Simulation study of a follow-on gravity mission to GRACE

The gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) has been providing monthly estimates of the Earth’s time-variable gravity field since its launch in March 2002. The GRACE gravity estimates are used to study temporal mass variations on global and regional scales, which are largely caused by a redistribution of water mass in the Earth system. The accuracy of the GRACE gravity fields are primarily limited by the satellite-to-satellite range-rate measurement noise, accelerometer errors, attitude errors, orbit errors, and temporal aliasing caused by un-modeled high-frequency variations in the gravity signal. Recent work by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, CO has resulted in the successful development of an interferometric laser ranging system to specifically address the limitations of the K-band microwave ranging system that provides the satellite-to-satellite measurements for the GRACE mission. Full numerical simulations are performed for several possible configurations of a GRACE Follow-On (GFO) mission to determine if a future satellite gravity recovery mission equipped with a laser ranging system will provide better estimates of time-variable gravity, thus benefiting many areas of Earth systems research. The laser ranging system improves the range-rate measurement precision to ~0.6 nm/s as compared to ~0.2 μm/s for the GRACE K-band microwave ranging instrument. Four different mission scenarios are simulated to investigate the effect of the better instrument at two different altitudes. The first pair of simulated missions is flown at GRACE altitude (~480 km) assuming on-board accelerometers with the same noise characteristics as those currently used for GRACE. The second pair of missions is flown at an altitude of ~250 km which requires a drag-free system to prevent satellite re-entry. In addition to allowing a lower satellite altitude, the drag-free system also reduces the errors associated with the accelerometer. All simulated mission scenarios assume a two satellite co-orbiting pair similar to GRACE in a near-polar, near-circular orbit. A method for local time variable gravity recovery through mass concentration blocks (mascons) is used to form simulated gravity estimates for Greenland and the Amazon region for three GFO configurations and GRACE. Simulation results show that the increased precision of the laser does not improve gravity estimation when flown with on-board accelerometers at the same altitude and spacecraft separation as GRACE, even when time-varying background models are not included. This study also shows that only modest improvement is realized for the best-case scenario (laser, low-altitude, drag-free) as compared to GRACE due to temporal aliasing errors. These errors are caused by high-frequency variations in the hydrology signal and imperfections in the atmospheric, oceanographic, and tidal models which are used to remove unwanted signal. This work concludes that applying the updated technologies alone will not immediately advance the accuracy of the gravity estimates. If the scientific objectives of a GFO mission require more accurate gravity estimates, then future work should focus on improvements in the geophysical models, and ways in which the mission design or data processing could reduce the effects of temporal aliasing.     

Reducing influence of gravity model error in precise orbit determination of low Earth orbit satellites

Based on the orbit integration and orbit fitting method, the influence of the characters of the gravity model, with different precisions, on the movement of low Earth orbit satellites was studied. The way and the effect of absorbing the influence of gravity model error on CHAMP and GRACE satellite orbits, using linear and periodical empirical acceleration models and the so-called “pseudo-stochastic pulses” model, were also analyzed.     

Design considerations for a dedicated gravity recovery satellite mission consisting of two pairs of satellites

Future satellite missions dedicated to measuring time-variable gravity will need to address the concern of temporal aliasing errors; i.e., errors due to high-frequency mass variations. These errors have been shown to be a limiting error source for future missions with improved sensors. One method of reducing them is to fly multiple satellite pairs, thus increasing the sampling frequency of the mission. While one could imagine a system architecture consisting of dozens of satellite pairs, this paper explores the more economically feasible option of optimizing the orbits of two pairs of satellites. While the search space for this problem is infinite by nature, steps have been made to reduce it via proper assumptions regarding some parameters and a large number of numerical simulations exploring appropriate ranges for other parameters. A search space originally consisting of 15 variables is reduced to two variables with the utmost impact on mission performance: the repeat period of both pairs of satellites (shown to be near-optimal when they are equal to each other), as well as the inclination of one of the satellite pairs (the other pair is assumed to be in a polar orbit). To arrive at this conclusion, we assume circular orbits, repeat groundtracks for both pairs of satellites, a 100-km inter-satellite separation distance, and a minimum allowable operational satellite altitude of 290 km based on a projected 10-year mission lifetime. Given the scientific objectives of determining time-variable hydrology, ice mass variations, and ocean bottom pressure signals with higher spatial resolution, we find that an optimal architecture consists of a polar pair of satellites coupled with a pair inclined at 72°, both in 13-day repeating orbits. This architecture provides a 67% reduction in error over one pair of satellites, in addition to reducing the longitudinal striping to such a level that minimal post-processing is required, permitting a substantial increase in the spatial resolution of the gravity field products. It should be emphasized that given different sets of scientific objectives for the mission, or a different minimum allowable satellite altitude, different architectures might be selected.     

