Abstract
In the geocenter motion determination using the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), satellite clock offsets are usually estimated as white noise process. The correlation between geocenter coordinates (GCC) and the epoch-wise satellite clocks brings inferior GCC estimates, especially for the Z component. In this contribution, satellite clock offsets are described by the polynomial model, and the deviation of the model from the truth is estimated as a random parameter whose process noise is described by the variogram. Based on 3.7 years of BDS, Galileo and GPS observations from 98 global stations, we investigate the impact of the atomic clock model on GCC estimates. After employing the proposed model, the formal errors of GCC-Z component are reduced by 23–46%, 15–31% and 3–9% for BDS, Galileo and GPS, respectively. When the 7-parameter extended empirical CODE orbit model with the a priori box-wing model (BE7) is used, the atomic clock model reduces the correlation of the B1C parameter and GCC-Z component by 0.28, 0.23 and 0.07 for BDS, Galileo and GPS, respectively. Besides, a mitigation of about 60% is obtained at the 3rd and 5th BDS draconitic harmonics and a mitigation of 55% at the 3rd Galileo draconitic harmonic for the GCC-Z component. The proposed model also contributes to reduce the annual amplitudes of single BDS, Galileo and GPS solutions, improving the agreement with the Satellite Laser Ranging solutions. As an additional verification, the resulting satellite orbits are also improved by satellite clock modeling. When the BE7 model is applied, the day boundary discontinuities of daily orbits are reduced by 3.4–3.6%, and the RMS of orbit differences relative to the ESA precise orbits is reduced by 8.2–8.5% for BDS and Galileo.
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Data availability
The GNSS observations and precise satellite products used in this research are collected by IGS and ESA, which can be obtained at https://cddis.nasa.gov/ and http://navigation-office.esa.int/Products.html.
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Acknowledgements
This study is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFB3907304) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41931075, 42274041, 42174028). Thanks go to anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and all authors are grateful to IGS for providing multi-GNSS data.
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S. Guo and L. Fan designed this research and prepared the manuscript; S. Guo conducted data processing; L. Fan and N. Wei helped to analyze results; S. Gu and X. Fang helped to develop the GSTAR software; all authors provided critical feedback and reviewed the paper.
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Appendix
Appendix
Formal errors of Galileo-derived geocenter coordinate estimates without Galileo E14 and E18. The black curves denote the Sun elevation angles above orbital planes (β)
Galileo-derived geocenter coordinate time series without Galileo E14 and E18
Amplitude spectra of Galileo-derived geocenter coordinates without Galileo E14 and E18. The vertical black lines denote the harmonics of a Galileo draconitic year and the 10 days
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Guo, S., Fan, L., Wei, N. et al. Impact of satellite clock modeling on the GNSS-based geocenter motion determination. J Geod 98, 70 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-024-01879-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-024-01879-6