Assessment of PPP integer ambiguity resolution using GPS,GLONASS and BeiDou (IGSO,MEO) constellations

Although integer ambiguity resolution (IAR) can improve positioning accuracy considerably and shorten the convergence time of precise point positioning (PPP), it requires an initialization time of over 30 min. With the full operation of GLONASS globally and BDS in the Asia–Pacific region, it is necessary to assess the PPP–IAR performance by simultaneous fixing of GPS, GLONASS, and BDS ambiguities. This study proposed a GPS + GLONASS + BDS combined PPP–IAR strategy and processed PPP–IAR kinematically and statically using one week of data collected at 20 static stations. The undifferenced wide- and narrow-lane fractional cycle biases for GPS, GLONASS, and BDS were estimated using a regional network, and undifferenced PPP ambiguity resolution was performed to assess the contribution of multi-GNSSs. Generally, over 99% of a posteriori residuals of wide-lane ambiguities were within ±0.25 cycles for both GPS and BDS, while the value was 91.5% for GLONASS. Over 96% of narrow-lane residuals were within ±0.15 cycles for GPS, GLONASS, and BDS. For kinematic PPP with a 10-min observation time, only 16.2% of all cases could be fixed with GPS alone. However, adding GLONASS improved the percentage considerably to 75.9%, and it reached 90.0% when using GPS + GLONASS + BDS. Not all epochs could be fixed with a correct set of ambiguities; therefore, we defined the ratio of the number of epochs with correctly fixed ambiguities to the number of all fixed epochs as the correct fixing rate (CFR). Because partial ambiguity fixing was used, when more than five ambiguities were fixed correctly, we considered the epoch correctly fixed. For the small ratio criteria of 2.0, the CFR improved considerably from 51.7% for GPS alone, to 98.3% when using GPS + GLONASS + BDS combined solutions.     

Rapid PPP ambiguity resolution using GPS+GLONASS observations

Integer ambiguity resolution (IAR) in precise point positioning (PPP) using GPS observations has been well studied. The main challenge remaining is that the first ambiguity fixing takes about 30 min. This paper presents improvements made using GPS+GLONASS observations, especially improvements in the initial fixing time and correct fixing rate compared with GPS-only solutions. As a result of the frequency division multiple access strategy of GLONASS, there are two obstacles to GLONASS PPP-IAR: first and most importantly, there is distinct code inter-frequency bias (IFB) between satellites, and second, simultaneously observed satellites have different wavelengths. To overcome the problem resulting from GLONASS code IFB, we used a network of homogeneous receivers for GLONASS wide-lane fractional cycle bias (FCB) estimation and wide-lane ambiguity resolution. The integer satellite clock of the GPS and GLONASS was then estimated with the wide-lane FCB products. The effect of the different wavelengths on FCB estimation and PPP-IAR is discussed in detail. We used a 21-day data set of 67 stations, where data from 26 stations were processed to generate satellite wide-lane FCBs and integer clocks and the other 41 stations were selected as users to perform PPP-IAR. We found that GLONASS FCB estimates are qualitatively similar to GPS FCB estimates. Generally, 98.8% of a posteriori residuals of wide-lane ambiguities are within \(\pm 0.25\) cycles for GPS, and 96.6% for GLONASS. Meanwhile, 94.5 and 94.4% of narrow-lane residuals are within 0.1 cycles for GPS and GLONASS, respectively. For a critical value of 2.0, the correct fixing rate for kinematic PPP is only 75.2% for GPS alone and as large as 98.8% for GPS+GLONASS. The fixing percentage for GPS alone is only 11.70 and 46.80% within 5 and 10 min, respectively, and improves to 73.71 and 95.83% when adding GLONASS. Adding GLONASS thus improves the fixing percentage significantly for a short time span. We also used global ionosphere maps (GIMs) to assist the wide-lane carrier-phase combination to directly fix the wide-lane ambiguity. Employing this method, the effect of the code IFB is eliminated and numerical results show that GLONASS FCB estimation can be performed across heterogeneous receivers. However, because of the relatively low accuracy of GIMs, the fixing percentage of GIM-aided GPS+GLONASS PPP ambiguity resolution is very low. We expect better GIM accuracy to enable rapid GPS+GLONASS PPP-IAR with heterogeneous receivers.     

