Improving the estimation of fractional-cycle biases for ambiguity resolution in precise point positioning

Ambiguity resolution dedicated to a single global positioning system (GPS) station can improve the accuracy of precise point positioning. In this process, the estimation accuracy of the narrow-lane fractional-cycle biases (FCBs), which destroy the integer nature of undifferenced ambiguities, is crucial to the ambiguity-fixed positioning accuracy. In this study, we hence propose the improved narrow-lane FCBs derived from an ambiguity-fixed GPS network solution, rather than the original (i.e. previously proposed) FCBs derived from an ambiguity-float network solution. The improved FCBs outperform the original FCBs by ensuring that the resulting ambiguity-fixed daily positions coincide in nature with the state-of-the-art positions generated by the International GNSS Service (IGS). To verify this improvement, 1?year of GPS measurements from about 350 globally distributed stations were processed. We find that the original FCBs differ more from the improved FCBs when fewer stations are involved in the FCB estimation, especially when the number of stations is less than 20. Moreover, when comparing the ambiguity-fixed daily positions with the IGS weekly positions for 248 stations through a Helmert transformation, for the East component, we find that on 359 days of the year the daily RMS of the transformed residuals based on the improved FCBs is smaller by up to 0.8?mm than those based on the original FCBs, and the mean RMS over the year falls evidently from 2.6 to 2.2?mm. Meanwhile, when using the improved rather than the original FCBs, the RMS of the transformed residuals for the East component of 239 stations (i.e. 96.4% of all 248 stations) is clearly reduced by up to 1.6?mm, especially for stations located within a sparse GPS network. Therefore, we suggest that narrow-lane FCBs should be determined with ambiguity-fixed, rather than ambiguity-float, GPS network solutions.     

Estimating satellite phase fractional cycle biases based on Kalman filter

Phase fractional cycle biases (FCBs) originating from satellites and receivers destroy the integer nature of PPP carrier phase ambiguities. To achieve integer ambiguity resolution of PPP, FCBs of satellites are required. In former work, least squares methods are commonly adopted to isolate FCBs from a network of reference stations. However, it can be extremely time consuming concerning the large number of observations from hundreds of stations and thousands of epochs. In addition, iterations are required to deal with the one-cycle inconsistency among FCB measurements. We propose to estimate the FCB based on a Kalman filter. The large number of observations are handled epoch by epoch, which significantly reduces the dimension of the involved matrix and accelerates the computation. In addition, it is also suitable for real-time applications. As for the one-cycle inconsistency, a pre-elimination method is developed to avoid iterations and posterior adjustments. A globally distributed network consisting of about 200 IGS stations is selected to determine the GPS satellite FCBs. Observations recorded from DoY 52 to 61 in 2016 are processed to verify the proposed approach. The RMS of wide lane (WL) posterior residuals is 0.09 cycles while that of the narrow lane (NL) is about 0.05 cycles, which indicates a good internal accuracy. The estimated WL FCBs also have a good consistency with existing WL FCB products (e.g., CNES-GRG, WHU-SGG). The RMS of differences with respect to GRG and SGG products are 0.03 and 0.05 cycles. For satellite NL FCB estimates, 97.9% of the differences with respect to SGG products are within ±?0.1 cycles. The RMS of the difference is 0.05 cycles. These results prove the efficiency of the proposed approach.     

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.     

非差FCB估计及其在PPP模糊度固定中的应用

模糊度固定能够显著提高精密单点定位(PPP)的精度和收敛速度,是国内外卫星导航定位领域的研究热点．本文通过最小二乘法分离接收机端和卫星端小数周偏差(FCB),恢复非差模糊度的整数特性,将得到的卫星端FCB提供给用户,能够实现非差模糊度固定的PPP．采用全球IGS跟踪站的观测数据进行非差FCB解算,实验结果表明,宽巷FCB的稳定性较好,一周内变化小于0.1周,而窄巷FCB一天内变化较大．将获得的FCB用于模糊度固定PPP实验,E、N、U三个方向的定位精度分别为0.7 cm、0.8 cm和2.1 cm,与浮点解PPP相比,分别提高68％、51％和37％,验证了本文估计的FCB用于模糊度固定PPP的定位性能      

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.     

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.     

