High-precision time transfer and relative orbital determination among LEO satellites in real-time

For low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites, high-precision clock estimation often depends on high-precision real-time global navigation satellite system (GNSS) products. Thus, service providers often choose to downlink observation data to the ground to achieve high accuracy. To relieve this burden for fut...

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Main Authors: Wang, K., El-Mowafy, Ahmed, Sun, B., Yang, X.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP240101710
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/95559
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author Wang, K.
El-Mowafy, Ahmed
Sun, B.
Yang, X.
author_facet Wang, K.
El-Mowafy, Ahmed
Sun, B.
Yang, X.
author_sort Wang, K.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description For low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites, high-precision clock estimation often depends on high-precision real-time global navigation satellite system (GNSS) products. Thus, service providers often choose to downlink observation data to the ground to achieve high accuracy. To relieve this burden for future LEO mega-constellations, this study investigates the performance of relative clocks and orbits determined between LEO satellites using the phase common-view (PCV) method. The PCV results are compared with results from three other single-satellite-based clock and orbit determination methods. Using real data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Follow-On satellites and three different types of real-time GNSS products, the PCV method can deliver a relative clock precision below 0.2 ns and a relative orbital user range error of approximately 5 cm, even when using the broadcast ephemeris, whereas all three other methods encountered sharp degradations in their results when using degraded real-time GNSS products.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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publishDate 2024
publisher Wiley-Blackwell
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-955592024-09-24T08:44:40Z High-precision time transfer and relative orbital determination among LEO satellites in real-time Wang, K. El-Mowafy, Ahmed Sun, B. Yang, X. GNSS LEO time transfer positioning and navigation For low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites, high-precision clock estimation often depends on high-precision real-time global navigation satellite system (GNSS) products. Thus, service providers often choose to downlink observation data to the ground to achieve high accuracy. To relieve this burden for future LEO mega-constellations, this study investigates the performance of relative clocks and orbits determined between LEO satellites using the phase common-view (PCV) method. The PCV results are compared with results from three other single-satellite-based clock and orbit determination methods. Using real data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Follow-On satellites and three different types of real-time GNSS products, the PCV method can deliver a relative clock precision below 0.2 ns and a relative orbital user range error of approximately 5 cm, even when using the broadcast ephemeris, whereas all three other methods encountered sharp degradations in their results when using degraded real-time GNSS products. 2024 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/95559 10.33012/navi.659 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP240101710 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Wiley-Blackwell fulltext
spellingShingle GNSS
LEO
time transfer
positioning and navigation
Wang, K.
El-Mowafy, Ahmed
Sun, B.
Yang, X.
High-precision time transfer and relative orbital determination among LEO satellites in real-time
title High-precision time transfer and relative orbital determination among LEO satellites in real-time
title_full High-precision time transfer and relative orbital determination among LEO satellites in real-time
title_fullStr High-precision time transfer and relative orbital determination among LEO satellites in real-time
title_full_unstemmed High-precision time transfer and relative orbital determination among LEO satellites in real-time
title_short High-precision time transfer and relative orbital determination among LEO satellites in real-time
title_sort high-precision time transfer and relative orbital determination among leo satellites in real-time
topic GNSS
LEO
time transfer
positioning and navigation
url http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP240101710
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/95559