Precise orbit determination for the GRACE mission using only GPS data

The GRACE (gravity recovery and climate experiment) satellites, launched in March 2002, are each equipped with a BlackJack GPS onboard receiver for precise orbit determination and gravity field recovery. Since launch, there have been significant improvements in the background force models used for satellite orbit determination, most notably the model for the geopotential. This has resulted in significant improvements to orbit accuracy for very low altitude satellites. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how well the orbits of the GRACE satellites (about 470 km in altitude) can currently be determined using only GPS data and based on the current models and methods. The orbit accuracy is assessed using a number of tests, which include analysis of orbit fits, orbit overlaps, orbit connecting points, satellite Laser ranging residuals and K-band ranging (KBR) residuals. We show that 1-cm radial orbit accuracy for the GRACE satellites has probably been achieved. These precise GRACE orbits can be used for such purposes as improving gravity recovery from the GRACE KBR data and for atmospheric profiling, and they demonstrate the quality of the background force models being used.     

Reducing Influence of Gravity Model Error in Precise Orbit Determination of Low Earth Orbit Satellites

Based on the orbit integration and orbit fitting method, the influence of the characters of the gravity model, with different precisions, on the movement of low Earth orbit satellites was studied. The way and the effect of absorbing the influence of gravity model error on CHAMP and GRACE satellite orbits, using linear and periodical empirical acceleration models and the so-called "pseudo-stochastic pulses" model, were also analyzed.     

重力场模型对Swarm卫星精密定轨的影响分析

采用星载GPS观测数据与简化动力学定轨方法,在方程中引入伪随机脉冲参数,从而实现对Swarm卫星的精密定轨. 详细分析了不同阶次的GOCO06s地球重力场模型对Swarm卫星简化动力学定轨精度的影响,对比了PGM2000a、EIGEN-2、EGM2008以及GECO重力场模型展开到100阶次时Swarm卫星解算的轨道精度. 结果表明:当GOCO06s地球重力场模型阶次处于30～100阶次时,Swarm-A、Swarm-B和Swarm-C卫星在径向、切向、法向上的定轨精度随着GOCO06s阶次的不断增加而越来越高,而在高于100阶次时,定轨精度基本稳定,且在各方向定轨精度优于3 cm. 此外,采用100阶次GECO、EGM2008和GOCO06s模型对三颗Swarm卫星进行定轨,解算的轨道精度相当,且要高于同阶次其他重力场模型的定轨结果.      

GOCE: precise orbit determination for the entire mission

The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) was the first Earth explorer core mission of the European Space Agency. It was launched on March 17, 2009 into a Sun-synchronous dusk-dawn orbit and re-entered into the Earth’s atmosphere on November 11, 2013. The satellite altitude was between 255 and 225 km for the measurement phases. The European GOCE Gravity consortium is responsible for the Level 1b to Level 2 data processing in the frame of the GOCE High-level processing facility (HPF). The Precise Science Orbit (PSO) is one Level 2 product, which was produced under the responsibility of the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern within the HPF. This PSO product has been continuously delivered during the entire mission. Regular checks guaranteed a high consistency and quality of the orbits. A correlation between solar activity, GPS data availability and quality of the orbits was found. The accuracy of the kinematic orbit primarily suffers from this. Improvements in modeling the range corrections at the retro-reflector array for the SLR measurements were made and implemented in the independent SLR validation for the GOCE PSO products. The satellite laser ranging (SLR) validation finally states an orbit accuracy of 2.42 cm for the kinematic and 1.84 cm for the reduced-dynamic orbits over the entire mission. The common-mode accelerations from the GOCE gradiometer were not used for the official PSO product, but in addition to the operational HPF work a study was performed to investigate to which extent common-mode accelerations improve the reduced-dynamic orbit determination results. The accelerometer data may be used to derive realistic constraints for the empirical accelerations estimated for the reduced-dynamic orbit determination, which already improves the orbit quality. On top of that the accelerometer data may further improve the orbit quality if realistic constraints and state-of-the-art background models such as gravity field and ocean tide models are used for the reduced-dynamic orbit determination.     

