Applying Miniaturized Atomic Clocks for Improved Kinematic GNSS Single Point Positioning

T. Krawinkel and S. Schön

Abstract:	inematic GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) single point positioning (SPP) requires epoch-wise estimation of a receiver synchronization error w.r.t. GNSS system time because of the low long-term stability and the generally poor accuracy of the receiver's internal quartz oscillator. Modeling this error source by a linear polynomial instead of epoch-wise estimation improves the precision of the up-coordinate and makes the adjustment more robust. In this paper we briefly discuss the performance of three different miniaturized atomic frequency standards that were characterized in terms of their frequency stabilities at Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Germany. We found significant differences to the manufacturer's data in terms of Allan deviations. In order to analyze the clock performance when connected to GNSS receivers, a kinematic experiment was carried out with a motor vehicle. Applying miniaturized atomic clocks and properly modeling their behavior in kinematic SPP improves the precision of the up-coordinates by up to 58% and the up-velocities by up to 66%, respectively, compared to epoch-wise receiver clock error estimation. Due to remaining systematic effects the accuracy improvements in the coordinate estimates are distinctly smaller. Furthermore, the impact of receiver clock modeling on reliability measures in SPP was investigated. We found improvements in internal reliability of up to 16%—depending on the satellite considered—which makes the positioning solution more robust against gross observation errors.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 27th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2014) September 8 - 12, 2014 Tampa Convention Center Tampa, Florida
Pages:	2431 - 2439
Cite this article:	Krawinkel, T., Schön, S., "Applying Miniaturized Atomic Clocks for Improved Kinematic GNSS Single Point Positioning," Proceedings of the 27th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2014), Tampa, Florida, September 2014, pp. 2431-2439.
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