Abstract
Ambiguity resolution (AR) is an effective approach to improve the orbit accuracy of the low Earth orbit satellites using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). The most commonly used single-difference (SD) AR requires prior knowledge of the GNSS hardware biases, while the potential unavailability of the bias products may hinder the AR process for users. The track-to-track (T2T) AR can work as an alternative without the GNSS bias products, but the performance may be degraded by the receiver hardware biases. To provide a better alternative in this condition, a new AR method called SD T2T (SDT2T) is proposed in this study, where the GNSS and receiver biases can be greatly eliminated without external knowledge. The performance of the SD AR, SDT2T AR, and T2T AR methods are assessed based on the gravity recovery and climate experiment follow on and SWARM data. The results show that the improvements contributed by the SDT2T AR are comparable to the SD AR. The multiple iterations required by the T2T AR can be avoided by the SDT2T AR, and the accuracy of the T2T AR can be further improved with the preprocessed ambiguities of the SDT2T AR. Considering the efficiency and stable performance, the SDT2T AR is recommended as the preferred alternative single-receiver AR method in the absence of the GNSS hardware bias products.
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Data availability
All original data in this article are publicly available. The CODE precise orbit and clock products can be found on the website of the IGS data center of Wuhan University via ftp://igs.gnsswhu.cn/pub/gnss/products/. The GRACE-FO data can be provided by JPL at https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/GRACE-FO or GFZ via ftp://rz-vm152.gfz-potsdam.de/. The SWARM data are from ftp://swarm-diss.eo.esa.int/Level1b/Latest_baselines/. The SLR tracking data are obtained from ftp://cddis.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/slr/data/, and the F10.7 data and geomagnetic data are from ftp://ftp.swpc.noaa.gov/. The antenna file is obtained from ftp://garner.ucsd.edu/archive/garner/gamit/tables.
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Acknowledgements
This study is supported by the Natural Science Innovation Group Foundation of China (No. 41721003), the National Science Foundation of China (41704030), and the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC1503601). Thanks to IGS, CODE, and ILRS for providing GNSS data, precise products, and SLR data. Thanks to JPL and GFZ for providing GRACE-FO data. Thanks to ESA for providing SWARM data. Thanks to SWPC/NOAA for the F10.7 data and geomagnetic data.
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XZ, HC, and WJ devised the project and the main conceptual ideas. XZ and HC worked out most technical details and performed the calculations for the experiments; YC, TJ and TL helped analyze the data. XZ and HC wrote the paper; WJ and YG modified the paper. All authors provided critical feedback and helped to shape the research, analysis, and manuscript.
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Zhou, X., Chen, H., Jiang, W. et al. A new ambiguity resolution method for LEO precise orbit determination. J Geod 96, 49 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-022-01629-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-022-01629-6