Real-time zenith tropospheric delays in support of numerical weather prediction applications

The Geodetic Observatory Pecný (GOP) routinely estimates near real-time zenith total delays (ZTD) from GPS permanent stations for assimilation in numerical weather prediction (NWP) models more than 12 years. Besides European regional, global and GPS and GLONASS solutions, we have recently developed real-time estimates aimed at supporting NWP nowcasting or severe weather event monitoring. While all previous solutions are based on data batch processing in a network mode, the real-time solution exploits real-time global orbits and clocks from the International GNSS Service (IGS) and Precise Point Positioning (PPP) processing strategy. New application G-Nut/Tefnut has been developed and real-time ZTDs have been continuously processed in the nine-month demonstration campaign (February–October, 2013) for selected 36 European and global stations. Resulting ZTDs can be characterized by mean standard deviations of 6–10 mm, but still remaining large biases up to 20 mm due to missing precise models in the software. These results fulfilled threshold requirements for the operational NWP nowcasting (i.e. 30 mm in ZTD). Since remaining ZTD biases can be effectively eliminated using the bias-reduction procedure prior to the assimilation, results are approaching the target requirements in terms of relative accuracy (i.e. 6 mm in ZTD). Real-time strategy and software are under the development and we foresee further improvements in reducing biases and in optimizing the accuracy within required timeliness. The real-time products from the International GNSS Service were found accurate and stable for supporting PPP-based tropospheric estimates for the NWP nowcasting.     

Influence of time variable geopotential models on precise orbits of altimetry satellites,global and regional mean sea level trends

During the last decade a significant progress has been reached in the investigation of the gravity field of the Earth. Besides static, also time variable geopotential models have been recently created. In this paper we investigate the impact of the recent time variable geopotential models on altimetry satellite orbits and such altimetry products based on these orbits, as global and regional mean sea level trends. We show that the modeling of time variable gravity improves the orbit solutions, at least for the GRACE period where time variable gravity is sufficiently accurately observed by this mission. Our analysis includes six geopotential models jointly developed by GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and Space Geodesy Research Group (CNES/GRGS) Toulouse: the stationary model EIGEN-GL04S, a stationary version of EIGEN-6S (EIGEN-6S_stat), a corrected version of EIGEN-6S and three enhanced versions of EIGEN-6S called EIGEN-6S2, EIGEN-6S2A and EIGEN-6S2B. By “stationary” we mean “containing periodic parameters such as annual and semi-annual variations, but no secular (drift) terms”. We computed precise orbits for the radar altimetry satellites ERS-1, ERS-2, TOPEX/Poseidon, and Envisat over 20 years between 1991 and 2011. The orbit, single-mission and multi-mission altimetry crossover analyses show that the time variable models EIGEN-6S_corrected, EIGEN-6S2 and its two precursors EIGEN-6S2A/B perform notably better than the stationary models for the GRACE period from 2003 onwards. Thus, using EIGEN-6S2 and EIGEN-6S2A/B we have got 3.6% smaller root mean square fits of satellite laser ranging observations for Envisat, as when using EIGEN-GL04S. However, for the pre-GRACE period 1991–2003, the stationary geopotential models EIGEN-GL04S and EIGEN-6S_stat as well as EIGEN-6S2 having no drift terms for degree 3–50 at this time interval perform superior compared to EIGEN-6S_correct and EIGEN-6S2A/B which contain drifts for this period. We found, that the time variable geopotential models have a low (0.1–0.2 mm/yr) impact on our results for the global mean sea level trend. However, we found strong East/West differences up to 3 mm/yr in the regional mean sea level trends when using orbits of all four satellites based on time variable and stationary geopotential models. We show that these differences are related to the relative drifts of the centers-of-origin between the orbit solutions based on the time variable and stationary geopotential models. From the results of our detailed study, we conclude that the final version of the time variable gravity field model EIGEN-6S2 performs best for the four satellites tested. This model provides the most reliable and mission-consistent sea level estimates for the whole time period from 1992 to 2010. This model is of maximum spherical harmonic degree and order 260 and contains time series for drifts as well as annual and semiannual variations of the spherical harmonic coefficients for degree 2–50.     

地面无人平台视觉导航定位技术研究

地面无人平台实现自动驾驶等功能的核心难题在于如何感知其所处环境并获得自身在环境中的实时状态。机器视觉作为地面无人平台在复杂环境下实现自主导航及定位的重要手段,近年来得到了快速发展。系统性地分析了视觉定位与地图构建系统的基本架构,并对该架构包含的图像信息预处理、视觉里程计、回环检测、全局优化和地图构建模块分别进行了详细介绍。针对各模块所涉及的关键技术,总结了近些年来国内外主流的研究成果,对比分析了各个关键技术中主流方法的性能,并展望了地面无人平台视觉导航定位技术的发展方向。     

