BDS/GPS signal characteristics and navigation performance analysis for a highly elliptical orbit satellite
摘要
The use of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) in highly elliptical orbit (HEO) has a special signal environment with the altitude changes from perigee to apogee. In order to better understand the signal availability and navigation performance, a high sensitivity multi-GNSS receiver is equipped in a HEO satellite Shiyan-10 (SY-10). This receiver compatible with Global Position System (GPS) and BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), including BDS 2nd (BDS-2) and 3rd (BDS-3) generation, demonstrates the ability of side-lobe signal reception and autonomous orbit determination in HEO scenario. According to flight data, we investigate the signal characteristics including the availability, side-lobe signals performance, and carrier-to-noise ratio density (C/N0). Near the apogees, up to 11 GPS satellites and five BDS satellites were tracked. The side-lobe observations of GPS and BDS-2 make a significant contribution to navigation in HEO mission. In contrast, BDS-3 has a lower side-lobe performance than BDS-2. The significant value can be added when BDS geostationary orbit (GEO) and inclined geo Synchronous orbit (IGSO) satellites are considered. We present the improvement in geometry and positioning accuracy when the receiver is at close range to the navigation satellites. We discuss the performance of the single point position (SPP) solutions and real-time orbit determination (RTOD) solutions in combination with BDS observations. For the SPP solutions, in contrast to the accuracy of only GPS, the position and velocity accuracy of GPS + BDS increase from 67.5 to 60.8 m and from 0.32 to 0.23 m/s, respectively. For the RTOD solutions, when combined with BDS, the position and velocity accuracy increase from 7.62 m to 6.73 m and from 1.25 to 1.15 mm/s, respectively.