Global ionosphere maps based on GNSS,satellite altimetry,radio occultation and DORIS

GPS Solutions - Global ionosphere maps (GIMs) provided by the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) data are essential in ionospheric research as the source of the global vertical total...     

Ionospheric error contribution to GNSS single-frequency navigation at the 2014 solar maximum

For single-frequency users of the global satellite navigation system (GNSS), one of the main error contributors is the ionospheric delay, which impacts the received signals. As is well-known, GPS and Galileo transmit global models to correct the ionospheric delay, while the international GNSS service (IGS) computes precise post-process global ionospheric maps (GIM) that are considered reference ionospheres. Moreover, accurate ionospheric maps have been recently introduced, which allow for the fast convergence of the real-time precise point position (PPP) globally. Therefore, testing of the ionospheric models is a key issue for code-based single-frequency users, which constitute the main user segment. Therefore, the testing proposed in this paper is straightforward and uses the PPP modeling applied to single- and dual-frequency code observations worldwide for 2014. The usage of PPP modeling allows us to quantify—for dual-frequency users—the degradation of the navigation solutions caused by noise and multipath with respect to the different ionospheric modeling solutions, and allows us, in turn, to obtain an independent assessment of the ionospheric models. Compared to the dual-frequency solutions, the GPS and Galileo ionospheric models present worse global performance, with horizontal root mean square (RMS) differences of 1.04 and 0.49 m and vertical RMS differences of 0.83 and 0.40 m, respectively. While very precise global ionospheric models can improve the dual-frequency solution globally, resulting in a horizontal RMS difference of 0.60 m and a vertical RMS difference of 0.74 m, they exhibit a strong dependence on the geographical location and ionospheric activity.     

GNSS电离层监测研究进展与展望

电离层作为近地空间环境的重要组成部分,对电波通信、卫星导航定位等都有重要影响。监测电离层形态结构有助于对电离层时空演化特征的理解及其建模和预测。随着全球导航卫星系统(global navigation satellite system,GNSS)的快速发展,GNSS电离层监测已成为重要的研究和应用方向。系统介绍了GNSS多维电离层监测及其应用的研究现状和进展,主要包括空基/地基GNSS联合反演电离层特征参数、层析技术反演电离层三维结构、电离层延迟建模、电离层异常扰动监测及机理认知等内容。     

Local datum definition and geodetic network positioning using global navigation satellite systems

The problem of datum definition as applied to local-area geodetic networks is investigated using data collected from global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). It is shown that the process of double differencing makes the model more sensitive to computational errors that reduce the ability of the satellites alone to control the translation component of the datum definition, and as a result additional regularization is required. Traditionally, datum definition has been accomplished by constraining one station to set coordinates. Alternative regularization strategies are analysed in terms of their effects on positioning and ambiguity resolution. In doing so, processing strategies are developed which can improve the quality of global positioning system (GPS)-based position solutions in geodetic network applications of limited spatial extent, such as high-precision engineering and deformation monitoring networks.     

Climatological study of ionospheric irregularities over the European mid-latitude sector with GPS

High-frequency variability of the ionosphere, or irregularities, constitutes the main threat for real-time precise positioning techniques based on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) measurements. Indeed, during periods of enhanced ionospheric variability, GNSS users in the field—who cannot verify the integrity of their measurements—will experience positioning errors that can reach several decimeters, while the nominal accuracy of the technique is cm-level. In the frame of this paper, a climatological analysis of irregularities over the European mid-latitude region is presented. Based on a 10 years GPS dataset over Belgium, the work analyzes the occurrence rate (as a function of the solar cycle, season and local time) as well as the amplitude of ionospheric irregularities observed at a single GPS station. The study covers irregularities either due to space weather events (solar origin) or of terrestrial origin. If space weather irregularities are responsible for the largest effects in terms of ionospheric error, their occurrence rate highly depends on solar activity. Indeed, the occurrence rate of ionospheric irregularities is about 9 % during solar maximum, whereas it drops to about 0 % during medium or low solar activity periods. Medium-scale ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) occurring during daytime in autumn/winter are the most recurrent pattern of the time series, with yearly proportions slightly varying with the solar cycle and an amplitude of about 10 % of the TEC background. Another recurrent irregularity type, though less frequent than MSTIDs, is the noise-like variability in TEC observed during summer nighttime, under quiet geomagnetic conditions. These summer nighttime irregularities exhibit amplitudes ranging between 8 and 15 % of the TEC background.     

