Sensitivity and Consistency Analysis of BDS-3 GEO Satellite Orbit Maneuver Detection

Abstract

In this study, 22 maneuvering events of C59 and C60 geostationary equatorial orbit (GEO) satellites of the BeiDou global navigation satellite system (BDS-3) in 2021 were detected and analyzed based on a time-differenced carrier phase velocity measurement algorithm combined with a broadcast ephemeris and station data. We set different empirical thresholds to analyze the effect of threshold selection on the maneuvering detection sensitivity. The sensitivity and consistency of this algorithm for GEO satellite maneuvering detection were analyzed by combining BDS-3 with other Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) and selecting different geographic stations. The results demonstrate that changing the threshold significantly affects the maneuvering detection of C60, with the optimal maneuvering thresholds of C59 and C60 being 0.045 and 0.02, respectively. A combination of BDS-3 and GPS with equal weights was identified to be most suitable for maneuvering detection of GEO satellites. For any specific maneuver, the difference between the maneuvering time detection of C59 by stations at different geographical locations was no more than 1 min. During the maneuvering detection of C60, the start time of maneuvering detected by African stations was 4.26–8.61 min earlier than that detected by the Chinese and Australian stations, and the end time of maneuvering detected by the African stations was consistent with that detected by the Chinese and Australian stations.