Multi-GNSS phase delay estimation and PPP ambiguity resolution: GPS,BDS, GLONASS,Galileo

This paper focuses on the precise point positioning (PPP) ambiguity resolution (AR) using the observations acquired from four systems: GPS, BDS, GLONASS, and Galileo (GCRE). A GCRE four-system uncalibrated phase delay (UPD) estimation model and multi-GNSS undifferenced PPP AR method were developed in order to utilize the observations from all systems. For UPD estimation, the GCRE-combined PPP solutions of the globally distributed MGEX and IGS stations are performed to obtain four-system float ambiguities and then UPDs of GCRE satellites can be precisely estimated from these ambiguities. The quality of UPD products in terms of temporal stability and residual distributions is investigated for GPS, BDS, GLONASS, and Galileo satellites, respectively. The BDS satellite-induced code biases were corrected for GEO, IGSO, and MEO satellites before the UPD estimation. The UPD results of global and regional networks were also evaluated for Galileo and BDS, respectively. As a result of the frequency-division multiple-access strategy of GLONASS, the UPD estimation was performed using a network of homogeneous receivers including three commonly used GNSS receivers (TRIMBLE NETR9, JAVAD TRE_G3TH DELTA, and LEICA). Data recorded from 140 MGEX and IGS stations for a 30-day period in January in 2017 were used to validate the proposed GCRE UPD estimation and multi-GNSS dual-frequency PPP AR. Our results show that GCRE four-system PPP AR enables the fastest time to first fix (TTFF) solutions and the highest accuracy for all three coordinate components compared to the single and dual system. An average TTFF of 9.21 min with \(7{^{\circ }}\) cutoff elevation angle can be achieved for GCRE PPP AR, which is much shorter than that of GPS (18.07 min), GR (12.10 min), GE (15.36 min) and GC (13.21 min). With observations length of 10 min, the positioning accuracy of the GCRE fixed solution is 1.84, 1.11, and 1.53 cm, while the GPS-only result is 2.25, 1.29, and 9.73 cm for the east, north, and vertical components, respectively. When the cutoff elevation angle is increased to \(30{^{\circ }}\), the GPS-only PPP AR results are very unreliable, while 13.44 min of TTFF is still achievable for GCRE four-system solutions.     

卫星钟差解算及其星间单差模糊度固定

整数相位模糊度解算可以显著提高GNSS精密单点定位（PPP）的精度。本文提出一种解算卫星钟差的方法,通过固定星间单差模糊度恢复出能够支持单台接收机进行整数模糊度解算的卫星钟差,即所谓的“整数”钟差。为了实现星间单差模糊度固定,分别通过卫星端宽巷FCB解算和模糊度基准的选择与固定恢复出宽巷和窄巷模糊度的整数性质。为了证明本文方法的可行性,采用IGS测站的GPS数据进行卫星钟差解算试验。结果表明,在解算钟差时,星间单差模糊度固定的平均成功率为73%。得到的卫星钟差与IGS最终钟差产品相比,平均的RMS和STD分别为0.170和0.012 ns。448个IGS测站的星间单差宽巷和窄巷模糊度小数部分的分布表明本文得到的卫星钟差和FCB产品具备支持PPP用户进行模糊度固定的能力。基于以上产品开展了模拟动态PPP定位试验,结果表明模糊度固定之后,N、E、U和3D的定位精度（RMS）分别达到0.009、0.010、0.023和0.027 m,与不固定模糊度或采用IGS钟差的结果相比,分别提高了30.8%、61.5%、23.3%和37.2%。     

Assessment of correct fixing rate for precise point positioning ambiguity resolution on a global scale

