A method to calculate zero-signature satellite laser ranging normal points for millimeter geodesy - a case study with Ajisai

Kucharski, D.; Kirchner, Georg; Otsubo, Toshimichi; Koidl, Franz

doi:10.1186/s40623-015-0204-4

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The observations used for orbit determination are either the 1D-ranges (normal points [54]) observed by SLR, the kinematic orbits of Earth observing LEOs determined by precise point positioning (PPP) [55] from high-low GPS data that are used as pseudo-observations [56], or low-low range-rates derived from the K-band inter-satellite link in case of the two satellites of the GRACE mission [57]. The sampling of these observation types is very diverse.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

SLR, GRACE and Swarm Gravity Field Determination and Combination

et al. 2019

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Satellite gravimetry allows for determining large scale mass transport in the system Earth and to quantify ice mass change in polar regions. We provide, evaluate and compare a long time-series of monthly gravity field solutions derived either by satellite laser ranging (SLR) to geodetic satellites, by GPS and K-band observations of the GRACE mission, or by GPS observations of the three Swarm satellites. While GRACE provides gravity signal at the highest spatial resolution, SLR sheds light on mass transport in polar regions at larger scales also in the pre- and post-GRACE era. To bridge the gap between GRACE and GRACE Follow-On, we also derive monthly gravity fields using Swarm data and perform a combination with SLR. To correctly take all correlations into account, this combination is performed on the normal equation level. Validating the Swarm/SLR combination against GRACE during the overlapping period January 2015 to June 2016, the best fit is achieved when down-weighting Swarm compared to the weights determined by variance component estimation. While between 2014 and 2017 SLR alone slightly overestimates mass loss in Greenland compared to GRACE, the combined gravity fields match significantly better in the overlapping time period and the RMS of the differences is reduced by almost 100 Gt. After 2017, both SLR and Swarm indicate moderate mass gain in Greenland.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

SLR, GRACE and Swarm Gravity Field Determination and Combination

et al. 2019

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“…The Earth gravity field coefficients up to degree and order of 4 are estimated as common parameters. A range bias as a constant for the 60-day span is estimated for each station and for each type of satellite, i.e., LAGEOS-1 and 2 combined, Ajisai only, LARES only, and Starlette and Stella combined, so that they can absorb station-dependent, satellite-dependent biases primarily caused by target signature effects (Otsubo and Appleby 2003;Otsubo et al 2015;Kucharski et al 2015). Earth orientation parameters are also solved for per day.…”

Section: Orbit Determination Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effective expansion of satellite laser ranging network to improve global geodetic parameters

et al. 2016

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The aim of this study is to find an effective way to expand the ground tracking network of satellite laser ranging on the assumption that a new station is added to the existing network. Realistic numbers of observations for a new station are numerically simulated, based on the actual data acquisition statistics of the existing stations. The estimated errors are compared between the cases with and without a new station after the covariance matrices are created from a simulation run that contains six-satellite-combined orbit determination. While a station placed in the southern hemisphere is found to be useful in general, it is revealed that the most effective place differs according to the geodetic parameter. The X and Y components of the geocenter and the sectoral terms of the Earth's gravity field are largely improved by a station in the polar regions. A middle latitude station best contributes to the tesseral gravity terms, and, to a lesser extent, a low latitude station best performs for the Z component of the geocenter and the zonal gravity terms.

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“…Figure 10 suggests that the GNSS satellites equipped with flat LRAs should also have detector-specific corrections with a properly considered satellite signature effect so that the SLR measurements represent the LRAs' centroid, instead of using one offset value for all SLR stations. The alternative for the current approach may be the detection of the signal incoming from individual LRA corner cubes as proposed by Kucharski et al (2015) for Ajisai.…”

Section: Iov Foc and Galileo Satellites In Incorrect Orbitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Validation of Galileo orbits using SLR with a focus on satellites launched into incorrect orbital planes

Sośnica

Prange

Kaźmierski

et al. 2017

J Geod

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The space segment of the European Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Galileo consists of In-Orbit Validation (IOV) and Full Operational Capability (FOC) spacecraft. The first pair of FOC satellites was launched into an incorrect, highly eccentric orbital plane with a lower than nominal inclination angle. All Galileo satellites are equipped with satellite laser ranging (SLR) retroreflectors which allow, for example, for the assessment of the orbit quality or for the SLR-GNSS co-location in space. The number of SLR observations to Galileo satellites has been continuously increasing thanks to a series of intensive campaigns devoted to SLR tracking of GNSS satellites initiated by the International Laser Ranging Service. This paper assesses systematic effects and quality of Galileo orbits using SLR data with a main focus on Galileo satellites launched into incorrect orbits. We compare the SLR observations with respect to microwave-based Galileo orbits generated by the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE) in the framework of the International GNSS Service Multi-GNSS Experiment for the period 2014. 0-2016.5. We analyze the SLR signature effect, which is characterized by the dependency of SLR residuals with respect to various incidence angles of laser beams for stations equipped with single-photon and multiphoton detectors. Surprisingly, the CODE orbit quality of satellites in the incorrect orbital planes is not worse than that of nominal FOC and IOV orbits. The RMS of SLR residuals is even lower by 5.0 and 1.5 mm for satellites in the incorrect Finally, we found that the empirical orbit models, which were originally designed for precise orbit determination of GNSS satellites in circular orbits, provide fully appropriate results also for highly eccentric orbits with variable linear and angular velocities.

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A method to calculate zero-signature satellite laser ranging normal points for millimeter geodesy - a case study with Ajisai

Cited by 16 publications

References 15 publications

SLR, GRACE and Swarm Gravity Field Determination and Combination

SLR, GRACE and Swarm Gravity Field Determination and Combination

Effective expansion of satellite laser ranging network to improve global geodetic parameters

Validation of Galileo orbits using SLR with a focus on satellites launched into incorrect orbital planes

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