The next generation of satellite laser ranging systems

Wilkinson, Matthew; Schreiber, K. U.; Procházka, Ivan; Moore, Christopher S.; Degnan, John J.; Kirchner, Georg; Zhang, Zhongping; Dunn, Peter J.; Shargorodskiy, V. D.; Sadovnikov, M. A.; Courde, Clément; Kunimori, Hiroo

doi:10.1007/s00190-018-1196-1

Cited by 71 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…Over recent decades, the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) (Pearlman et al 2002) community put a lot of effort in the expansion and development to fill up the gaps in the SLR network. In particular, the number of SLR sites has increased in the Russian territory and the southern hemisphere (Wilkinson et al 2018). Nonetheless, the current network is concentrated mainly in Europe and East Asia, while the lack of stations is still clearly visible in the southern hemisphere (Kehm et al 2018).…”

Section: Slr Network Statusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of network constraining on the terrestrial reference frame realization based on SLR observations to LAGEOS

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Sośnica

Drożdżewski

et al. 2019

J Geod

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The Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) network struggles with some major limitations including an inhomogeneous global station distribution and uneven performance of SLR sites. The International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) prepares the time-variable list of the most well-performing stations denoted as 'core sites' and recommends using them for the terrestrial reference frame (TRF) datum realization in SLR processing. Here, we check how different approaches of the TRF datum realization using minimum constraint conditions (MCs) and the selection of datum-defining stations affect the estimated SLR station coordinates, the terrestrial scale, Earth rotation parameters (ERPs), and geocenter coordinates (GCC). The analyses are based on the processing of the SLR observations to LAGEOS-1/-2 collected between 2010 and 2018. We show that it is essential to reject outlying stations from the reference frame realization to maintain a high quality of SLR-based products. We test station selection criteria based on the Helmert transformation of the network w.r.t. the a priori SLRF2014 coordinates to reject misbehaving stations from the list of datum-defining stations. The 25 mm threshold is optimal to eliminate the epoch-wise temporal deviations and to provide a proper number of datum-defining stations. According to the station selection algorithm, we found that some of the stations that are not included in the list of ILRS core sites could be taken into account as potential core stations in the TRF datum realization. When using a robust station selection for the datum definition, we can improve the station coordinate repeatability by 8%, 4%, and 6%, for the North, East and Up components, respectively. The global distribution of datum-defining stations is also crucial for the estimation of ERPs and GCC. When excluding just two core stations from the SLR network, the amplitude of the annual signal in the GCC estimates is changed by up to 2.2 mm, and the noise of the estimated pole coordinates is substantially increased.

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Section: Slr Network Statusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of network constraining on the terrestrial reference frame realization based on SLR observations to LAGEOS

Zajdel

Sośnica

Drożdżewski

et al. 2019

J Geod

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“…Considering the contribution of only SLR observations to the GNSS satellites, the SLR RBs depend mainly on the type of detector installed at the SLR station. Among the used detectors we can distinguish single-(CSPAD, SPAD) and multi-photon (PMT, MCP) detectors (Wilkinson et al, 2019). Different types of detectors imply different values of a so-called SLR signature effect (Otsubo et al, 2001).…”

Section: Handling Of Slr Range Biasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geodetic Datum Realization Using SLR‐GNSS Co‐Location Onboard Galileo and GLONASS

et al. 2021

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Satellites of the modernized and new emerging Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are equipped with laser retroreflector arrays (LRA) for Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR). Alongside the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) and Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS), GNSS and SLR contribute to the realization of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF, Altamimi et al., 2016). Currently, the integration of all geodetic techniques is realized using local ties which are derived based on in situ measurements between reference points of SLR telescopes, GNSS, DORIS, and VLBI antennae using geodetic instruments, such as tachymetry and precise leveling corrected by local plumb line deflections (Glaser et al., 2015;Sarti et al., 2013). Even three space geodetic techniques (DORIS, GNSS, SLR) are already co-located onboard altimeter satellites (since 2001 with Jason-1) and their contribution is also neglected in ITRF realizations. Moreover, laser ranging to GNSS is currently neglected in ITRF.

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“…SLR observations are obtained by measuring the two-way signal travel time from an SLR ground station to a satellite equipped with a Laser Retroreflector (LRR), which passively reflects the short laser pulses emitted. For most ILRS stations a one-way range precision typically ranging from 0.3-1.8 cm is achieved [58,96]. The signal travel time, corrected for propagation effects and translated into a range R, is then compared to the range from the orbit determination:…”

Section: Satellite Laser Rangingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precise Orbit Determination for Climate Applications of GNSS Radio Occultation including Uncertainty Estimation

et al. 2020

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Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Radio Occultation (RO) is a highly valuable remote sensing technique for probing the Earth's atmosphere, due to its global coverage, high accuracy, long-term stability, and essentially all-weather capability. In order to ensure the highest quality of essential climate variables (ECVs), derived from GNSS signal tracking by RO satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), the orbit positions and velocities of the GNSS transmitter and LEO receiver satellites need to be determined with high and proven accuracy and reliability. Wegener Center's new Reference Occultation Processing System (rOPS) hence aims to integrate uncertainty estimation at all stages of the processing. Here we present a novel setup for precise orbit determination (POD) within the rOPS, which routinely and in parallel performs the LEO POD with the two independent software packages Bernese GNSS software (v5.2) and NAPEOS (v3.3.1), employing two different GNSS orbit data products. This POD setup enables mutual consistency checks of the calculated orbit solutions and is used for position and velocity uncertainty estimation, including estimated systematic and random uncertainties. For LEOs enabling laser tracking we involve position uncertainty estimates from satellite laser ranging. Furthermore, we intercompare the LEO orbit solutions with solutions from other leading orbit processing centers for cross-validation. We carefully analyze multi-month, multi-satellite POD result statistics and find a strong overall consistency of estimates within LEO orbit uncertainty target specifications of 5 cm in position and 0.05 mm/s in velocity for the CHAMP, GRACE-A, and Metop-A/B missions. In 92% of the days investigated over two representative 3-month periods (July to September in 2008 and 2013) these POD uncertainty targets, which enable highly accurate climate-quality RO processing, are satisfied. The moderately higher uncertainty estimates found for the remaining 8% of days (∼5-15 cm) result in increased uncertainties of RO-retrieved ECVs. This allows identification of RO profiles of somewhat reduced quality, a potential benefit for adequate further use in climate monitoring and research.

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The next generation of satellite laser ranging systems

Cited by 71 publications

References 73 publications

Impact of network constraining on the terrestrial reference frame realization based on SLR observations to LAGEOS

Impact of network constraining on the terrestrial reference frame realization based on SLR observations to LAGEOS

Geodetic Datum Realization Using SLR‐GNSS Co‐Location Onboard Galileo and GLONASS

Precise Orbit Determination for Climate Applications of GNSS Radio Occultation including Uncertainty Estimation

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