Beyond Gravity PODRIX GNSS Receiver on Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich – Receiver Performance and POD Analysis

Heike Peter, Tim Springer, Franz Zangerl, Heinz Reichinger

Abstract:	PODRIX is a spaceborne multi-GNSS receiver flying the first time on Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, a follow-up satellite in the very successful series of reference altimetry Jason satellites. PODRIX has been developed by Beyond Gravity (former RUAG Space), the leading supplier of products for the space industry in Europe, and with a growing presence in the US. PODRIX is a further development of the very successful RUAG GPS receivers flying on the A and B satellites of the Copernicus Sentinel-1, -2, and -3 missions. The new receiver is capable to track dual-frequency GPS and Galileo signals in parallel. Technology developments done from the RUAG GPS to the PODRIX multi-GNSS receiver are briefly discussed. These enhancements allow for the first time for precise orbit determination (POD) of a Low Earth Orbiting satellite based on both the GPS and the Galileo system either as single-system solution or based on a combination of the two. In the standard configuration on Sentinel-6 the GPS L1, L2 and Galileo E1, E5a signals are tracked. The excellent performance and quality of the pseudorange and carrier phase signals from both systems, but in particular from Galileo, are presented. POD results from single-system GPS or Galileo solutions are compared to the combined GPS+Galileo solution. The high quality of the PODRIX receiver easily enables highly reliable integer carrier phase ambiguity resolution which is key to achieve that highest possible accuracy orbit solutions. Access to both the GPS and Galileo systems on a single satellite receiver allows us to compare GPS-only and Galileo-only solutions with each other. This gives us an excellent opportunity to look at potential systematic differences between the two systems and cross-validate them.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 35th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2022) September 19 - 23, 2022 Hyatt Regency Denver Denver, Colorado
Pages:	589 - 601
Cite this article:	Peter, Heike, Springer, Tim, Zangerl, Franz, Reichinger, Heinz, "Beyond Gravity PODRIX GNSS Receiver on Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich – Receiver Performance and POD Analysis," Proceedings of the 35th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2022), Denver, Colorado, September 2022, pp. 589-601. https://doi.org/10.33012/2022.18368
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