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Improving integer ambiguity resolution for GLONASS precise orbit determination

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Abstract

The frequency division multiple access adopted in present GLONASS introduces inter-frequency bias (IFB) at the receiver-end both in code and phase observables, which makes GLONASS ambiguity resolution rather difficult or even not available, especially for long baselines up to several thousand kilometers. This is one of the major reasons that GLONASS could hardly reach the orbit precision of GPS, both in terms of consistency among individual International GNSS Service (IGS) analysis centers and discontinuity at the overlapping day boundaries. Based on the fact that the GLONASS phase IFB is similar on L1 and L2 bands in unit of length and is a linear function of the frequency number, several approaches have been developed to estimate and calibrate the IFB for integer ambiguity resolution. However, they are only for short and medium baselines. In this study, a new ambiguity resolution approach is developed for GLONASS global networks. In the approach, the phase ambiguities in the ionosphere-free linear combination are directly transformed with a wavelength of about 5.3 cm, according to the special frequency relationship of GLONASS L1 and L2 signals. After such transformation, the phase IFB rate can be estimated and corrected precisely and then the corresponding double-differenced ambiguities can be directly fixed to integers even for baselines up to several thousand kilometers. To evaluate this approach, experimental validations using one-month data of a global network with 140 IGS stations was carried out for GLONASS precise orbit determination. The results show that the GLONASS double-difference ambiguity resolution for long baselines could be achieved with an average fixing-rate of 91.4 %. Applying the fixed ambiguities as constraints, the GLONASS orbit overlapping RMS at the day boundaries could be reduced by 37.2 % in ideal cases and with an averaged reduction of about 21.4 %, which is comparable with that by the GPS ambiguity resolution. The orbit improvement is also confirmed by the better agreement with the independent satellite laser ranging observations.

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Acknowledgments

Yang Liu is financially supported by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for his study at the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). This work is supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 41374034) and the National “863 Program” of China (Grant No. 2014AA123101). Dr. Lei Wang from Queensland University of Technology and Mr. Yumiao Tian from Technische Universität Berlin are gratefully acknowledged for valuable discussions. The scholarship from Collaborative Innovation Center of Geospatial Technology of China is gratefully acknowledged. We are grateful to four anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

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  1. GNSS Research Center, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Yang Liu, Chuang Shi & Yidong Lou

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

    Yang Liu, Maorong Ge, Jens Wickert & Harald Schuh

  3. Collaborative Innovation Center of Geospatial Technology, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Chuang Shi & Yidong Lou

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  1. Yang Liu
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Correspondence to Yidong Lou.

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Liu, Y., Ge, M., Shi, C. et al. Improving integer ambiguity resolution for GLONASS precise orbit determination. J Geod 90, 715–726 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-016-0904-y

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