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%。     

整数相位钟法精密单点定位模糊度固定模型及效果分析

精密单点定位(PPP)模糊度固定方法有3种:星间单差法、整数相位钟法和钟差解耦法,但目前仅法国CNES公开发布用于整数相位钟法PPP模糊度固定的产品,因此研究基于整数相位钟法的用户端PPP模糊度固定模型很有必要.本文分析了整数相位钟法PPP模糊度固定模型,着重指出该模型与传统浮点解PPP模型的区别;提出一种顾及质量控制的逐级模糊度固定策略用于具体实施PPP模糊度固定.大量动态PPP解算试验表明:与浮点解PPP相比,固定解PPP具有更快的收敛速度且定位精度和稳定性更好.     

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.     

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.     

Integrating GPS and GLONASS to accelerate convergence and initialization times of precise point positioning

The main challenge of dual-frequency precise point positioning (PPP) is that it requires about 30 min to obtain centimeter-level accuracy or to succeed in the first ambiguity-fixing. Currently, PPP is generally conducted with GPS only using the ionosphere-free combination. We adopt a single-differenced (SD) between-satellite PPP model to combine the GPS and GLONASS raw dual-frequency carrier phase measurements, in which the GPS satellite with the highest elevation is selected as the reference satellite to form the SD between-satellite measurements. We use a 7-day data set from 178 IGS stations to investigate the contribution of GLONASS observations to both ambiguity-float and ambiguity-fixed SD PPP solutions, in both kinematic and static modes. In ambiguity-fixed PPP, we only attempt to fix GPS integer ambiguities, leaving GLONASS ambiguities as float values. Numerous experimental results show that PPP with GLONASS and GPS requires much less convergence time than that of PPP with GPS alone. For ambiguity-float PPP, the average convergence time can be reduced by 45.9 % from 22.9 to 12.4 min in static mode and by 57.9 % from 40.6 to 17.7 min in kinematic mode, respectively. For ambiguity-fixed PPP, the average time to the first-fixed solution can be reduced by 27.4 % from 21.6 to 15.7 min in static mode and by 42.0 % from 34.4 to 20.0 min in kinematic mode, respectively. Experimental results also show that the less the GPS satellites are used in float PPP, the more significant is the reduction in convergence time when adding GLONASS observations. In addition, on average, more than 4 GLONASS satellites can be observed for most 2-h observation sessions. Nearly, the same improvement in convergence time reduction is achieved for those observations.     

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.     

GLONASS phase bias estimation and its PPP ambiguity resolution using homogeneous receivers

Integer ambiguity resolution (IAR) appreciably improves the position accuracy and shortens the convergence time of precise point positioning (PPP). However, while many studies are limited to GPS, there is a need to investigate the performance of GLONASS PPP ambiguity resolution. Unfortunately, because of the frequency-division multiple-access strategy of GLONASS, GLONASS PPP IAR faces two obstacles. First, simultaneously observed satellites operate at different wavelengths. Second and most importantly, distinct inter-frequency bias (IFB) exists between different satellites. For the former, we adopt an undifferenced method for uncalibrated phase delay (UPD) estimation and proposed an undifferenced PPP IAR strategy. We select a set of homogeneous receivers with identical receiver IFB to perform UPD estimation and PPP IAR. The code and carrier phase IFBs can be absorbed by satellite wide-lane and narrow-lane UPDs, respectively, which is in turn consistent with PPP IAR using the same type of receivers. In order to verify the method, we used 50 stations to generate satellite UPDs and another 12 stations selected as users to perform PPP IAR. We found that the GLONASS satellite UPDs are stable in time and space and can be estimated with high accuracy and reliability. After applying UPD correction, 91 % of wide-lane ambiguities and 99 % of narrow-lane ambiguities are within (?0.15, +0.15) cycles of the nearest integer. After ambiguity resolution, the 2-hour static PPP accuracy improves from (0.66, 1.42, 1.55) cm to (0.38, 0.39, 1.39) cm for the north, east, and up components, respectively.     

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.     

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.     

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%。     

单星模糊度固定的整数相位钟法及在低轨卫星定轨中的应用

单星GPS相位模糊度固定可以显著提升低轨卫星的定轨精度。目前,CNES/CLS、武汉大学和CODE 3家机构都已公开发布用于单星模糊度固定的GPS整数相位钟产品。本文首先利用整数相位钟方法实现单星模糊度固定,并应用于低轨卫星精密定轨中;然后,对比分析了不同机构提供的整数相位钟产品在低轨卫星单星模糊度固定和精密定轨中的应用性能;最后,通过对GRACE-FO编队卫星数据进行处理,发现基于不同机构产品的窄巷模糊度固定成功率都可以达到94%左右。不同机构产品获得的模糊度固定解轨道的SLR(satellite laser ranging)检核残差RMS约为0.9 cm,与模糊度浮点解的定轨结果相比,单星绝对轨道精度提高了约30%。在分别利用CNES/CLS、武汉大学和CODE产品实现单星模糊度固定后,双星相对轨道的KBR(K-band ranging)检核残差RMS分别从5.7、5.4和5.3 mm减小到2.1、2.0和1.5 mm。结果表明,不同整数相位钟产品在GRACE-FO卫星单星模糊度固定和精密定轨中的效果相当。     

