Development of a dual-frequency GNSS receiver for scientific applications

M. Ripley, J. Cooper, and P. Daly,P. Silvestrin

Abstract:	High performance laboratory breadboards of a dual-frequency Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver have been developed at the Institute of Satellite Navigation at the University of Leeds (ISN) for a number of years under a European Space Agency (ESA) programme. The main objective of these breadboards is to serve as development tools for receiver signal processing research in view of scientific applications of GNSS. Some of these applications will be realised by means of receivers embarked on satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) as part of on-going and future ESA programmes and will include precise orbit determination, radio occultation measurements and measurements of the parameters characterising GNSS signals reflected at the sea surface. The principal application for which the signal processing developments described in this paper have been targeted was radio occultation. During an occultation event the GNSS signal encounters a challenging environment. Substantial Doppler dynamics occur during a measurement, due to the effect of sharp gradients of the refraction index. Signal attenuation and deep fading caused by multipath propagation are also encountered. The signal tracking enhancements for this application are presented in this paper. The areas of concern are the acquisition and tracking of signals in high dynamics and at low carrier-to-noise ratios (C/N0), and also the performance of tracking the GPS P code without full knowledge of the spreading code as dual frequency atmospheric measurements are crucial to this application.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 11th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1998) September 15 - 18, 1998 Nashville, TN
Pages:	1645 - 1654
Cite this article:	Ripley, M., Cooper, J., Daly, P., Silvestrin, P., "Development of a dual-frequency GNSS receiver for scientific applications," Proceedings of the 11th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1998), Nashville, TN, September 1998, pp. 1645-1654.
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