Advancing the Solar Radiation Pressure Model for BeiDou-3 IGSO Satellites

Abstract

In the absence of detailed surface information, empirical solar radiation pressure (SRP) models, such as the five-parameter Empirical CODE Orbit Model (ECOM1) and its extended version-ECOM2, are widely used for modeling SRP forces acting on GNSS satellites. This study shows that the orbits of BeiDou-3 Inclined Geosynchronous Orbit satellites (IGSOs) determined with the ECOM1 model suffer from systematic once-per-revolution radial orbit errors, which can be partly reduced by the ECOM2 model. To eliminate such orbit errors, the BeiDou-3 IGSO optical coefficients are solved by using an adjustable box-wing (ABW) model and then introduced into an a priori box-wing SRP model to enhance the ECOM1 model (ECOM1 + BW). In the ABW solution, in addition to satellite body and solar panels, the contributions of the communication payloads installed on BeiDou-3 IGSO ±X panels on the SRP are also considered, which markedly improves the stability of the optical coefficient estimates. The efficiency of the developed a priori box-wing model is demonstrated through eliminated once-per-revolution radial orbit errors and decreased day boundary discontinuities. However, the orbit solutions still show significant degradations during eclipse seasons. The results of the first yaw-attitude analysis for eclipsing BeiDou-3 IGSOs show that their yaw behaviors are the same as those of BeiDou-3 CAST (China Academy of Space Technology) MEOs (Medium Earth Orbit satellites), and have been well considered in the study. This rules out the possibility that attitude errors are the potential reason for the orbit deterioration. By introducing a once-per-revolution sine term in the Sun direction (Ds term) and keeping Ds active during the Earth’s shadow transitions to the ECOM1 + BW model, the orbit performance inside the eclipse seasons is significantly improved and can be comparable to that outside the eclipse seasons.

High-Accuracy Clock Offsets Estimation Strategy of BDS-3 Using Multi-Source Observations

“…We believe that the IGSOs and GEOs clock offsets with large fluctuations are that there exist larger orbit errors in GEOs and IGSOs. Some results suggest it is probably due to the not accurate enough solar radiation pressure model adopted in ODTS processing [33,35]. Taking the high-accuracy inter-satellite clock offsets and L-band two-way clock offsets of GEOs as inputs, the clock offsets of all satellites can be further traced to the BDT so as to estimate the final clock offsets, whose accuracy should be better than the clock offsets calculated by two-way superimposition strategy, which can be shown in Figure 9.…”

“…Furthermore, compared with the inter-satellite clock offsets of GBM products, the 24-h fitting residual of two-way estimated clock offsets is more stable. The above results indicate that: Only relying on ISLs and a few L-band large-diameter antennas, the BDS-3 can realize the global satellite clock offsets real-time estimation with the same accuracy level as the clock offsets estimated by more than one hundred global-distributed GNSS stations [33,35].…”

Real-Time Multi-GNSS Precise Orbit Determination Based on the Hourly Updated Ultra-Rapid Orbit Prediction Method

“…A prior analytical SRP model for the Galileo constellation called the cuboid model or the DLR model has been established [36,37], which could be used a priori together with the empirical ECOM model to improve the Galileo orbit. Guo et al [3], Wang et al [38], Liu et al [39] and Xia et al [40] have also conducted some research on using an adjustable box-wing (ABW) model [41] a priori to strengthen the ECOM model. In this contribution, a priori cuboid model is introduced to enhance the five-parameter ECOM1 model for BDS-3 CAST (China Academy of Space Technology) satellites, BDS-3 SECM (Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites, CAS) satellites as well as Galileo satellites.…”

A Single-Averaged Model for the Solar Radiation Pressure Applied to Space Debris Mitigation Using a Solar Sail

“…Several authors have taken into account the solar radiation pressure models to explore the dynamics of artificial satellites, asteroids, and space debris; for example, see references [9][10][11][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] (and references therein). For the equation of the perturbing potential due to a third body, we use a single-averaged model [37] including the perturbations coming from the Sun and Moon and assuming that these perturbing bodies are moving in elliptical and inclined orbits.…”