Comparison of observed ionospheric vertical TEC over the sea in Indian region with IRI-2016 model

The vertical ionospheric TEC values obtained from GAGAN grid based ionospheric delay correction values over the sea in the Indian equatorial region have been compared with the corresponding values derived from the International Reference Ionosphere model, IRI-2016. The objective of this work is to study the deviation of the vertical TEC derived from the IRI model from ground truths over the sea for different conditions. This will serve the basic intention of assessing the candidature of the IRI model as an alternative ionospheric correction model in navigation receivers in terms of accuracy. We have chosen different solar activity periods, seasons, geomagnetic conditions, locations etc. for our comparison and analysis. The TEC values by the IRI-2016 were compared with the actual measured values for the given conditions and errors were obtained. The measured vertical TEC values at the ionospheric grid points were derived from the GAGAN broadcast ionospheric delay data and used as reference. The IRI model with standard internal functions was used in estimating the TEC at the same ionospheric grid points. The errors in the model derived values are statistically analysed. Broadly, the results show that, for the Indian sector over the sea, the IRI model performs better on quiet days in off equatorial regions, particularly in the northern region. The overall performance degrades for other conditions with the model generally underestimating the true TEC values and most severely in the equatorial region. The performance is worst in this region for the disturbed days of the equinoctial period. The comparison study is also done with the TEC data measured directly by dual frequency GPS receivers. The results were found to be in general agreement with those obtained by comparing the model with GAGAN broadcast data as reference. This study will be useful in considering the IRI-2016 model for real time estimates of TEC as an alternative to the current parametric model in a satellite navigation receiver in absence of other options.     

Establishment of atmospheric weighted mean temperature model in the polar regions

Due to the special geographical location and extreme climate environment, the polar regions (Antarctic and Arctic) have an important impact on global climate change. Atmospheric weighted mean temperature (Tm) is a crucial parameter in the retrieval of precipitable water vapor (PWV) from the zenith wet delay (ZWD) of ground-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signal propagation. In this paper, the correlation between weighted mean temperature and surface temperature (Ts) is studied firstly. It is shown that the correlation coefficients between Tm and Ts are 0.93 in the Antarctic and 0.94 in the Arctic. The linear regression Tm model and quadratic function Tm model of the Antarctic and the Arctic are established respectively using the radiosonde profiles of 12 stations in the Antarctic and 58 stations in the Arctic from 2008 to 2015. The accuracies of the linear regression Tm model, the quadratic function Tm model and GPT2w Tm model which is a state-of-the-art global Tm model are verified using the radiosonde profiles from 2016 to 2018 in the Antarctic and Arctic. Root Mean Square (RMS) errors of the linear regression Tm model, the quadratic function Tm model and GPT2w Tm model in the Antarctic are 3.07 K, 2.87 K and 4.32 K respectively, and those in the Arctic are 3.53 K, 3.38 K and 4.82 K, which indicates that the quadratic function Tm model has a higher accuracy compared to linear regression Tm model, and the accuracies of the two regional Tm models are better than that of GPT2w Tm model in the polar regions. In order to better evaluate the accuracy of Tm in the PWV retrieval, the PWV values of radiosondes are used for comparisons as the reference value. The RMS errors of PWV derived from the two Tm models are similar for 1.28 mm in the Antarctic and 1 mm in the Arctic respectively. In addition, the spatial and temporal variation characteristics of Tm are analyzed in the polar regions by spectral analysis of Tm data using fast Fourier transform. The results show that the Tm has obvious seasonality and annual periodicity in the polar regions, and the maximum difference between warm season and cold season is about 63 K. After comparing and analyzing the influences of latitude, longitude and elevation on the Tm in the polar regions, it is found that latitude and elevation have a greater influence on the Tm than the longitude. As the latitude and elevation increase, the Tm decreases, and vice versa in the polar regions.     

Factor graph based navigation and positioning for control system design: A review

Navigation and positioning is an important and challenging problem in many control engineering applications. It provides feedback information to design controllers for systems. In this paper, a bibliographical review on factor graph based navigation and positioning is presented. More specifically, the sensor modeling, the factor graph optimization methods, and the topology factor based cooperative localization are reviewed. The navigation and positioning methods via factor graph are considered a...     

卫星星座的系统仿真研究

研究了对人造卫星星座进行系统仿真的方法.从轨道动力学的观点出发,提出了卫星星座系统仿真的概念和要求;建立了星座系统仿真的数学模型;讨论了星座系统仿真的软件实现方法;最后介绍了开发的一个星座系统仿真软件.      

Civil unmanned aircraft system operation in national airspace: A survey from Air Navigation Service Provider perspective

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) have advanced technologically and surged exponentially over recent years. Currently, due to safety concerns, most civil operations of UAS are conducted in low-level uncontrolled area or in segregated controlled airspace. As the industry progresses, both operational and technological capabilities have matured to the point where UASs are expected to gain greater freedom of access to both controlled and uncontrolled airspace. Extensive technical and regulatory surveys have been conducted to enable the expanded operations. However, most surveys are derived from the perspective of UAS own operating mechanism and barely consider interactions of their non-segregated activities with the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system. Hence, to fill the gap, this paper presents a survey conducted from the perspective of Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP), which serves to accommodate these new entrants to the overall national airspace while continuing flight safety and efficiency. The primary objectives of this paper are to: (A) describe what typical ANSP-supplied UAS Traffic Management (UTM) architecture is required to facilitate all types of civil UAS operations; (B) identify three major ANSP considerations on how UAS can be accommodated safely in civil airspace; (C) outline future directions and challenges related with UAS operations for the ANSP.     