GOCE卫星重力梯度校准与无阻尼控制效果分析

GOCE卫星是首颗搭载高精度梯度仪,通过加速度计差分测量确定地球重力场的现代重力卫星。该卫星设计为无阻尼飞行状态（沿轨方向）,加速度计并未安置在卫星质心,这些特点使得GOCE与标准的卫星跟踪卫星重力测量模式有着显著的区别。本文首先指出GOCE任务中普通模式加速度校准存在不严密性问题,并提出了分别校准6个加速度计,分离偏差参数的方案。利用GOCE任务期内的几何法精密轨道,采用动力法完成校准,并分析了无阻尼控制的效果,发现：①虽然GOCE所在轨道高度的中性大气密度较GRACE高两到三个量级,但GOCE卫星在沿轨方向的残余非保守力比GRACE卫星的对应分量小一个量级,充分显示了无阻尼控制系统的补偿效果;②通过精密轨道内插的轨道速度与动力法轨道速度的比较可以得出,卫星无阻尼控制系统对GOCE卫星速度的显著影响;③计算了GOCE卫星所受的非保守力。获得了GOCE任务期间的加速度计校准参数,并讨论了利用其辅助重力梯度仪数据预处理的可能方法。     

低轨卫星初始状态误差对反演地球重力场的影响

基于动力学法反演地球重力场的基本理论,研究了卫星初始状态向量误差对应用低轨卫星精密轨道数据反演地球重力场的影响。在仅考虑低轨卫星初始状态误差的情况下进行了模拟计算,结果表明:在利用低轨卫星精密轨道数据反演地球重力场时,卫星初始状态向量误差需要重新进行估计;在目前的轨道精度水平下,若不顾及误差方程二次项的影响,反演弧长不宜过长;卫星初始状态速度误差(约1.5mm/s)的影响要大于位置误差(约10 cm)的影响。     

“天链一号01星”对三类卫星中继性能仿真分析

以三类卫星轨道为例,利用STK分析软件就“天链一号01星”对三类轨道卫星的中继能力进行仿真,其中仿真参数包括一天内可中继次数、最短中继时间、最长中继时间、平均中继时间和可中继时间百分比等关键指标。仿真结果表明：“天链一号01星”对400～800km轨道高度的低轨道卫星的中继时间百分比可达55％以上;对20000-24000km中轨道卫星的中继时间百分比可达90％以上;对倾斜地球同步轨道卫星的中继时间百分比可达100％。     

星载加速度计增强北斗自主定轨性能

卫星自主定轨是提高全球卫星导航系统(GNSS)可靠性、稳健性、完整性和生存能力的重要保证。新一代的北斗卫星已可以进行星间链路测距,从而达到提高卫星全球跟踪能力以及实现整个卫星导航系统的自主定轨。然而由于卫星运行会受到多种摄动力的影响,如果不能对这些摄动力进行精密的改正,在没有地面或其他天体提供绝对约束的条件下,导航系统会随着自主定轨时间的延长出现星座整体旋转。卫星所受摄动力分为保守力和非保守力两部分:对于保守力,如地球非球形摄动、潮汐摄动、太阳月球和其他三体引力,现在已有的力学模型可以很精确地进行改正;而非保守力(如太阳光压摄动),则难以用精确的模型进行改正,因此成为影响卫星定轨精度的主要因素。星载加速度计可以高精度地测量非保守力,并已成功应用于重力卫星(CHAMP、GRACE、GOCE)的重力场反演与大气研究中。本文研究主要探讨采用星上加速度计提高北斗卫星自主定轨精度和延长自主定轨时长的可行性。利用模拟的卫星轨道和星间链路数据,以及现有的星载加速度计误差模型,对北斗卫星系统分别使用星间链路数据和星间链路与加速度计组合数据,进行自主定轨与精度评定。计算结果表明,使用星间链路与星载加速度计数据进行自主定轨,较单纯使用星间链路数据精度具有明显改进。在模拟的星间测距观测数据具有0.33m随机噪声以及分米级系统误差,自主定轨两个月的情况下,联合使用加速度计数据的自主定轨IGSO和MEO卫星精度为分米级,而仅使用星间链路数据的定轨精度约为3~6m,比使用加速度计精度低一个量级。     

