Between Sun and Earth: Solar Pressure State Estimation in the GPS Master Control Station

Ronald Smetek Jr., John Taylor

Abstract:	Solar pressure states model the effects of solar particles impacting upon orbiting GPS satellites. Historically, satellite solar pressure states have been the least understood of the states estimated by the GPS Master Control Station (MCS) Kalman filter. This lack of understanding directly contributed to the prolonged initialization of SVN 22 (PRN 22) during the Spring of 1993. In the wake of these problems, much research has been devoted to characterizing the behavior of the solar states throughout the life of a GPS satellite. The authors have derived an equation that very accurately describes the solar states from satellite initialization onward. This equation also takes into account an anomalous force that has been observed to alias itself into the solar states during the first several months each satellite is in orbit. The conclusions drawn here are supported by the recent end-of-life testing done on SVN 9 (PRN 13).
Published in:	Proceedings of the 7th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1994) September 20 - 23, 1994 Salt Palace Convention Center Salt Lake City, UT
Pages:	275 - 284
Cite this article:	Smetek, Ronald, Jr., Taylor, John, "Between Sun and Earth: Solar Pressure State Estimation in the GPS Master Control Station," Proceedings of the 7th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1994), Salt Lake City, UT, September 1994, pp. 275-284.
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