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Recent Development and Utilization of Two-Way Satellite Time and Frequency Transfer

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Abstract

TWSTFT (Two Way Satellite Time and Frequency Transfer) has been developed for a long time, and has become one of the most precise and accurate techniques for comparison of the frequency standards located at remote sites. Since 1999, TWSTFT has been used in TAI (International Atomic Time) generation. More than two-thirds of TAI clocks and almost all the primary frequency standards are transferred using TWSTFT. To increase the time transfer precision and stability, several calibration methods were developed and the possible instability sources were investigated. Due to the high redundancy of the time transfer links and quick developments of independent time transfer techniques (e.g. GPS), much utilization was proposed to enhance the robustness, to reduce the uncertainty, and to reduce the diurnal effect of TWSTFT. For example, one can adopt the concept of network time transfer to improve the short term stability, or combine the data of different time transfer techniques to take their advantages. The numerical results of network time transfer are very promising. For the future development, a newly developed DPN-based TWSTFT method shows competitive performance with the GPS PPP and much less diurnals than the conventional TWSTFT. It is a very promising method for the next-generation TWSTFT. This paper will give an overview of the above topics.

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Acknowledgment

Special thanks are given to NICT colleagues for their devotion to the Asia–Pacific TWSTFT network and the arrangements for the NICT–TL DPN experiment. We would also like to express our gratitude to all the TWSTFT partners of European and Asian laboratories for their cooperation, and to all TL colleagues for their assistance. This work is support in part by the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan under Grant number BSMI 101-1403-05-05-09.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Time and Frequency Standard Laboratory, Telecommunication Laboratories (TL), Chunghwa Telecom, Taoyuan, Taiwan, 326, Republic of China

    H.-T. Lin, Y.-J. Huang, W.-H. Tseng, C.-S. Liao & F.-D. Chu

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  1. H.-T. Lin
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Lin, HT., Huang, YJ., Tseng, WH. et al. Recent Development and Utilization of Two-Way Satellite Time and Frequency Transfer. MAPAN 27, 13–22 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12647-012-0007-z

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