Tracking and orbit determination performance of the GRAS instrument on MetOp-A

Tracking and orbit determination performance of the GRAS instrument on MetOp-A

Montenbruck, O.
Andres, Y.
Bock, H.
Van Helleputte, T.
Van den IJssel, J.
Loiselet, M.
Marquardt, M.
Silvestrin, P.
Visser, P.
Yoon, Y.

Aerospace Engineering

Delft Institute of earth Observation and Space Systems

2008-04-09

The global navigation satellite system receiver for atmospheric sounding (GRAS) on MetOp-A is the first European GPS receiver providing dual-frequency navigation and occultation measurements from a spaceborne platform on a routine basis. The receiver is based on ESA’s AGGA-2 correlator chip, which implements a high-quality tracking scheme for semi-codeless P(Y) code tracking on the L1 and L2 frequency. Data collected with the zenith antenna on MetOp-A have been used to perform an in-flight characterization of the GRAS instrument with focus on the tracking and navigation performance. Besides an assessment of the receiver noise and systematic measurement errors, the study addresses the precise orbit determination accuracy achievable with the GRAS receiver. A consistency on the 5 cm level is demonstrated for reduced dynamics orbit solutions computed independently by four different agencies and software packages. With purely kinematic solutions, 10 cm accuracy is obtained. As a part of the analysis, an empirical antenna offset correction and preliminary phase center correction map are derived, which notably reduce the carrier phase residuals and improve the consistency of kinematic orbit determination results.

Precise orbit determination
Phase center variation
Tracking loops
Semi-codeless tracking
AGGA-2
GRAS
MetOp

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:cb07c088-06d2-44ab-a803-6947e217947d

Springer

1521-1886

GPS Solutions, 12 (4)

Institutional Repository

journal article

(c) 2008 The Authors; Springer