基于自适应修正曼哈顿距离的室内定位方法

在室内WiFi环境下,针对常见指纹匹配算法所忽略的信号波动问题,提出了一种基于自适应修正曼哈顿距离和AP选择的指纹匹配算法,并结合加权K近邻方法实现定位。首先采用AP选择算法获取部分受干扰程度小和出现频率高的AP,在指纹匹配时仅使用该部分AP的接收信号强度进行计算;在分析WiFi信号传播衰减公式和信号波动的基础上,提出了将自适应修正曼哈顿距离作为指纹匹配的度量距离,使用该距离旨在平滑信号波动对指纹相似度计算的影响;最后采用加权K近邻方法估计测试点的坐标。实验结果表明,在加权K近邻方法的框架下,基于自适应修正曼哈顿距离的定位算法在定位精度上优于基于欧氏距离、曼哈顿距离、余弦距离和Sorensen距离的定位算法。     

GPS/BDS组合定位精度分析

随着定位技术的不断发展及多系统导航定位技术的逐步推广，多系统组合导航定位已经成为了GNSS导航定位领域中的主要发展趋势。主要阐述了GPS/BDS组合相对定位的观测方程和数学模型，并根据实测数据对比分析，从卫星可见性、精度因子、定位精度和均方根误差等方面对GPS、BDS及GPS/BDS组合定位系统的定位性能、定位精度进行了比较。研究结果表明，较单一的GPS和BDS系统定位，采用GPS/BDS组合定位可有效提高卫星可见数目和DOP值，且稳定性更好。GPS/BDS组合定位的定位精度也明显优于单一系统，这对GNSS高精度导航定位具有重要的参考价值。     

基于异构特征信息匹配的车辆自主定位方法研究

针对车辆在GNSS拒止条件下的定位需求,提出了一种基于多源异构特征信息联合匹配的自主定位方法,并从数据库建立和匹配方法2个方面分别进行了分析研究。提出了基于众包数据的特征信息库建立方法,通过地磁、WLAN、蓝牙、蜂窝网等信息对众包数据进行分段与聚类,利用提出的DBSCAN算法进行地图重构;此外,还提出了基于HMM模型的异构特征联合匹配定位方法,可将多种传感器提供的观测量以特征方式进行联合匹配。试验结果表明,该方法可以很好地解决GNSS拒止条件下的车辆自主定位问题。     

利用集群内测距和对目标测向的协同定位方法

当多个飞行器间相对位置测量精度显著高于飞行器绝对定位精度时，在飞行器间增加相对测量，对各飞行器的定位测量协同处理，能提高绝对定位精度。本文针对集群飞行器对非合作目标不能测距而仅能测向的情况，通过在集群飞行器间引入相互测距，来提高集群飞行器自身和对非合作目标的定位精度。对于这种不完整相对测量情况，给出了能提高定位精度的协同定位求解方法，包括非线性静态优化估计和线性化后最小二乘估计方法。这种协同定位方案，不需要进行完整的相对位置测量，对测距和测向在群体相对测量中进行合理分解，降低了飞行器测量设备配置的要求。通过仿真验证了该方法的有效性。     

全球精密单点定位性能评估

随着中国北斗三号卫星导航系统（BDS-3）全面建成与开通，北斗卫星导航系统已步入了新发展阶段，基于BDS-3实现全方位、多层次、高精度应用已成为地学研究中一项基本任务。利用全球最新均匀分布的10个MGEX跟踪站，分别从24 h内接收到的卫星数、卫星位置精度因子（PDOP）、卫星数据解算完整率和双频非组合精密单点定位（PPP）静态/动态定位精度等方面系统深入地评估了BDS-3在全球范围内的可用性。结果表明，测站对卫星跟踪能力与配备的接收机类型和区域位置有强相关性，单BDS-3卫星在全球范围内具有较强的连续定位能力，当使用SEPT POLARX5和JAVAD TRE_3接收机的情况下，数据解算完整率可达100%。此外，水平方向和高程方向定位精度分别优于2 cm和3 cm，并且在联合使用BDS-2和BDS-3定位的条件下，可使得静态定位精度在东、北和高程方向进一步提升37.6%,25.3%和38.9%。     

频率捷变时间精密测试系统

较详细地介绍了捷变时间的定义以及６种常用测量方法的原理、数据处理过程、及测量结果等内容。６种方法分别为检相－示波器法、鉴频－示波器法、检相－时间间隔计数器法、鉴频一时间间隔计数器法，ＨＰ５３７２Ａ测频和ＨＰ５３７２Ａ测相。给出了这几种测量方法的适用范围和优缺点。     

基于LabVIEW的快速往复朗缪尔探针诊断系统

使用朗缪尔探针诊断法获得电推力器喷口位置等离子体的状态参数时,探针在喷口位置停留时间过长造成探针被等离子体流烧坏.以LabVIEW为开发平台研制了一种精确定位的快速往复运动诊断系统.该系统能实现探针迅速推进到喷口位置,停留极短时间保证探针能正常完成电流电压数据采集,最后快速的退出到起始位置,避免探针烧坏.与传统的朗缪尔探针诊断系统测量霍尔推力器羽流区等离子体状态相比,该系统自动化程度高,探针采集喷口位置的数据更能反映等离子体的真实状态.