Global ionosphere map constructed by using total electron content from ground-based GNSS receiver and FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC GPS occultation experiment

Effects of rapidly changing ionospheric weather are critical in high accuracy positioning, navigation, and communication applications. A system used to construct the global total electron content (TEC) distribution for monitoring the ionospheric weather in near-real time is needed in the modern society. Here we build the TEC map named Taiwan Ionosphere Group for Education and Research (TIGER) Global Ionospheric Map (GIM) from observations of ground-based GNSS receivers and space-based FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC (F3/C) GPS radio occultation observations using the spherical harmonic expansion and Kalman filter update formula. The TIGER GIM (TGIM) will be published in near-real time of 4-h delay with a spatial resolution of 2.5° in latitude and 5° in longitude and a high temporal resolution of every 5 min. The F3/C TEC results in an improvement on the GIM of about 15.5%, especially over the ocean areas. The TGIM highly correlates with the GIMs published by other international organizations. Therefore, the routinely published TGIM in near-real time is not only for communication, positioning, and navigation applications but also for monitoring and scientific study of ionospheric weathers, such as magnetic storms and seismo-ionospheric anomalies.     

Ionospheric correction using NTCM driven by GPS Klobuchar coefficients for GNSS applications

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) require mitigation of ionospheric propagation errors because the ionospheric range errors might be larger than tens of meters at the zenith direction. Taking advantage of the frequency-dispersive property of ionospheric refractivity, the ionospheric range errors can be mitigated in dual-frequency applications to a great extent by a linear combination of carrier phases or pseudoranges. However, single-frequency GNSS operations require additional ionospheric information to apply signal delay or range error corrections. To aid single-frequency operations, the global positioning system (GPS) broadcasts 8 coefficients as part of the navigation message to drive the ionospheric correction algorithm (ICA) also known as Klobuchar model. We presented here an ionospheric correction algorithm called Neustrelitz TEC model (NTCM) which can be used as complementary to the GPS ICA. Our investigation shows that the NTCM can be driven by Klobuchar model parameters to achieve a significantly better performance than obtained by the mother ICA algorithm. Our research, using post-processed reference total electron content (TEC) data from more than one solar cycle, shows that on average the RMS modeled TEC errors are up to 40% less for the proposed NTCM model compared to the Klobuchar model during high solar activity period, and about 10% less during low solar activity period. Such an approach does not require major technology changes for GPS users rather requires only introducing the NTCM approach a complement to the existing ICA algorithm while maintaining the simplicity of ionospheric range error mitigation with an improved model performance.     

Assessment of the possible contribution of space ties on-board GNSS satellites to the terrestrial reference frame

The realization of the international terrestrial reference frame (ITRF) is currently based on the data provided by four space geodetic techniques. The accuracy of the different technique-dependent materializations of the frame physical parameters (origin and scale) varies according to the nature of the relevant observables and to the impact of technique-specific errors. A reliable computation of the ITRF requires combining the different inputs, so that the strengths of each technique can compensate for the weaknesses of the others. This combination, however, can only be performed providing some additional information which allows tying together the independent technique networks. At present, the links used for that purpose are topometric surveys (local/terrestrial ties) available at ITRF sites hosting instruments of different techniques. In principle, a possible alternative could be offered by spacecrafts accommodating the positioning payloads of multiple geodetic techniques realizing their co-location in orbit (space ties). In this paper, the GNSS–SLR space ties on-board GPS and GLONASS satellites are thoroughly examined in the framework of global reference frame computations. The investigation focuses on the quality of the realized physical frame parameters. According to the achieved results, the space ties on-board GNSS satellites cannot, at present, substitute terrestrial ties in the computation of the ITRF. The study is completed by a series of synthetic simulations investigating the impact that substantial improvements in the volume and quality of SLR observations to GNSS satellites would have on the precision of the GNSS frame parameters.     

基于北斗地基增强系统的中国区域电离层建模研究

在卫星导航定位中,电离层延迟误差是主要误差源之一,其影响可以到达数米乃至数百米,有必要进行高精度的电离层模型研究,尤其是区域的高精度电离层模型建立．本文基于北斗地基增强系统114基准站三系统 (GPS／BDS／GLONASS) 双频的观测数据进行电离层提取计算,并结合多项式函数模型进行建模,得出中国区域内的电离层模型,并采用直接跟CODG的电离层产品比较和间接通过单频精密单点定位方式来评估模型精度．结果表明,基于北斗地基增强系统建立的中国区域电离层模型精度高于CODG发布的电离层格网模型且更符合中国区域电离层的真实空间分布．      

