Equipping GPS Satellites with Accelerometers and Satellite-to-Satellite Observables

Michael E. Ash

Abstract:	Millimeter-level accuracy applications of terrestrial GPS phase tracking can be done more robustly with global rather than regional accuracy if the GPS satellites are equipped with (1) accelerometers to measure rather than model nongravitational accelerations, (2) satellite-tosatellite phase tracking as well as ranging cross links to work around inadequately modeled atmospheric propagation effects, and (3) gyroscopes for better satellite attitude control. More complete general relativity modeling is also needed in the orbit fitting and site coordinate estimation process, for which it could be advantageous to employ a combination of Kalman filtering on the orbital motions and maximum likelihood estimation on the site coordinates, accelerometer biases, and other parameters.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2002 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 28 - 30, 2002 The Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, CA
Pages:	750 - 761
Cite this article:	Ash, Michael E., "Equipping GPS Satellites with Accelerometers and Satellite-to-Satellite Observables," Proceedings of the 2002 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 2002, pp. 750-761.
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