GPS-Based System for Satellite Tracking and Geodesy

Willy I. Bertiger, Catherine L. Thornton

Abstract:	The Global Positioning System (GPS) offers significantly improved capabilities in precise positioning. Applications include 10 em altitude determination for the Topex/Poseidon oceanographic satellite, centimeter positioning anywhere on the Earth, and precise attitude determination for synthetic aperture radar. In the pursuit of the most precise GP5-based measurements, NASA, through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has developed new software and hardware tools related to GPS. The dual frequency Rogue receiver can track up to eight CPS satellites simultaneously. A new antenna design for the Rogue has reduced the combined effects of data noise and multi-path to less than 15 em peak with 2 minute smoothing on the pseudorange. The corresponding contribution from data noise is less than 2 em. Data noise for the carrier is insignificant and multi-path errors are about 1 em for 2 minute smoothing. The GPS Inferred Positioning System (GIPSY) is a software system that includes state of the art Earth models, automatic data editing, and numerically stable and flexible square root filtering techniques (or parameter estimation including process noise modeling. With these tools, we have demonstrated sub-meter GPS orbits and measurements of positions on the Earth to a precision and accuracy of better than 20 parts per billion.
Published in:	Proceedings of the International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1988) September 19 - 23, 1988 The Broadmoor Hotel Colorado Spring, CO
Pages:	211 - 217
Cite this article:	Bertiger, Willy I., Thornton, Catherine L., "GPS-Based System for Satellite Tracking and Geodesy," Proceedings of the International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1988), Colorado Spring, CO, September 1988, pp. 211-217.
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