地基伪卫星系统多址测距误差的校正算法

相对于卫星导航,地基伪卫星与接收机距离较近,测距中不涉及电离层传播等误差,易实现高精度测距和定位。但由于地基伪卫星位置固定,在信号连续发射模式下伪卫星信号间的多址干扰(MAI)会引起相对恒定的测距误差,针对地基伪卫星系统这一特点,提出一种基于反馈串行干扰抵消(SIC)的测距算法。首先对全部伪卫星信号进行捕获跟踪和功率估计,然后通过串行干扰抵消算法降低强功率伪卫星信号对期望测距信号的干扰,通过反馈模式进一步提高干扰抵消算法的性能。仿真结果表明,该方法可有效改善地基伪卫星系统强远近效应区域内的测距性能,不考虑其他误差下在强远近效应区域内基于码环可将伪卫星测距性能从10 m以上降低到约0.3 m。     

Attitude determination of planetary exploration rovers using solar panels characteristics and accelerometer

In this study, we propose a new attitude determination system, which we call Irradiance-based Attitude Determination (IRAD). IRAD employs the characteristics and geometry of solar panels. First, the sun vector is estimated using data from solar panels including current, voltage, temperature, and the normal vectors of each solar panel. Because these values are obtained using internal sensors, it is easy for rovers to provide redundancy for IRAD. The normal vectors are used to apply to various shapes of rovers. Second, using the gravity vector obtained from an accelerometer, the attitude of a rover is estimated using a three-axis attitude determination method. The effectiveness of IRAD is verified through numerical simulations and experiments that show IRAD can estimate all the attitude angles (roll, pitch, and yaw) within a few degrees of accuracy, which is adequate for planetary explorations.     

星间链路发射机时延零值的数字标定算法

The traditional absolute calibration based on oscilloscopic observation is not suitable for crosslink transmitter. A new calibration algorithm is developed by using a digital signal processing technique. The output signal of crosslink transmitter and the pulse per second signal are sampled in synchronization. At first, the delay reference is determined according to straight line fitting for the signal level stepping segment. The sampling data of crosslink transmitting signal is decimated and then phase acquisition processing is made to determine the initial synchronization point. A fine search for the start of the pseudo random code has been processed between front and rear of the initial synchronization point. Finally, the transmitter delay can be obtained according to the sampling frequency and the calibration delay of the test cable and attenuator. Compared with the oscilloscopic observation method, the analysis and test results show that the proposed technique has overcome the faults caused by whole chip ambiguity and the calibration accuracy can be improved by an order of magnitude.     

采用改进非支配近邻免疫算法的低轨混合星座设计优化

针对低轨同构星座覆盖资源在纬度上分布不均匀的不足,提出采用低轨混合星座提升覆盖均匀性的设计方案,并推导了满足全球任意点平均每天覆盖一定次数的最小卫星规模估算公式。针对非支配近邻免疫算法（NNIA）约束处理方面的不足,提出基于约束支配的改进非支配近邻免疫算法（Modified NNIA）,并以此设计了一种低轨混合星座优化平台来优化带约束的星座设计问题。仿真结果表明,改进的NNIA算法在收敛速度和多样性上均优于非支配分层遗传算法（NSGA II）和多目标粒子群算法（MOPSO）,可大大提高星座设计的效率。同时优化结果也表明低轨混合星座可提高覆盖的均匀性和大部分区域的覆盖次数,进而减少特定覆盖要求所需的卫星数目。     

The impact of orbital errors on the estimation of satellite clock errors and PPP

Precise satellite orbit and clocks are essential for providing high accuracy real-time PPP (Precise Point Positioning) service. However, by treating the predicted orbits as fixed, the orbital errors may be partially assimilated by the estimated satellite clock and hence impact the positioning solutions. This paper presents the impact analysis of errors in radial and tangential orbital components on the estimation of satellite clocks and PPP through theoretical study and experimental evaluation. The relationship between the compensation of the orbital errors by the satellite clocks and the satellite-station geometry is discussed in details. Based on the satellite clocks estimated with regional station networks of different sizes (∼100, ∼300, ∼500 and ∼700 km in radius), results indicated that the orbital errors compensated by the satellite clock estimates reduce as the size of the network increases. An interesting regional PPP mode based on the broadcast ephemeris and the corresponding estimated satellite clocks is proposed and evaluated through the numerical study. The impact of orbital errors in the broadcast ephemeris has shown to be negligible for PPP users in a regional network of a radius of ∼300 km, with positioning RMS of about 1.4, 1.4 and 3.7 cm for east, north and up component in the post-mission kinematic mode, comparable with 1.3, 1.3 and 3.6 cm using the precise orbits and the corresponding estimated clocks. Compared with the DGPS and RTK positioning, only the estimated satellite clocks are needed to be disseminated to PPP users for this approach. It can significantly alleviate the communication burdens and therefore can be beneficial to the real time applications.