北斗小数周偏差时变特性分析及应用

小数周偏差可用于精密单点定位的模糊度固定,其时变特性对于FCB的播发间隔、数据总量有着重要影响。当前北斗应用进入成熟期,对北斗FCB时变特性及其变化进行研究,有利于推广北斗PPP模糊度固定应用。本文基于单差FCB的生成方法,对2017年和2019年的北斗FCB时变特性展开研究,并改进了IGSO卫星窄巷FCB的播发间隔,通过已知测站固定解PPP解算,验证了改进后的北斗FCB产品。试验表明：2019年北斗FCB的稳定性相比2017年大幅提高;IGSO卫星可每天播发一组窄巷FCB,相比原有播发间隔减小73.4%的数据总量;改进后FCB可有效应用于北斗固定解PPP,收敛速度相比浮点解提升43.1%。     

Ambiguity resolved precise point positioning with GPS and BeiDou

This paper focuses on the contribution of the global positioning system (GPS) and BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) observations to precise point positioning (PPP) ambiguity resolution (AR). A GPS + BDS fractional cycle bias (FCB) estimation method and a PPP AR model were developed using integrated GPS and BDS observations. For FCB estimation, the GPS + BDS combined PPP float solutions of the globally distributed IGS MGEX were first performed. When integrating GPS observations, the BDS ambiguities can be precisely estimated with less than four tracked BDS satellites. The FCBs of both GPS and BDS satellites can then be estimated from these precise ambiguities. For the GPS + BDS combined AR, one GPS and one BDS IGSO or MEO satellite were first chosen as the reference satellite for GPS and BDS, respectively, to form inner-system single-differenced ambiguities. The single-differenced GPS and BDS ambiguities were then fused by partial ambiguity resolution to increase the possibility of fixing a subset of decorrelated ambiguities with high confidence. To verify the correctness of the FCB estimation and the effectiveness of the GPS + BDS PPP AR, data recorded from about 75 IGS MGEX stations during the period of DOY 123-151 (May 3 to May 31) in 2015 were used for validation. Data were processed with three strategies: BDS-only AR, GPS-only AR and GPS + BDS AR. Numerous experimental results show that the time to first fix (TTFF) is longer than 6 h for the BDS AR in general and that the fixing rate is usually less than 35 % for both static and kinematic PPP. An average TTFF of 21.7 min and 33.6 min together with a fixing rate of 98.6 and 97.0 % in static and kinematic PPP, respectively, can be achieved for GPS-only ambiguity fixing. For the combined GPS + BDS AR, the average TTFF can be shortened to 16.9 min and 24.6 min and the fixing rate can be increased to 99.5 and 99.0 % in static and kinematic PPP, respectively. Results also show that GPS + BDS PPP AR outperforms single-system PPP AR in terms of convergence time and position accuracy.     

北斗三号卫星FCB估计及其模糊度固定

随着北斗卫星导航系统(BeiDou navigation satellite system, BDS)的建设和完善,更多的北斗在轨卫星开始提供全球性的定位、导航、授时服务。为了验证北斗系统整体精密单点定位-模糊度固定(precise point positioning-ambiguity resolution, PPP-AR)的效果,基于全球分布的测站2020-08-01—2020-08-31共31 d的观测数据进行GPS、BDS双系统相位小数周偏差(fractional cycle bi?as, FCB)估计, 并对其中BDS-3卫星FCB产品时变特性进行分析。结果表明,大部分BDS-3卫星宽巷FCB在31 d内保持相对稳定,变化小于0.2周, 窄巷FCB在1 d之内的变化小于0.1周。利用估计的FCB产品进行动态和静态PPP-AR解算。单BDS-3静态PPP?-AR的历元固定率可以达到89.8%,东、北、天3个方向的均方根误差（root mean square error,RMSE）分别为0.94 cm、0.73 cm和1.39 cm,动态PPP-AR的历元固定率为83.9%,东、北、天3个方向的RMSE分别为1.99 ?cm、1.70 cm和3.28 cm。