Acta Geodaetica et Cartographica Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 52 ›› Issue (9): 1437-1448.doi: 10.11947/j.AGCS.2023.20220558

• Geodesy and Navigation • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Precise orbit determination using satellite laser ranging and inter-satellite link observations for BDS-3 satellites

QU Weijing1, HUANG Yong1,2,3,4, XU Junyi5, SUN Shuxian5, ZHOU Shanshi1,2, YANG Yufei5, HE Bing6, HU Xiaogong1,2,3   

  1. 1. Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200030, China;
    2. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Space Navigation and Positioning Techniques, Shanghai 200030, China;
    3. Key Laboratory of Planetary Sciences, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200030, China;
    4. School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;
    5. Beijing Satellite Navigation Center, Beijing 100092, China;
    6. Zhejiang University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Hangzhou 310018, China
  • Received:2022-10-13 Revised:2023-04-26 Published:2023-10-12
  • Supported by:
    The National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 12273096;12173072);The Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA30000000);The Preresearch Project on Civil Aerospace Technologies funded by the China National Space Administration (No. D010105);The National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2020YFC2200903);The National Key Research and Development Program (No. 2016YFB0501900);Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (No. 12DZ2273300)

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Abstract: BDS satellites are equipped with the inter-satellite link (ISL) equipment, which can observe other satellites and ground monitoring stations with Ka-band measurements. The relative satellite clock and geometric distance can be separated to decouple the satellite orbit and clock difference using the dual one-way ISL ranging measurements of BDS satellites. The geometric distance is taken as the observation and is combined with the ground-based measurements to determine the precision orbit of BDS satellites. Satellite laser ranging has no carrier phase ambiguity and clock difference and is not affected by the ionosphere. SLR data and data processing are relatively simple, which can be used as a measurement technology independent of GNSS. This paper focuses on precision orbit determination for 11 BDS satellites (MEO/IGSO/GEO) based on SLR and ISL measurements. The accuracy of the BDS-3 satellite orbit determination based on the SLR and the inter-satellite links is greatly improved compared with the SLR data only, especially for GEO and IGSO satellites. The satellite orbit accuracy of the three orbit types is equivalent. The accuracy is 4.2 cm for radial component and 30.2 cm for 3D position. The accuracy of 12 h and 24 h predicted orbit is about 40.0 cm for the 3D position for MEO satellites, less than 60.0 cm for IGSO satellites and about 1 m for GEO satellites. The Earth rotation parameters are estimated simultaneously with the satellite orbit. Although the accuracy of the pole motion and LOD is about 3.0 mas and 0.35 ms due to the small amount of SLR observation data, the method is feasible to calculate the earth rotation parameters. The results show that the high precision orbit of the navigation satellites can be obtained using ISL measurements and small amount of the SLR data. If BDS constellation can be intensively tracked, it will help to improve the orbital accuracy. The results can also provide a reference for the solutions of BDS spatial datum parameters.

Key words: satellite laser ranging, inter-satellite link, BDS, precise orbit determination

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