PCO and hardware delay calibration for LEO satellite antenna downlinking navigation signals
Augmentation of the Global Navigation Satellite System by low earth orbit (LEO) satellites is a promising approach benefiting from the advantages of LEO satellites. This, however, requires errors and biases in the satellite downlink navigation signals to be calibrated, modeled, or eliminated. Thi...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
Institute of Physics Publishing
2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP240101710 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/95113 |
| Summary: | Augmentation of the Global Navigation Satellite System by low earth orbit (LEO) satellites is a
promising approach benefiting from the advantages of LEO satellites. This, however, requires
errors and biases in the satellite downlink navigation signals to be calibrated, modeled, or
eliminated. This contribution introduces an approach for in-orbit calibration of the phase center
offsets (PCOs) and code hardware delays of the LEO downlink navigation signal
transmitter/antenna. Using the satellite geometries of Sentinel-3B and Sentinel-6A as examples,
the study analyzed the formal precision and bias influences for potential downlink antenna
PCOs and hardware delays of LEO satellites under different ground network distributions, and
processing periods. It was found that increasing the number of tracking stations and processing
periods can improve the formal precision of PCOs and hardware delay. Less than 3.5 mm and
3 cm, respectively, can be achieved with 10 stations and 6 processing days. The bias projections
of the real-time LEO satellite orbital and clock errors can reach below 3 mm in such a case. For
near-polar LEO satellites, stations in polar areas are essential for strengthening the observation
model. |
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