Orbit determination and time synchronization for a GEO/IGSO satellite navigation constellation with regional tracking network

Aiming at regional services, the space segment of COMPASS (Phase I) satellite navigation system is a constellation of Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO), Inclined Geostationary Earth Orbit (IGSO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites. Precise orbit determination (POD) for the satellites is limited by the geographic distribution of regional tracking stations. Independent time synchronization (TS) system is developed to supplement the regional tracking network, and satellite clock errors and orbit data may be obtained by simultaneously processing both tracking data and TS data. Consequently, inconsistency between tracking system and TS system caused by remaining instrumental errors not calibrated may decrease navigation accuracy. On the other hand, POD for the mixed constellation of GEO/IGSO/MEO with the regional tracking network leads to parameter estimations that are highly correlated. Notorious example of correlation is found between GEO’s orbital elements and its clock errors. We estimate orbital elements and clock errors for a 3GEO+2IGSO constellation in this study using a multi-satellite precise orbit determination (MPOD) strategy, with which clock error elimination algorithm is applied to separate orbital and clock estimates to improve numerical efficiency. Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) data are used to evaluate User Ranging Error (URE), which is the orbital error projected on a receiver’s line-of-sight direction. Two-way radio-wave time transfer measurements are used to evaluate clock errors. Experimenting with data from the regional tracking network, we conclude that the fitting of code data is better than 1 m in terms of Root-Mean-Square (RMS), and fitting of carrier phase is better than 1 cm. For orbital evaluation, difference between computed receiver-satellite ranging based on estimated orbits and SLR measurements is better than 1 m (RMS). For clock estimates evaluation, 2-hour linear-fitting shows that the satellite clock rates are about 1.E-10 s/s, while receiver clock rates are about 1×10−13–1×10−12 s/s. For the 72-hour POD experiment, the average differences between POD satellite clock rates estimates and clock measurements based on TS system are about 1×10−13 s/s, and for receiver clock rates, the differences are about 1×10−15 s/s.