Sensitivity of the Gravity Model and Orbital Frame for On-board Real-Time Orbit Determination: Operational Results of GPS-12 GPS Receiver

Abstract

This paper describes the sensitivity of both the orbital frame domain selection and the gravity model on the performance of on-board real-time orbit determination. Practical error sources, which affect the navigation solution of spaceborne global positioning system (GPS) receivers, are analyzed first. Then, a reasonable orbital frame (radial, in-track, cross-track (RIC)) is proposed to clearly represent the characteristics of the error in order to improve the performance of the orbit determination (OD) logic. In addition, the sensitivity of the gravity model affecting the orbit determination logic is analyzed by comparison with the precise orbit ephemeris (POE) of the Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) satellite, and it is confirmed that the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) Gravity Model 03 (GGM03) outperforms the Earth Gravity Model 1996 (EGM96). The effects of both proposed orbit frames and the gravity model on the orbit determination logic are verified using a GPS simulator and observation data from the CHAMP satellite. Moreover, the practical performance of on-board real-time orbit determination logic is verified by updating the software of the spaceborne GPS receiver, GPS-12, on DubaiSat-2 operating at low Earth orbit (LEO). The results show that the position accuracy of on-board real-time orbit determination logic in GPS-12 is improved by 59%, from 12.6 m (1 σ) to 5.1 m (1 σ), after applying the proposed methods. The velocity accuracy is also improved by 57%, from 13.7 mm/s (1 σ) to 5.9 mm/s (1 σ).