GRACE-FO attitude data determination with consideration of star camera alignment matrix calibration

doi:10.11947/j.AGCS.2026.20250361

Abstract

Abstract:

The acquisition of high-precision attitude data is a crucial research aspect in the processing of gravity satellite payload raw data. Each GRACE-FO satellite is equipped with three star cameras and a gyroscope to measure the satellite's attitude data. The fusion of these two types of data is an important approach to obtain high-precision attitude data. Firstly, we establish a calibration algorithm for the star cameras installation matrix according to the anisotropic noise of star camera measurements. Secondly, a low-frequency error processing strategy for star cameras is developed, utilizing a moving average method to suppress low-frequency errors. Then, an indirect Kalman filtering algorithm is proposed, with the quaternion correction based on the Gibbs vector and gyroscope bias correction as state vectors. Finally, the GRACE-FO Level-1A data is used for validation and analysis. The computational results show that using different star cameras as references to calibrate the installation matrix of the other star cameras yields only minor differences in the derived satellite attitude and the low-frequency errors at the 1 CPR frequency band in the attitude data are significantly reduced. The established low-frequency error processing strategy for star cameras can effectively suppress low-frequency errors within the 30 CPR frequency band. For the fusion of star cameras and gyroscope data, compared to the JPL results, the attitude data calculated in this paper reduces noise in the 0.000 5~0.1 Hz frequency band, demonstrating that the fusion fully exploits the instruments'maximum performance. Regarding the impact on time-variable gravity field recovery, both the degree variances of the recovered gravity fields and the equivalent water height differences show that the accuracies of the time-variable gravity models derived from different attitude datasets are essentially identical. At the current level, further improvements in attitude data accuracy have only a minor effect on enhancing the precision of time-variable gravity field models.

Key words: GRACE-FO, satellite attitude, star camera low-frequency error, installation matrix calibration, indirect Kalman filter

CLC Number:

P228

Lei LIANG, Changqing WANG, Lingyong HUANG, Zhiyong HUANG, Yaoyao YU, Min ZHONG, Yihao YAN, Qinglu MU. GRACE-FO attitude data determination with consideration of star camera alignment matrix calibration[J]. Acta Geodaetica et Cartographica Sinica, 2026, 55(2): 287-300.

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星间指向角	JPL-Cal1	JPL-Cal2	JPL-Cal3	JPL-NoCal
Yaw	3.33×10^－5	3.11×10^－5	2.82×10^－5	7.25×10^－5
Pitch	3.38×10^－5	3.43×10^－5	3.67×10^－5	5.02×10^－5
Roll	2.82×10^－5	2.57×10^－5	2.65×10^－5	6.68×10^－5

结果差异	ω_x	ω_y	ω_z
CHZU_LFE-IMU1B	1.58×10^－7	1.30×10^－7	1.37×10^－7
CHZU_NLFE-IMU1B	1.84×10^－7	1.49×10^－7	1.60×10^－7
JPL-IMU1B	6.00×10^－7	3.55×10^－7	3.93×10^－7