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A short-arc hardware delay estimation method for inter-satellite links to improve BDS-3 precise orbit determination
Zhouming Yang1,2, Yunbin Yuan3, Bingfeng Tan1
1State Key Laboratory of Precision Geodesy, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, CAS, Wuhan, 430077, China.
Scientific Reports
|May 23, 2025
Summary
Hardware delays in BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS-3) inter-satellite links (ISL) impact precise orbit determination (POD). A new segmented estimation strategy significantly improves BDS-3 orbit accuracy by mitigating these delay variations.
Area of Science:
- Satellite Geodesy
- Precise Orbit Determination (POD)
- Navigation Satellite Systems
Background:
- Inter-satellite links (ISL) in the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS-3) enhance precise orbit determination (POD) accuracy.
- Hardware delays within ISL observations introduce measurement errors, affecting the accuracy of POD for BDS-3 satellites.
- Variations in hardware delays, particularly for medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites like C23 and C30, can significantly impact parameter estimation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the characteristics of hardware delays in BDS-3 MEO satellite ISL observations.
- To investigate the effects of these hardware delays on the accuracy of precise orbit determination (POD).
- To propose and validate a novel strategy for mitigating the impact of hardware delays on POD.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of hardware delay characteristics in ISL observations for BDS-3 MEO satellites.
- Development and implementation of a segmented estimation strategy for hardware delays.
- Validation through ISL POD residual analysis, comparison with L-band orbit determination, and Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) residuals.
Main Results:
- Identified varying degrees of hardware delay fluctuations, with some links (e.g., C23, C30) exhibiting higher variability and jumps.
- The segmented estimation strategy reduced ISL observation residuals by approximately 44.3% (from 6.1 cm to 3.4 cm).
- Orbit discrepancies showed a 28.2% reduction in 3D RMS (from 26.5 cm to 19.0 cm) when compared with L-band orbits.
Conclusions:
- The segmented estimation strategy effectively absorbs variations in hardware delays and unmodeled errors.
- This improved strategy significantly enhances the orbit determination accuracy of BDS-3 satellites, particularly those with high delay fluctuations.
- The findings demonstrate a practical method for improving the reliability and precision of satellite navigation systems.
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