星载加速度计的动力法校准

通过模拟轨道，利用动力法对星载加速度计校准进行了研究。用不同参考重力场模型获得的校准参数分别重新积分卫星轨道，与模拟轨道的差异最大可达m级。结果表明，参考重力场模型误差对加速度计校准的影响不可忽略，在校准加速度计的同时应解算重力场模型，以削弱模型误差的影响。     

利用GOCE卫星轨道数据恢复地球重力场模型方法的分析

欧空局早期公布的时域法和空域法解算的GOCE模型均采用能量守恒法处理轨道数据, 但恢复的长波重力场信号精度较低, 而且GOCE卫星在两极存在数据空白, 利用其观测数据恢复重力场模型是一个不适定问题, 导致解算的模型带谐项精度较低, 需进行正则化处理。本文分析了基于轨道数据恢复重力场模型的方法用于处理GOCE数据的精度, 对最优正则化方法和参数的选择进行研究。利用GOCE卫星2009-11-01—2010-01-31共92 d的精密轨道数据, 采用不依赖先验信息的能量守恒法、短弧积分法和平均加速度法恢复GOCE重力场模型, 利用Tikhonov正则化技术处理病态问题。结果表明, 平均加速度法恢复模型的精度最高, 能量守恒法的精度最低, 短弧积分法的精度稍差于平均加速度法。未来联合处理轨道和梯度数据时, 建议采用平均加速度法或短弧积分法处理轨道数据, 并且轨道数据可有效恢复120阶次左右的模型。Kaula正则化和SOT处理GOCE病态问题的效果最好, 并且两者对应的最优正则化参数基本一致, 但利用正则化技术不能完全抑制极空白问题的影响, 需要联合GRACE等其他数据才能获得理想的结果。     

Combining the orbits of the IGS Analysis Centers

Currently seven Analysis Centers of the International GPS Service for Geodynamics (IGS) are producing daily precise orbits and the corresponding Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP). These individual products are available at several IGS Data Centers (e.g. CDDIS, IGN, SIO, etc.). During 1993 no official IGS orbits were produced, but the routine orbit comparisons by IGS indicated that, after small orientation and scale alignments, the orbit consistency was approaching the 20 cm level (a coordinate RMS), and that some orbit combination should be possible and feasible. An IGS combined orbit could provide a precise and efficient extension of the IERS Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). Another advantage of such a combined orbit would be reliability and precision.Two schemes of orbit combinations are considered here: (a) the first method consists of a weighted averaging process of the earth-fixed satellite positions as produced by the individual Centers; (b) the second method uses the individual IGS orbit files as pseudo-observations in an orbit determination process, where in addition to the initial conditions, different parameter sets may be estimated. Both orbit combination methods have been tested on the January 1993 orbit data sets (GPS weeks 680 and 681) with an impressive agreement at the 5 cm level (coordinate RMS). The quality of the combined orbits is checked by processing a set of continental baselines in two different regions of the globe using different processing softwares. Both types of combined orbits gave similar baseline repeatability of a few ppb in both regions which compared favorably to the best individual orbits in the region.     