Ambiguity resolution (AR) for a single receiver has been a popular topic in Global Positioning System (GPS) recently. Ambiguity-resolution methods for precise point positioning (PPP) have been well documented in recent years, demonstrating that it can improve the accuracy of PPP. However, users are often concerned about the reliability of ambiguity-fixed PPP solution in practical applications. If ambiguities are fixed to wrong integers, large errors would be introduced into position estimates. In this paper, we aim to assess the correct fixing rate (CFR), i.e., number of ambiguities correctly fixing to the total number of ambiguities correctly and incorrectly fixing, for PPP user ambiguity resolution on a global scale. A practical procedure is presented to evaluate the CFR of PPP user ambiguity resolution. GPS data of the first 3 days in each month of 2010 from about 390 IGS stations are used for experiments. Firstly, we use GPS data collected from about 320 IGS stations to estimate global single-differenced (SD) wide-lane and narrow-lane satellite uncalibrated phase delays (UPDs). The quality of UPDs is evaluated. We found that wide-lane UPD estimates have a rather small standard deviation (Std) between 0.003 and 0.004 cycles while most of Std of narrow-lane estimates are from 0.01 to 0.02 cycles. Secondly, many experiments have been conducted to investigate the CFR of integer ambiguity resolution we can achieve under different conditions, including reference station density, observation session length and the ionospheric activity. The results show that the CFR of PPP can exceed 98.0 % with only 1 h of observations for most user stations. No obvious correlation between the CFR and the reference station density is found. Therefore, nearly homogeneous CFR can be achieved in PPP AR for global users. At user end, higher CFR could be achieved with longer observations. The average CFR for 30-min, 1-h, 2-h and 4-h observation is 92.3, 98.2, 99.5 and 99.7 %, respectively. In order to get acceptable CFR, 1 h is a recommended minimum observation time. Furthermore, the CFR of PPP can be affected by diurnal variation and geomagnetic latitude variation in the ionosphere. During one day at the hours when rapid ionospheric variations occur or in low geomagnetic latitude regions where equatorial electron density irregularities are produced relatively frequently, a significant degradation of the CFR is demonstrated.     

Spatial–temporal characteristic of BDS phase delays and PPP ambiguity resolution with GEO/IGSO/MEO satellites

GPS precise point positioning (PPP) ambiguity resolution (AR) can improve the positioning accuracy and shorten the convergence time. However, for the BeiDou Satellite Navigation System (BDS), the problems of satellite-induced code bias, imperfections in the error models and the inadequate accuracy of orbit products limit the applications of the BDS PPP AR system, which requires more than 6 h to achieve the first ambiguity-fixed solution. In this study, the accuracy of a wide-lane (WL) uncalibrated phase delay (UPD) is improved after careful consideration of the code bias and multipath. Meanwhile, the accuracy of the BDS float ambiguity is also improved by multi-GNSS fusion and improved precise orbit and clock products, which are critical for high-quality narrow-lane (NL) UPD estimations. With three tracking networks of different scales, including Hong Kong, the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China (CMONOC) and the multi-GNSS experiment (MGEX) networks, the spatial–temporal characteristics of WL and NL UPDs for BDS GEO/IGSO/MEO satellites are analyzed, and the PPP AR is performed. Numerous results show that WL and NL UPDs with a standard deviation (STD) of less than 0.15 cycles can be achieved for BDS GEO satellites, while a STD of less than 0.1 cycles can be obtained for IGSO and MEO satellites. With the precise UPD estimation, for the first time, the BDS PPP rapid ambiguity resolution for GEO/IGSO/MEO satellites is achieved. We found that the average time to first fix (TTFF) of the BDS PPP AR is shortened significantly, to approximately 40 min for Hong Kong and the CMONOC, while the TTFF was 57.4 min for the MGEX networks. With ambiguity resolution, the accuracy of the daily BDS PPP in the east, north and vertical directions improves from 1.74 cm, 1.08 cm, and 5.52 cm to 0.72 cm, 0.54 cm, and 3.21 cm for the Hong Kong network, 2.24 cm, 2.31 cm, and 5.64 cm to 1.18 cm, 0.79 cm, and 3.30 cm for the CMONOC, and 2.71 cm, 1.80 cm, and 6.00 cm to 1.58 cm, 1.15 cm, and 4.33 cm for the MGEX networks. Significant improvement is also achieved for kinematic PPP, with improvements of 40.41%, 34.33% and 37.17% in the east, north and vertical directions for the MGEX networks, respectively.     

长基线GLONASS模糊度固定方法及实验分析

格洛纳斯（Global Navigation Satellite System，GLONASS）采用了频分多址技术，接收机在接收不同卫星信号时会产生频间偏差，阻碍了GLONASS长基线模糊度固定，限制了其定位定轨的精度。提出了一种新的GLONASS模糊度固定方法。该方法基于全球电离层格网产品，根据频间偏差率的变化范围，采用搜索的方法和线性模型去除相位频间偏差对宽窄巷模糊度的影响，实现了GLONASS无电离层组合模糊度固定。利用平均基线长度为763 km的全球卫星导航系统（Global Navigation Satellite System，GNSS）服务站实验网数据对该方法进行分析，结果表明:连续30 d内，模糊度固定成功率最高为95.4%，最低为88.8%，平均为93.45%；模糊度固定后，北（north，N）、东（east，E）、高（up，U）各分量重复性和均方根误差（root mean square er-ror，RMSE）值均得到不同程度的改善，E分量重复性和RMSE值分别改善了20%和14%，改善效果最为明显。     

