On the Feasibility of a Carrier Phase-Based Velocity Solution from LEO Satellites

Zhen Zhu, Sanjeev Gunawardena, Eric Vinande, and Jason Pontious

Abstract:	Time-differenced carrier phase can be extracted from GNSS or LEO constellations, which can be used to estimate the receiver velocity. Some of the major error sources in a LEO carrier phase solution are discussed in this work. It was discovered that there could be two major factors that contribute to a LEO-based velocity solution: the geometry change of LEO satellites (reflected at the angular rate) and satellite orbital error. Their contributions to the velocity solution are analytically determined. They are validated via a simulation using a commercial LEO constellation, which had onboard GNSS measurements publicly available.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2025 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 27 - 30, 2025 Hyatt Regency Long Beach Long Beach, California
Pages:	98 - 106
Cite this article:	Zhu, Zhen, Gunawardena, Sanjeev, Vinande, Eric, Pontious, Jason, "On the Feasibility of a Carrier Phase-Based Velocity Solution from LEO Satellites," Proceedings of the 2025 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Long Beach, California, January 2025, pp. 98-106. https://doi.org/10.33012/2025.20001
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