力模型误差对近地卫星定轨的影响分析

本文针对近地卫星所受摄动力的特点，详细分析了大气阻尼系数、大气模式、地球重力场模型、系统性误差等对定轨的影响。利用待估大气阻尼系数及其变率，可有效地消除大气模型差的影响，提高定轨精度。在得克萨斯大学空间研究中心编制的精密定轨软件ＵＴＯＰＩＡ８６的基础上，重新编制和调试出能有效处理近地卫星定轨的实用软件。     

中低轨卫星定轨精度分析

针对轨道高度为１ ０００ ｋｍ 左右的近圆轨道卫星进行动力学定轨分析。通过对大气模型、地球重力场模型、系统误差、测轨站站址误差等对定轨的影响进行分析, 分析了影响中等轨道的主要误差源。该卫星轨道确定精度为外推三圈优于２００ ｍ 。     

卫星跟踪卫星技术的进展及应用前景

卫星跟踪卫星技术被认为是 2 1世纪初最有价值和应用前景的高效重力探测技术 ,旨在测定中长波重力场的精细结构及时间相依变化。本文首先简要阐述卫星跟踪卫星技术的发展背景及概况 ,其次介绍目前已经实施和将要实施的卫星跟踪卫星计划 CHAMP和 GRACE的进展情况 ,最后讨论该技术在精化地球重力场和研究相关地学问题中的应用前景。     

Precise orbit determination for the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellite mission using GPS

The joint Taiwan–US mission FORMOSAT-3/ COSMIC (COSMIC) was launched on April 17, 2006. Each of the six satellites is equipped with two POD antennas. The orbits of the six satellites are determined from GPS data using zero-difference carrier-phase measurements by the reduced dynamic and kinematic methods. The effects of satellite center of mass (COM) variation, satellite attitude, GPS antenna phase center variation (PCV), and cable delay difference on the COSMIC orbit determination are studied. Nominal attitudes estimated from satellite state vectors deliver a better orbit accuracy when compared to observed attitude. Numerical tests show that the COSMIC COM must be precisely calibrated in order not to corrupt orbit determination. Based on the analyses of the 5 and 6-h orbit overlaps of two 30-h arcs, orbit accuracies from the reduced dynamic and kinematic solutions are nearly identical and are at the 2–3 cm level. The mean RMS difference between the orbits from this paper and those from UCAR (near real-time) and WHU (post-processed) is about 10 cm, which is largely due to different uses of GPS ephemerides, high-rate GPS clocks and force models. The kinematic orbits of COSMIC are expected to be used for recovery of temporal variations in the gravity field.     

基于BDS广播星历的卫星轨道拟合精度分析

在实时定位导航中,为了提高利用BDS广播星历计算卫星位置的效率,提出将卫星轨道拟合为一个多项式.首先利用切比雪夫多项式拟合法,将拟合时段固定为1 h,拟合间隔固定为5 min,每30 s选取一个检验点,利用不同的拟合阶数,分别对GEO、IGSO、MEO三类不同类型的北斗卫星轨道进行拟合分析;然后将拟合阶数固定为9,利用2～6 min的拟合时间间隔,将三类卫星作为整体进行轨道拟合分析.算例表明,只要选取合适的拟合阶数,三类不同类型的北斗卫星轨道拟合精度都较高,拟合误差最大值在厘米级,误差均值在毫米级,满足精度要求;固定9阶拟合多项式时,2～6 min时间间隔的拟合精度都可以满足精度需求.切比雪夫多项式拟合法适用于BDS广播星历的卫星轨道拟合.      

Analytical solution of perturbed circular motion: application to satellite geodesy

 Starting from the analytical theory of perturbed␣circular motions presented in Celestial Mechanics (Bois 1994) and from specific extended formulations of the perturbations in a uniformly rotating plane of constant inclination, this paper presents an extended formulation of the solution. The actual gain made through this extension is the establishment of a first-order predictive theory written in spherical coordinates and thus free of singularities, whose perturbations are directly expressed in the local orbital frame generally used in satellite geodesy. This new formulation improves the generality, the precision and the field of applications of the theory. It is particularly devoted to the analysis of satellite position perturbations for satellites in low eccentricity orbits usually used for many Earth observation applications. An application to the TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) orbit is performed. In particular, contour maps are provided which show the geographical location of orbit differences coming from geopotential coefficient differences of two recent gravity field models. Comparison of predicted radial and along-track orbit differences with respect to numerical results provided by the French group (CNES, in Toulouse) in charge of the T/P orbit are convincing. Received 22 January 1996; Accepted 19 September 1996