Precise Determination of the EOS Altimetric Satellite Orbit Using GPS

G. Edward Powell Jr.

Abstract:	The Global Positioning System (GPS), when fully deployed, will provide a powerful tool for precise orbit determination (POD) of near-Earth satellites. The ability of the system to provide continuous tracking coverage allows traditional dynamic POD methods, but has also led to the feasibility of geometric orbit determination. An hybrid “reduced-dynamic” technique has been formulated which utilizes process noise compen- sation to weight the geometric and dynamical behavior of the orbit solution. The focus of this research has been the investigation of these tech- niques using simulations, supplemented by co- variance analysis. These analyses constitute a more complete evaluation of the techniques than previously published. The dynamic and mea- surement error models utilized in this analysis induce orbit uncertainties commensurate with those seen in ephemerides estimated processing actual GPS data. The covariance analysis was tuned to reflect these errors, and provides insight into the various filtering techniques. This anal- ysis predicts 5 cm (rms) radial orbit accuracy for the EOS altimetric platform using existing dy- namic models and the reduced-dynamic track- ing technique near the kinematic limit.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1993) June 21 - 23, 1993 Royal Sonesta Hotel Cambridge, MA
Pages:	241 - 250
Cite this article:	Powell, G. Edward, Jr., "Precise Determination of the EOS Altimetric Satellite Orbit Using GPS," Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1993), Cambridge, MA, June 1993, pp. 241-250.
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