Triple-frequency GPS precise point positioning with rapid ambiguity resolution

At present, reliable ambiguity resolution in real-time GPS precise point positioning (PPP) can only be achieved after an initial observation period of a few tens of minutes. In this study, we propose a method where the incoming triple-frequency GPS signals are exploited to enable rapid convergences to ambiguity-fixed solutions in real-time PPP. Specifically, extra-wide-lane ambiguity resolution can be first achieved almost instantaneously with the Melbourne-Wübbena combination observable on L2 and L5. Then the resultant unambiguous extra-wide-lane carrier-phase is combined with the wide-lane carrier-phase on L1 and L2 to form an ionosphere-free observable with a wavelength of about 3.4 m. Although the noise of this observable is around 100 times the raw carrier-phase noise, its wide-lane ambiguity can still be resolved very efficiently, and the resultant ambiguity-fixed observable can assist much better than pseudorange in speeding up succeeding narrow-lane ambiguity resolution. To validate this method, we use an advanced hardware simulator to generate triple-frequency signals and a high-grade receiver to collect 1-Hz data. When the carrier-phase precisions on L1, L2 and L5 are as poor as 1.5, 6.3 and 1.5 mm, respectively, wide-lane ambiguity resolution can still reach a correctness rate of over 99 % within 20 s. As a result, the correctness rate of narrow-lane ambiguity resolution achieves 99 % within 65 s, in contrast to only 64 % within 150 s in dual-frequency PPP. In addition, we also simulate a multipath-contaminated data set and introduce new ambiguities for all satellites every 120 s. We find that when multipath effects are strong, ambiguity-fixed solutions are achieved at 78 % of all epochs in triple-frequency PPP whilst almost no ambiguities are resolved in dual-frequency PPP. Therefore, we demonstrate that triple-frequency PPP has the potential to achieve ambiguity-fixed solutions within a few minutes, or even shorter if raw carrier-phase precisions are around 1 mm. In either case, we conclude that the efficiency of ambiguity resolution in triple-frequency PPP is much higher than that in dual-frequency PPP.     

Rapid re-convergences to ambiguity-fixed solutions in precise point positioning

Integer ambiguity resolution at a single receiver can be achieved if the fractional-cycle biases are separated from the ambiguity estimates in precise point positioning (PPP). Despite the improved positioning accuracy by such integer resolution, the convergence to an ambiguity-fixed solution normally requires a few tens of minutes. Even worse, these convergences can repeatedly occur on the occasion of loss of tracking locks for many satellites if an open sky-view is not constantly available, consequently totally destroying the practicability of real-time PPP. In this study, in case of such re-convergences, we develop a method in which ionospheric delays are precisely predicted to significantly accelerate the integer ambiguity resolution. The effectiveness of this method consists in two aspects: first, wide-lane ambiguities can be rapidly resolved using the ionosphere-corrected wide-lane measurements, instead of the noisy Melbourne–Wübbena combination measurements; second, narrow-lane ambiguity resolution can be accelerated under the tight constraints derived from the ionosphere-corrected unambiguous wide-lane measurements. In the test at 90 static stations suffering from simulated total loss of tracking locks, 93.3 and 95.0% of re-convergences to wide-lane and narrow-lane ambiguity resolutions can be achieved within five epochs of 1-Hz measurements, respectively, even though the time latency for the predicted ionospheric delays is up to 180 s. In the test at a mobile van moving in a GPS-adverse environment where satellite number significantly decreases and cycle slips frequently occur, only when the predicted ionospheric delays are applied can the rate of ambiguity-fixed epochs be dramatically improved from 7.7 to 93.6% of all epochs. Therefore, this method can potentially relieve the unrealistic requirement of a continuous open sky-view by most PPP applications and improve the practicability of real-time PPP.     