GNSS基本服务性能评估

针对现有全球卫星导航系统性能评估无规范的评估标准问题,该文提出了以统一模型和算法为评估体系的方法,较详细的评估了全球卫星导航系统公开服务信号的基本性能,主要评估了空间信号误差、广播电离层模型改正效率及伪距单点定位精度等。结果表明:空间信号误差方面,伽利略最优、GPS和北斗三号相当;广播电离层模型方面,北斗全球广播电离层模型改正效果最优,GPSK8与NeQuick模型在低中纬度改正效果相当,北斗区域电离层模型在其服务区内具有较高改正效果;定位方面,北斗、GPS和伽利略静态伪距单点定位的三维位置均方根误差优于5m,格洛纳斯优于10 m;动态伪距单点定位方面,北斗在中国境内定位精度最高;基于统一评估体系下,可以直观对比得到目前各卫星导航系统的性能差异,同时也为后续的建设提供相应的参考。     

Mitigating the impact of ionospheric cycle slips in GNSS observations

Processing of data from global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), such as GPS, GLONASS and Galileo, can be considerably impeded by disturbances in the ionosphere. Cycle-slip detection and correction thus becomes a crucial component of robust software. Still, dealing with ionospheric cycle slips is not trivial due to scintillation effects in both the phase and the amplitude of the signals. In this contribution, a geometry-based approach with rigorous handling of the ionosphere is presented. A detailed analysis of the cycle-slip correction process is also tackled by examining its dependence on phase and code noise, non-dispersive effects and, of course, the ionosphere. The importance of stochastic modeling in validating the integer cycle-slip candidates is emphasized and illustrated through simulations. By examining the relationship between ionospheric bias and ionospheric constraint, it is shown that there is a limit in the magnitude of ionospheric delay variation that can be handled by the cycle-slip correction process. Those concepts are applied to GNSS data collected by stations in northern Canada, and show that enhanced cycle-slip detection can lead to decimeter-level improvements in the accuracy of kinematic PPP solutions with a 30-s sampling interval. Cycle-slip correction associated with ionospheric delay variations exceeding 50 cm is also demonstrated, although there are risks with such a procedure and these are pointed out.     

卫星导航可用性监测技术

随着全球卫星导航系统（GNSS）的不断完善和在各领域的不断推广运用,导航系统的重要性日益增大,导航系统是否可用,直接影响到用户的体验甚至用户的安全.本文论述了卫星导航系统可用性监测相关技术,主要从卫星系统完好性监测、电离层闪烁监测技术和电磁环境监测三个方面分别进行论述.      

An all-pass filter for compensation of ionospheric dispersion effects on wideband GNSS signals

Compared with the traditional GPS L1 C/A BPSK-R(1) signal, wideband global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals suffer more severe distortion due to ionospheric dispersion. Ionospheric dispersion inevitably introduces additional errors in pseudorange and carrier phase observations that cannot be readily eliminated by traditional methods. Researchers have reported power losses, waveform ripples, correlation peak asymmetries, and carrier phase shifts caused by ionospheric dispersion. We analyze the code tracking bias induced by ionospheric dispersion and propose an efficient all-pass filter to compensate the corresponding nonlinear group delay over the signal bandwidth. The filter is constructed in a cascaded biquad form based on the estimated total electron content (TEC). The effects of TEC accuracy, filter order, and fraction parameter on the filter fitting error are explored. Taking the AltBOC(15,10) signal as an example, we compare the time domain signal waveforms, correlation peaks, code tracking biases, and carrier phase biases with and without this all-pass filter and demonstrate that the proposed delay-equalization all-pass filter is a potential solution to ionospheric dispersion compensation and mitigation of observation biases for wideband GNSS signals.     

一种基于多频模糊度快速解算方法的BDS/GPS中长基线RTK定位模型

随着全球卫星导航系统（global navigation satellite system,GNSS）进入多系统时代,空中导航卫星的可见卫星数不断增加,中国北斗卫星导航系统（BeiDou navigation satellite system,BDS）已开始面向用户提供三频导航信号,这都有利于改善单历元实时动态定位（real-time kinematic,RTK）的精度和可靠性。中长基线单历元RTK通常采用电离层无关组合算法,但是该方法将观测噪声进行了放大,模糊度固定成功率随着基线长度的增加而明显降低。提出一种BDS/GPS（global positioning system）中长基线单历元多频RTK定位算法,先以较高成功率快速固定BDS的两个超宽巷模糊度,继而通过简单变换得到BDS宽巷模糊度,然后将其辅助提高GPS宽巷模糊度固定成功率,最后采用将电离层延迟误差参数化的策略以提高BDS/GPS窄巷模糊度固定成功率。结合实测数据进行验证分析,结果表明本文算法是可行的。     

