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Ginan Supporting Future LEO-PNT

Authors:
Ginan Supporting Future LEO-PNT
1
Amir Allahvirdi-Zadeh, Ahmed El-Mowafy, Simon
McClusky, Sebastien Allgeyer, Aaron Hammond
IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
GNSS-SPAN GROUP, SCHOOL OF EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCES, CURTIN UNIVERSITY
GEOSCIENCE AUSTRALIA
2
Outline
Why do we need LEO-PNT?
Precise orbit determination of LEO satellites (LEO POD)
LEO POD modules in Ginan
LEO-PNT simulation
Processing LEO-PNT observations by Ginan
Summary and conclusion
IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
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Why do we need LEO-PNT?
Signals of opportunity (SoP) Navigation signals from LEO-PNT constellation
Challenges in using GNSS in critical environments, such as urban area and indoor spaces, etc.
IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
LEO-PNT systems
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Satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) are used for:
-Satellite Gravimetry (SWARM, GRACE-FO)
-GNSS radio occultation (COSMIC-1, -2)
-Satellite altimetry (Jason)
-InSAR (Sentinel 1-6)
-Future LEO-PNT system
Precise Orbits
are required
for these
missions
(Cm- to dm-level of accuracy)
Precise orbit determination of LEO satellites (LEO POD)
IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
Project Title: Developing and incorporating Low Earth
Orbiter (LEO) GNSS data analysis capability into Ginan
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Reduced-Dynamic POD
Based on solving the equation of motion
Integrating with the GNSS observations
Estimating stochastic accelerations to compensate
for dynamic model deficiencies
Continuous and more accurate orbit
Cumbersome processing
Kinematic POD:
Based on kinematic Precise Point Positioning (PPP)
Sensitive to outliers
No observation → No orbit
Bad observation → Low accuracy
Precise orbit determination of LEO satellites (LEO POD) (Cont.)
IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
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Kinematic POD in Ginan
()=+
=[ ]
=,1
,…,,
=
,1
, ,
,
All observations collected by
LEO satellites at epoch
,=,
1,…,,
,=,
1, , ,
Observation model
=,󰇗,,
󰇗,,
Unknown State vector
Position
Velocity Receiver
clock offset
error and
its rate
Ambiguities
Ionospheric
slant delay
Ginan is the Australian open-source comprehensive software developed by Geoscience
Australia and its partners for processing GNSS observations (for classical PPP, PPP-AR,
PPP-RTK and POD).
IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
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IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
Kinematic POD in Ginan
POD in Ginan is based on Extended Kalman Filtering (EKF)
including Time update and Measurement update steps
State transition
matrix (STM)
=
Identity matrix
for all states
Except for states
with rate terms
Time difference
between two
consecutive epochs
POD at Ginan is
Based on Extended
Kalman Filter
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Reduced-dynamic POD in Ginan
(
)=
+
Observation model
Unknown state vector
orbit
Velocity
Receiver clock
offset error Ambiguities
Ionospheric
slant delay
IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
Empirical accelerations in
radial (R), along-track (T), and
cross-track (N) directions
Equation of motion:
 =,,󰇗, 
 =󰇗
Satellite state vector: =󰇗 Initial
condition

accelerations
Numerical
integration
State
vector
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State Standard deviation ()STD of Process noise
Position 30 m 0 m
Position rate (velocity) 5000 m/s 1000 m/s
Clock 500 m 500 m
Clock rate 500 m/s 0.0001 m/s
Ambiguity 6000 m 0 m
Ionosphere slant TEC 1000 m 8000 m
Empirical acceleration (RTN) 50 m/s0.2 m/s
Initial values for the state vector in the EKF in Ginan
IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
POD in Ginan Models and initial values
Item Description
Dynamic
models
Gravity field:Earth gravitational model (EGM 2008); Tidal corrections:Finite element solution tidal model
FES2014b; General Relativity:IERS 2010; Planets ephemeris:JPL DE436.1950.2050; Empirical acceleration:
in RTN directions
Observation
models
Observation:Ionospheric-free of code and phase;Attitude:quaternions in ORBEX files;
Antenna corrections: PCO, PC V, antenna sensor offsets
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IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
POD validation in Ginan (Tested satellite GRACE-FO C)
Date RMSE X (cm) RMSE Y (cm) RMSE Z (cm) 3D RMSE (cm)
2019-02-14 3.2 1.2 1.9 3.9
2019-02-15 1.5 1.1 1 2.1
2019-02-16 1.6 1.4 0.9 2.3
2019-02-17 1.6 1 1 2.1
2019-02-18 1.3 1.2 0.9 1.9
2019-02-19 1.5 1.2 1.3 2.3
2019-02-20 2.4 2.5 2.3 4.1
Date RMSE X (cm) RMSE Y (cm) RMSE Z (cm) 3D RMSE (cm)
2019-02-14 5.2 5.3 6.6 9.9
2019-02-15 7.2 7.9 7.6 13.1
2019-02-16 5.1 5.6 6.2 9.7
2019-02-17 4.6 4.6 6.8 9.4
2019-02-18 5.1 5.1 6.9 9.9
2019-02-19 4.8 4.5 6.8 9.4
2019-02-20 4.3 3.4 5.3 7.6
RMSE of
Kinematic
POD
RMSE of
Reduced-
dynamic
POD
External validation: comparing to the JPL reference orbit
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IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
POD validation in Ginan (Tested satellite GRACE-FO C)
Residuals of phase
observations
RMS = 2mm
Internal validation: Residuals of ionosphere-free phase observations
(Each satellite’s phase
residual is represented by a
distinct color)
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Positioning using Ginan from LEO-PNT systems
Use future LEO-PNT
systems for the positioning
of ground users:
I- independent from GNSS,
as a backup.