联合GEO/IGSO/MEO的北斗PPP模糊度固定方法与试验分析

由于北斗地球静止轨道（geostationary earth orbiting,GEO）卫星轨道精度较低且其观测值受多路径误差和伪距偏差影响严重,目前各分析中心尚未针对北斗GEO卫星提供长期稳定的相位小数偏差（uncalibrated phase delay,UPD）产品,北斗精密单点定位（precise point positioning,PPP）模糊度固定技术研究主要针对倾斜轨道（inclined geosynchronous orbiting,IGSO）和中地球轨道（medium earth orbiting,MEO）卫星。本文采用Wanninger和Beer的高度角模型消除了IGSO/MEO观测值伪距偏差,并通过小波变换提取低频分量修正伪距观测值的方法削弱了GEO卫星多路径和伪距偏差的影响。由于窄巷UPD估值受未模型化误差影响较大,本文改进了窄巷UPD估计的策略,该策略利用上一历元成功估计的窄巷UPD对当前历元的浮点模糊度进行改正,剔除了残差较大的浮点模糊度,修正固定错误的整周模糊度,从而提高了窄巷UPD的精度和稳定性。利用估计得到的UPD产品,本文实现了联合GEO、IGSO和MEO卫星的北斗非差PPP模糊度固定,并对其定位性能进行分析。结果表明：联合GEO、IGSO和MEO卫星的PPP固定解的首次固定时间和收敛时间均可以缩短到30 min以内;6 h后的E、N、U方向的定位误差由（1.35、0.35、2.75）cm减少到（1.07、0.26、2.24）cm,分别减少了20%、27%和18%。     

Modeling and quality control for reliable precise point positioning integer ambiguity resolution with GNSS modernization

Recent research has demonstrated that the undifferenced integer ambiguities can be recovered using products from a network solution. The standard dual-frequency PPP integer ambiguity resolution consists of two aspects: Hatch-Melbourne-Wübbena wide-lane (WL) and ionosphere-free narrow-lane (NL) integer ambiguity resolution. A major issue affecting the performance of dual-frequency PPP applications is the time it takes to fix these two types of integer ambiguities, especially if the WL integer ambiguity resolution suffers from the noisy pseudorange measurements and strong multipath effects. With modernized Global Navigation Satellite Systems, triple-frequency measurements will be available to global users and an extra WL (EWL) model with very long wavelength can be formulated. Then, the easily resolved EWL integer ambiguities can be used to construct linear combinations to accelerate the PPP WL integer ambiguity resolution. Therefore, we propose a new reliable procedure for the modeling and quality control of triple-frequency PPP WL and NL integer ambiguity resolution. First, we analyze a WL integer ambiguity resolution model based on triple-frequency measurements. Then, an optimal pseudorange linear combination which is ionosphere-free and has minimum measurement noise is developed and used as constraint in the WL and the NL integer ambiguity resolution. Based on simulations, we have investigated the inefficiency of dual-frequency WL integer ambiguity resolution and the performance of EWL integer ambiguity resolution. Using almanacs of GPS, Galileo and BeiDou, the performances of the proposed triple-frequency WL and NL models have been evaluated in terms of success rate. Comparing with dual-frequency PPP, numerical results indicate that the proposed triple-frequency models can outperform the dual-frequency PPP WL and NL integer ambiguity resolution. With 1 s sampling rate, generally, only several minutes of data are required for reliable triple-frequency PPP WL and NL integer ambiguity resolution. Under benign observation situations and good geometries, the integer ambiguity can be reliably resolved even within 10 s.     

Resolution of GPS carrier-phase ambiguities in Precise Point Positioning (PPP) with daily observations

Precise Point Positioning (PPP) has been demonstrated to be a powerful tool in geodetic and geodynamic applications. Although its accuracy is almost comparable with network solutions, the east component of the PPP results is still to be improved by integer ambiguity fixing, which is, up to now, prevented by the presence of the uncalibrated phase delays (UPD) originating in the receivers and satellites. In this paper, it is shown that UPDs are rather stable in time and space, and can be estimated with high accuracy and reliability through a statistical analysis of the ambiguities estimated from a reference network. An approach is implemented to estimate the fractional parts of the single-difference (SD) UPDs between satellites in wide- and narrow-lane from a global reference network. By applying the obtained SD-UPDs as corrections to the SD-ambiguities at a single station, the corrected SD-ambiguities have a naturally integer feature and can therefore be fixed to integer values as usually done for the double-difference ones in the network mode. With data collected at 450 stations of the International GNSS Service (IGS) through days 106 to 119 in 2006, the efficiency of the presented ambiguity-fixing strategy is validated using IGS Final products. On average, more than 80% of the independent ambiguities could be fixed reliably, which leads to an improvement of about 27% in the repeatability and 30% in the agreement with the IGS weekly solutions for the east component of station coordinates, compared with the real-valued solutions. An erratum to this article can be found at     