北斗三号全球导航卫星系统全球广播电离层延迟修正模型(BDGIM)应用性能评估

2020年6月23日,我国北斗三号全球导航卫星系统正式完成星座全球组网。北斗三号全球导航卫星系统采用新一代全球广播电离层延迟修正模型(BDGIM),为用户提供电离层延迟改正服务。本文利用高精度全球电离层格网(GIM)以及实测BDS/GPS数据提供的电离层TEC作为参考,从延迟改正精度及北斗单频伪距单点定位应用、模型系数性能等方面,对北斗三号系统组网前后(2020年5月1日至2020年7月20日)BDGIM模型的改正精度等应用性能进行了分析与研究,并将其与美国GPS播发的Klobuchar模型和北斗二号卫星导航系统播发的BDS Klobuchar模型进行对比。研究表明,BDGIM模型在对北斗三号系统组网完成前后电离层延迟修正精度没有发生显著变化。上述时段内,以国际GNSS服务(IGS)发布的最终GIM产品为参考,BDGIM模型在中国区域、亚太地区和全球范围内的电离层修正百分比分别达到84.45%、74.74%和64.57%;以选取的全球83个GNSS检测站BDS、GPS双频数据实测电离层TEC为参考,BDGIM在中国区域、亚太地区和全球范围内的电离层修正百分比分别为73.12%、70.18%及68.06%;当BDGIM模型应用于北斗单频伪距单点定位时,在中国区域、亚太地区和全球范围内分别实现了2.22、2.66和2.96 m的三维定位精度。     

Robust GPS/BDS/INS tightly coupled integration with atmospheric constraints for long-range kinematic positioning

GPS Solutions - The combination of new global navigation satellite system (GNSS) has brought great benefits to reliable positioning and ambiguity resolution (AR), especially in restricted...     

Cycled efficient V-BLAST GNSS ambiguity decorrelation and search complexity estimation

GPS Solutions - Decorrelation reduction and search techniques play important roles in solving integer ambiguities of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning. This contribution focuses...     

Local effects of redundant terrestrial and GPS-based tie vectors in ITRF-like combinations

Tie vectors (TVs) between co-located space geodetic instruments are essential for combining terrestrial reference frames (TRFs) realised using different techniques. They provide relative positioning between instrumental reference points (RPs) which are part of a global geodetic network such as the international terrestrial reference frame (ITRF). This paper gathers the set of very long baseline interferometry (VLBI)–global positioning system (GPS) local ties performed at the observatory of Medicina (Northern Italy) during the years 2001–2006 and discusses some important aspects related to the usage of co-location ties in the combinations of TRFs. Two measurement approaches of local survey are considered here: a GPS-based approach and a classical approach based on terrestrial observations (i.e. angles, distances and height differences). The behaviour of terrestrial local ties, which routinely join combinations of space geodetic solutions, is compared to that of GPS-based local ties. In particular, we have performed and analysed different combinations of satellite laser ranging (SLR), VLBI and GPS long term solutions in order to (i) evaluate the local effects of the insertion of the series of TVs computed at Medicina, (ii) investigate the consistency of GPS-based TVs with respect to space geodetic solutions, (iii) discuss the effects of an imprecise alignment of TVs from a local to a global reference frame. Results of ITRF-like combinations show that terrestrial TVs originate the smallest residuals in all the three components. In most cases, GPS-based TVs fit space geodetic solutions very well, especially in the horizontal components (N, E). On the contrary, the estimation of the VLBI RP Up component through GPS technique appears to be awkward, since the corresponding post fit residuals are considerably larger. Besides, combination tests including multi-temporal TVs display local effects of residual redistribution, when compared to those solutions where Medicina TVs are added one at a time. Finally, the combination of TRFs turns out to be sensitive to the orientation of the local tie into the global frame.     

层析模型在GNSS探测电离层中的研究进展

在利用全球导航卫星系统GNSS(GPS、GLONASS、Galileo等卫星定位系统)进行精密定位和导航时,电离层延迟误差是影响其精度和准确度的主要误差源之一,故对电离层模型研究至关重要。本文介绍了传统电离层模型的缺点,重点阐述了不同的电离层层析方法,同时分析了现在电离层层析方法所存在的主要问题,最后介绍了目前全世界电离层层析模型的研究展望。     

电离层闪烁对全球导航卫星系统（GNSS）的定位影响分析

电离层闪烁是影响卫星导航系统定位性能的重要因素之一，中国南方区域是全球电离层闪烁多发区之一，开展电离层闪烁对卫星导航系统性能的影响研究具有重要意义。利用中国区域的电离层闪烁数据和GPS测量数据，对电离层闪烁情况下的用户定位性能进行了比较分析，发现电离层闪烁将引起用户定位误差的普遍增大，严重时可能出现定位异常，电离层闪烁对不同的定位应用方式具有不同程度的影响，电离层闪烁对卫星导航系统的多种影响是卫星导航系统的重要威胁之一。