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Assessment of precise orbit and clock products for Galileo, BeiDou, and QZSS from IGS Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX)

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Abstract

The focus is on the quality assessment of precise orbit and clock products for the emerging Galileo, BeiDou, and QZSS systems. Products provided by Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) over 2 years are used for evaluation. First, the products are assessed by orbit and clock comparisons among individual analysis centers (ACs), which give us an objective impression of their consistency. In addition, the precise orbits are verified by satellite laser ranging (SLR) residuals, which can be regarded as indicators of orbit accuracy. Moreover, precise point positioning (PPP) tests are conducted to further verify the quality of MGEX precise orbits and clocks. Orbit comparisons show agreements of about 0.1–0.25 m for Galileo, 0.1–0.2 m for BeiDou MEOs, 0.2–0.3 m for BeiDou IGSOs, and 0.2–0.4 m for QZSS. The BeiDou GEO orbits, however, have the worst agreements having a few meters differences. Clock comparisons of individual ACs have a consistency of 0.2–0.4 ns for Galileo, 0.2–0.3 ns for BeiDou IGSOs, 0.15–0.2 ns for BeiDou MEOs, 0.5–0.8 ns for BeiDou GEOs, and 0.4–0.8 ns for QZSS in general. The SLR validations demonstrate an accuracy of about 0.1 m for the current Galileo, BeiDou IGSO/MEO orbits, and about 0.2 m for QZSS orbits. However, the SLR residuals of BeiDou GEO orbits show a systematic bias of about −0.5 m together with a standard deviation of 0.3 m. Solutions of PPP with different products mostly agree well with each other, which further confirms the good consistency of orbits and clocks among ACs. After convergence, an accuracy of 1 mm to 1 cm for static PPP and a few centimeters for kinematic PPP is achieved using multi-GNSS observations and MGEX orbit and clock products. However, it should be noted that a few exceptions may exist throughout the evaluations due to the insufficient models, different processing strategies, and ongoing updates applied by individual ACs.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge IGS Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) for providing GNSS data and products. We also appreciate two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and improvements to this manuscript. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos: 41404006, 41474025) and Open Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Survey, Mapping and Remote Sensing (No. 15P02).

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Fei Guo, Xingxing Li & Xiaohong Zhang

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

    Fei Guo & Xiaohong Zhang

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

    Xingxing Li

  4. School of Civil and Environment Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Jinling Wang

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  1. Fei Guo
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Correspondence to Xingxing Li.

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Guo, F., Li, X., Zhang, X. et al. Assessment of precise orbit and clock products for Galileo, BeiDou, and QZSS from IGS Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX). GPS Solut 21, 279–290 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-016-0523-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-016-0523-3

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