PPP网解UPD模糊度固定的无基站差分大型CORS站整网快速精密解算

本文利用“国家基准一期工程”和上千全国部分省市CORS站的GNSS观测资料,基于PPP网解UPD模糊度固定技术实现了区域内无基站差分毫米级定位以及上千全国CORS站整网一次快速精密解算,这对于保障国家应急测绘快速响应、实现灾区基准快速建立以及快速获取和恢复国家统一坐标框架基准站坐标等具有重要的实用价值意义。首先,选取2015年8月1—31日198个国家GNSS连续运行基准站计算卫星端的宽巷、窄巷UPD,采用PPP网解UPD模糊度固定技术,对这些GNSS测站的载波相位进行模糊度固定:宽巷模糊度31 d固定率平均值在80%以上的测站共有193个;窄巷模糊度31 d固定率平均值在60%以上的测站共有165个。其次,对PPP整网一次快速解算定位结果进行统计分析,结果表明:31 d整网解算在NEU 3个方向的RMS分别为2.8、3.9、5.3 mm;标准差分别为2.1、3.2、6.7 mm。再者,使用中国区域内5个IGS观测站进行无基站差分精密定位,与SOPAC单天解ITRF2008框架下历元坐标的对比分析表明,31 d单日解外符合精度水平及高程方向均相差在毫米量级。最后,利用上述GNSS基准站解算出来的卫星端的宽、窄巷UPD(31 d),依次对2015年8月1—31日全国及部分省市1195个CORS站观测数据进行载波相位模糊度固定,得到无模糊度的精确相位观测值,从而使法方程中待估模糊度参数减少,克服了基准站网规模和测站个数的限制,实现了上千CORS站整网一次快速解算,对31 d月平均解与国际知名软件GAMIT/GLOBK的双差月解结果(2015年国家基础测绘任务成果)进行比较,结果显示,NEU 3个方向上差异在1 cm以内的测站分别为99.92%、99.33%、79.83%,其中U方向相差在1.5 cm为93.22%。综上所述,PPP网解UPD模糊度固定技术的方法,确保了区域内无基站精密定位、大网快速解算的精度和效率,能够满足灾区及国家坐标框架基准站坐标快速解算与恢复的迫切需求。     

Simultaneous estimation of GLONASS pseudorange inter-frequency biases in precise point positioning using undifferenced and uncombined observations

GLONASS precise point positioning (PPP) performance is affected by the inter-frequency biases (IFBs) due to the application of frequency division multiple access technique. In this contribution, the impact of GLONASS pseudorange IFBs on convergence performance and positioning accuracy of GLONASS-only and GPS + GLONASS PPP based on undifferenced and uncombined observation models is investigated. Through a re-parameterization process, the following four pseudorange IFB handling schemes were proposed: neglecting IFBs, modeling IFBs as a linear or quadratic polynomial function of frequency number, and estimating IFBs for each GLONASS satellite. One week of GNSS observation data from 132 International GNSS Service stations was selected to investigate the contribution of simultaneous estimation of GLONASS pseudorange IFBs on GLONASS-only and combined GPS + GLONASS PPP in both static and kinematic modes. The results show that considering IFBs can speed up the convergence of PPP using GLONASS observations by more than 20%. Apart from GLONASS-only kinematic PPP, the positioning accuracy of GLONASS-only and GPS + GLONASS PPP is comparable among the four schemes. Overall, the scheme of estimating IFBs for each GLONASS satellite outperforms the other schemes in both convergence time reduction and positioning accuracy improvement, which indicates that the GLONASS IFBs may not strictly obey a linear or quadratic function relationship with the frequency number.     

