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Evaluating the impact of higher-order ionospheric corrections on multi-GNSS ultra-rapid orbit determination

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Abstract

The correction of higher-order ionospheric (HOI) delays remaining in the dual-frequency ionosphere-free combined observations is suggested after the confirmation of its impact on precise Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data processing. However, in the precise orbit determination (POD) for generating ultra-rapid orbits, the higher-order corrections are not always considered most likely because a RT ionospheric model needed for calculating the higher-order corrections is hardly available or the HOI impact is believed rather small compared to the accuracy of the predicted orbit. With the increasing requirement on the positioning performances from various applications, providing more accurate and reliable ultra-rapid orbits becomes an essential task of the real-time GNSS precise positioning services. In this contribution, the temporal–spatial characteristics of HOI effects on GNSS observables are investigated thoroughly using data collected from International GNSS Service (IGS) global ground stations and fluctuations of the higher-order delays up to several centimeters are detected during periods of high ionospheric activity. Hereafter, we evaluate the HOI effects on the multi-GNSS POD based on a network with globally distributed IGS stations. Results show that owing to the applied HOI corrections, the agreement of overlapping orbits can be improved significantly for all satellites and especially in radial direction. The three-dimensional RMS values of the overlapping differences are reduced from 1.6, 2.0, 4.6 and 1.7 to 1.0, 1.1, 3.4, and 1.5 cm for GPS, GALILEO, BDS, and GLONASS, respectively. Furthermore, the orbit improvement is also confirmed by the satellite laser ranging (SLR) observations over a 2-month time period where the STD of SLR residuals is reduced by HOI corrections from 6.4 to 5.3 cm for the BDS-IGSO satellites.

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Acknowledgements

Xinghan Chen and Maorong Ge conceived and designed the experiments and analyzed data. Haroldo Antonio Marques and Harald Schuh provided advice on HOI corrections. Xinghan Chen performed the experiments and wrote this paper. The paper was modified by Maorong Ge, Haroldo Antonio Marques, and Harald Schuh. Thanks go to the IGS for providing multi-GNSS data and products. Our study is financially supported by the China Scholarship Council (CSC, File No. 201606270206) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 41404006, 41704010, and 41774030).

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Xinghan Chen, Maorong Ge & Harald Schuh

  2. Department of Cartography, Military Institute of Engineering (IME), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Haroldo Antonio Marques

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  1. Xinghan Chen
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Correspondence to Xinghan Chen.

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Chen, X., Ge, M., Marques, H.A. et al. Evaluating the impact of higher-order ionospheric corrections on multi-GNSS ultra-rapid orbit determination. J Geod 93, 1347–1365 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-019-01249-7

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