A new datum jump detection and mitigation method of Real-Time Service (RTS) clock products

Real-time orbit and clock products are crucial for real-time precise point positioning (PPP) applications. The International Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Service (IGS) launched the Real-Time Service (RTS) in 2013 to provide real-time satellite orbit and clock products which have since found wide applications. Currently, the IGS RTS provides two different types of satellite orbit and clock products: the products generated from individual Analysis Centers such as CLK01, CLK22 and CLK90 and the combination products such as IGS01 and IGS03. These IGS RTS products are different in terms of precision and reliability. First, we verify that the phenomenon of clock datum jumps is obvious in IGS01, which has not been considered by the GNSS community when applying the IGS01 product to the real-time PPP. Afterward, the causes of the clock datum jump are investigated. The results indicate that a switchover of the reference product or a datum jump in the reference product will cause a clock datum jump. In order to solve the clock datum jumps issue, a new clock datum jump detection and mitigation algorithm is proposed. Real-time kinematic PPP experiments are then carried out to validate the proposed satellite clock detection and mitigation algorithm. The positioning results with 27 globally distributed IGS stations show that the root mean square improvements in the north, east and up components are 61.5%, 36.5% and 55.1% after detecting and mitigating the datum jumps.