星间单差模糊度固定的低轨卫星精密定轨精度分析

高精度、高可靠性的卫星轨道是实现低轨卫星精密应用的重要前提,而模糊度固定技术是提高卫星定轨精度的关键途径。研究了基于整数钟的星间单差模糊度固定原理和方法,并利用2019年4月—5月的两颗GRACE-FO（gravity recovery and climate experiment follow on）卫星数据（GRACE-C/D）系统评估了固定解对低轨卫星简化动力学和运动学定轨的精度提升效果。结果表明,两颗卫星简化动力学和运动学定轨的宽巷模糊度固定率均达到99%,而窄巷模糊度固定率在95%左右。对于简化动力学定轨,GRACE-C/D固定解轨道的重叠轨道的3D均方根误差（root mean square error, RMSE）分别从7.1 mm和7.4 mm减小到了4.2 mm和3.6 mm;卫星激光测距（satellite laser ranging, SLR）残差标准差（standard deviation, STD）分别从15.9 mm和14.4 mm降低到了10.8 mm和11.0 mm,精度提升了32%和24%;K波段测距残差RMSE从8.0 mm减小到2.9 mm,进一步表明固定解还能有效提升低轨卫星间相对位置精度。对于运动学定轨,与精密科学轨道产品互差3D RMSE,浮点解分别为37.5 mm和36.4 mm,固定解分别为27.7 mm和25.5 mm,精度提升约28%,SLR残差STD也减小了约20%。     

A new differential code bias (C1–P1) estimation method and its performance evaluation

The current satellite clock products are computed using the ionosphere-free phase (L1/L2) and code (P1/P2) observations. Thus, if users conduct undifferenced positioning using these clock products together with C1 and P2 observations, the differential code bias (DCB) (C1–P1) should be properly compensated. The influence of DCB (C1–P1) on the undifferenced ambiguity solutions is investigated. Based on the investigation, we propose a new DCB (C1–P1) estimation method. Using it, the satellite DCB (C1–P1) can be computed. A 30-day (DOY 205–234, 2012) dual-frequency GPS data set is processed to estimate the DCB (C1–P1). Comparing the estimated results with that of IGS DCB products, the accuracy is better than 0.13 m. The performances of DCB (C1–P1) in the code-based single-point positioning, precise point positioning (PPP) convergence and wide-lane uncalibrated phase delay (UPD) estimation are investigated using the estimated DCB (C1–P1). The results of the code-based single-point positioning show that the influence of DCB (C1–P1) on the up direction is more evident than on the horizontal directions. The accuracy is improved by 50 % and reaches to decimeter level with DCB (C1–P1) application. The performance of DCB (C1–P1) in PPP shows that it can accelerate PPP convergence through improving the accuracy of the code observation. The computed UPD values show that influence of DCB (C1–P1) on UPD of each satellite is different, and some values are larger than 0.3 cycles.     

基于北斗三频的短基线单历元模糊度固定

采用三频观测值能组成更多波长更长、噪声较小的观测值;通过依次固定超宽巷、宽巷、窄巷模糊度,可以实现模糊度的快速固定。目前以TCAR、CIR为代表的方法均是基于无几何模型的方法,通过伪距直接求解相位模糊度;由于不同卫星模糊度各自单独求解,没有综合利用所有卫星的观测值信息。基于有几何模型,使用LAMBDA方法进行逐级模糊度固定,依次固定超宽巷、两个宽巷、两个无电离层组合窄巷模糊度,最后使用模糊度固定的两个无电离层组合进行最终基线解算。北斗实测数据验证表明,针对10km的短基线数据,采用本文方法可以实现100%的单历元模糊度固定的成功率。     

Undifferenced ionospheric-free ambiguity resolution using GLONASS data from inhomogeneous stations

GLONASS frequency division multiple access signals render ambiguity resolution (AR) rather difficult because: (1) Different wavelengths are used by different satellites, and (2) pseudorange inter-frequency biases (IFBs) cannot be precisely modeled by means of a simple function. In this study, an AR approach based on the ionospheric-free combination with a wavelength of about 5.3 cm is assessed for GLONASS precise point positioning (PPP). This approach simplifies GLONASS AR because pseudorange IFBs do not matter, and PPP-AR can be enabled across inhomogeneous receivers. One month of GLONASS data from 165 European stations were processed for different network size and different durations of observation periods. We find that 89.9% of the fractional parts of ionospheric-free ambiguities agree well within ± 0.15 cycles for a small network (radius = 500 km), while 77.6% for a large network (radius = 2000 km). In case of the 3-hourly GLONASS-only static PPP solutions for the small network, reliable AR can be achieved where the number of fixed GLONASS ambiguities account for 97.6% within all candidate ambiguities. Meanwhile, the RMS of the east, north and up components with respect to daily solutions is improved from 1.0, 0.6, 1.2 cm to 0.4, 0.4, 1.1 cm, respectively. When GPS PPP-AR is carried out simultaneously, the positioning performance can be improved significantly such that the GLONASS ambiguity fixing rate rises from 74.4 to 95.4% in case of hourly solutions. Finally, we introduce ambiguity-fixed GLONASS orbits to re-attempt GLONASS PPP-AR in contrast to the above solutions with ambiguity-float orbits. We find that ambiguity-fixed orbits lead to clearly better agreement among ionospheric-free ambiguity fractional parts in case of the large network, that is 80.5% of fractional parts fall in ± 0.15 cycles in contrast to 74.6% for the ambiguity-float orbits. We conclude that highly efficient GLONASS ionospheric-free PPP-AR is achievable in case of a few hours of data when GPS PPP-AR is also accomplished, and ambiguity-fixed GLONASS orbits will contribute significantly to PPP-AR over wide areas.     