II- combined with GNSS
Why Ginan?
EKF suitable for real-
time applications, low-
cost receivers, low-budget
CPUs, etc.
IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
LEO-PNT constellation
Ground user
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Simulating LEO-PNT Constellations
Walker Delta Pattern:
85.64°: 240/12/6
inclination
total
number of
satellites ()
number of
equally spaced
orbital planes ()
interplane
phase
increment ()
 =2
( 1)
Right ascension of
ascending node
 =2
( 1)+2
( 1)
Mean anomaly
IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
240 satellite constellation
with 1000 km altitude
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Simulating LEO-PNT Observations
Target: Simulating 1 Hz
observations from LEO-PNT
system to CUT0 CORS on
Curtin campus
Ground truth of CUT0
(derived from AUSPOS) 
1
Orbits of the LEO-PNT
constellation 
2
Considering the observation errors
The simulated code and phase observations are:
3
IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
,
= 
+
+,
+
,
= 
,
+
+,
+
Ionospheric delay
,
=82.1 × 
2sin2+ 0.076 +sin 
Ambiguities
Troposphere
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Coverage of the simulated LEO-PNT constellations for CUT0
IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
(Each satellite’s access is
represented by a distinct color)
Satellites coverage
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Number of the satellites in the simulated LEO-PNT Observations
7 ≤ Number of available LEO satellites ≤ 13 15 ≤ Number of available GPS+LEO satellites ≤ 24
IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
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Processed LEO-PNT observations by Ginan
Ginan has been compiled on a Raspberry Pi 4 equipped with
ARM CPU v8 for precise point positioning (PPP) of CUT0
Less than 1 second for processing each epoch
Showing the
capability of Ginan
for real-time LEO-
PNT applications
IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
Processing case RMSE X
(m)
RMSE Y
(m)
RMSE Z
(m)
LEO-PNT 0.042 0.059 0.070
GPS only 0.023 0.018 0.031
GPS + LEO-PNT 0.020 0.017 0.026
Comparing the positioning
results with AUPOS output
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IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
Ginan has the capability to be used for LEO-PNT
applications:
The LEO POD module can perfume both reduced-
dynamic and kinematic POD of LEOs.
With 85.64°: 240/12/6 constellation at 1000 km
altitude, 7 to 13 LEO satellites were available for a
tested CORS: CUT0 at the Curtin campus
Processing of simulated LEO-PNT observations
were provide PPP accuracy of few centimeters
compared to the AUSPOS output
Adding LEO to the GPS-only case brings more
observations and improves the PPP accuracy.
Using Ginan is promising for the LEO-PNT
applications, it can be used in both LEO-POD and
LEO-PNT parts.
Summary and conclusion
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Thanks
http://gnss.curtin.edu.au/
IGNSS 2024, GINAN SUPPORTING FUTURE LEO-PNTSYDNEY, NSW, FEB 7 - 9,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to acknowledge Spirent for providing access to the
SimGEN software, and LEAP Australia for providing access to the
Ansys Satellite Tool Kit (Ansys STK) for the LEO-PNT simulation.
... In addition to POD, precisely determining satellite attitude is another essential requirement for both LEO-PNT systems (Allahvirdi-Zadeh, El-Mowafy, & Wang, 2024;Allahvirdi-Zadeh, El-Mowafy, Mcclusky et al., 2024) and specific pointing operations, such as aligning solar panels with the sun, orienting a downlink antenna toward ground stations, or directing sensors toward specific objects. Attitude information also plays a crucial role in various stages of POD, such as in estimating the phase wind-up effect, applying antenna sensor offsets, and modeling phase center offsets and variations. ...
Article
Full-text available
CubeSats hold promise for various applications, but their viability in demanding missions such as future low Earth orbiting position, navigation, and timing (LEO-PNT) systems hinges on higher orbital accuracy and reliable attitude information. To address these challenges, we present an array-aided combined precise orbit and attitude determination model with an optimal solution. In the estimation process, multi-and affine-constrained models are used to precisely determine the attitude, and then, highly precise observations for an antenna array are reconstructed based on fixed ambiguities and a decorrelation step. Validations confirm the significance of integer ambiguities in the model, highlighting the cost-effectiveness of this model compared with star trackers for attitude determination. The reconstructed observations outperform the original observations, leading to improved orbital components, with the three-dimensional root mean square (RMS) equal to 4.1 cm. The observation residuals are smoother, with an RMS of 6 mm, half of that obtained via a single antenna. The developed models offer great potential for CubeSats, advancing their orbit and attitude determination capabilities.
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