Direct Satellite Tracking Using GPS

Robert H. Smith, John V. Langer, and William A. Feess

Abstract:	This investigation discusses some of the issues involved in obtaining precision orbits of Earth satellites using non-differential GPS. Fundamental to the orbit deter- mination process is the examination of the major error sources. These sources can be divided into three cat- egories: 1) observation-based errors 2) receiver-based errors and 3) processing errors. The observation-based errors include the inherent noise of the GPS signals, the geometric dilution of precision and multipath rc flections. Errors due to the receiver’s processing are specific to a manufacturer, but can be generalized to items such as thermal noise, interchannel bias, track- ing noise and clock performance. Direct satellite track- ing using GPS can be simply performed by filtering 1-11~ downlinkccl signals or by executing sumc oll-b~~i~rd pro- cessing. Each of these errors sources are examined in this general discussion and a few conclusions are drawn concerning satellite visibility and selection, multipath problems, GPS ephemeris error and modeling, clock performance and filter performance.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 1994 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 24 - 26, 1994 Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, CA
Pages:	635 - 643
Cite this article:	Smith, Robert H., Langer, John V., Feess, William A., "Direct Satellite Tracking Using GPS," Proceedings of the 1994 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 1994, pp. 635-643.
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