Generating GPS satellite fractional cycle bias for ambiguity-fixed precise point positioning

With the development of precise point positioning (PPP), the School of Geodesy and Geomatics (SGG) at Wuhan University is now routinely producing GPS satellite fractional cycle bias (FCB) products with open access for worldwide PPP users to conduct ambiguity-fixed PPP solution. We provide a brief theoretical background of PPP and present the strategies and models to compute the FCB products. The practical realization of the two-step (wide-lane and narrow-lane) FCB estimation scheme is described in detail. With GPS measurements taken in various situations, i.e., static, dynamic, and on low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, the quality of FCB estimation and the effectiveness of PPP ambiguity resolution (AR) are evaluated. The comparison with CNES FCBs indicated that our FCBs had a good consistency with the CNES ones. For wide-lane FCB, almost all the differences of the two products were within ±0.05 cycles. For narrow-lane FCB, 87.8 % of the differences were located between ±0.05 cycles, and 97.4 % of them were located between ±0.075 cycles. The experimental results showed that, compared with conventional ambiguity-float PPP, the averaged position RMS of static PPP can be improved from (3.6, 1.4, 3.6) to (2.0, 1.0, 2.7) centimeters for ambiguity-fixed PPP. The average accuracy improvement in the east, north, and up components reached 44.4, 28.6, and 25.0 %, respectively. A kinematic, ambiguity-fixed PPP test with observation of 80 min achieved a position accuracy of better than 5 cm at the one-sigma level in all three coordinate components. Compared with the results of ambiguity-float, kinematic PPP, the positioning biases of ambiguity-fixed PPP were improved by about 78.2, 20.8, and 65.1 % in east, north, and up. The RMS of LEO PPP test was improved by about 23.0, 37.0, and 43.0 % for GRACE-A and GRACE-B in radial, tangential, and normal directions when AR was applied to the same data set. These results demonstrated that the SGG FCB products can be produced with high quality for users anywhere around the world to carry out ambiguity-fixed PPP solutions.     

Integrating GPS and BDS to shorten the initialization time for ambiguity-fixed PPP

The main challenge of ambiguity resolution in precise point positioning (PPP) is that it requires 30 min or more to succeed in the first fixing of ambiguities. With the full operation of the BeiDou (BDS) satellite system in East Asia, it is worthwhile to investigate the performance of GPS + BDS PPP ambiguity resolution, especially the improvements of the initial fixing time and ambiguity-fixing rate compared to GPS-only solutions. We estimated the wide- and narrow-lane fractional-cycle biases (FCBs) for BDS with a regional network, and PPP ambiguity resolution was carried out at each station to assess the contribution of BDS. The across-satellite single-difference (ASSD) GPS + BDS combined ambiguity-fixed PPP model was used, in which the ASSD is applied within each system. We used a two-day data set from 48 stations. For kinematic PPP, the percentage of fixing within 10 min for GPS only (Model A) is 17.6 %, when adding IGSO and MEO of BDS (Model B), the percentage improves significantly to 42.8 %, whereas it is only 23.2 % if GEO is added (Model C) due to the low precision of GEO orbits. For static PPP, the fixing percentage is 32.9, 53.3 and 28.0 % for Model A, B and C, respectively. In order to overcome the limitation of the poor precision of GEO satellites, we also used a small network of 10 stations to analyze the contribution of GEO satellites to kinematic PPP. We took advantage of the fact that for stations of a small network the GEO satellites appear at almost the same direction, such that the GEO orbit error can be absorbed by its FCB estimates. The results show that the percentage of fixing improves from 39.5 to 57.7 % by adding GEO satellites.