3 and L2. GLONASS triple-frequency observations from 151 globally distributed IGS stations are employed to validate the proposed IFCB estimation model. The results show that the mean root mean square (RMS) value of IFCB estimates decreases from 0.097 m to 0.028 m when considering PCO differences, suggesting the GLONASS IFCB is ignorable. Meanwhile, the L3 PCO estimates for GLONASS-M + satellites exhibit high stability and consistency, with standard deviations of 52, 113, and 13 mm, in x-, y-, and z-components, respectively. By correcting the estimated L3 PCO instead of the legacy IFCB, the GLONASS-only triple-frequency precise point positioning PPP achieves positioning accuracies of 1.8, 0.9, and 1.5 cm in east, north, and up components, with the improvement of 13%, 3%, and 33%, respectively. Moreover, the RMS value of L3 phase residuals reduces from 10.2 to 5.0 mm. Therefore, we recommend correcting the PCO on L3 for GLONASS-M + satellites and disregarding the IFCB for GLONASS triple-frequency positioning, which can significantly simplify the observation model and achieve higher accuracy.
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All data in this article are publicly accessible. The GNSS data and products can be obtained at https://cddis.nasa.gov/archive.
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Acknowledgements
This study is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41974027, No. 42204017), the Hubei Province Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 2020CFA002), the special fund of Hubei Luojia Laboratory (220100006), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2042022kf1001), and the Sino-German mobility program (Grant No. M-0054). The numerical calculations in this paper have been done on the supercomputing system in the Supercomputing Center of Wuhan University.
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JW and XL provided the initial idea and designed the experiments for this study; JW, XL, YY, and XL analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; XL, HZ, and WZ helped with the writing. All authors reviewed the manuscript.
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Wu, J., Li, X., Yuan, Y. et al. Estimation of GLONASS inter-frequency clock bias considering the phase center offset differences on the L3 signal. GPS Solut 27, 130 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-023-01468-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-023-01468-8