• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.499-510
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• 2009

In this paper, relative orbit of Low Earth Orbit satellites is determined using only GPS measurements and the effects of Equatorial Spread-F (ESF), that is one of biggest ionospheric irregularities, are investigated. First, relative orbit determiation process is constructed based on doubly differenced GPS observations. In order to see orbit determination performance, relative orbit of two GRACE satellites is estimated for one month in 2004 when no ESF is observed. The root mean square of the achieved baselines compared with that from K-Band Ranger sensor is about 2~3 mm and average of 95% of ambiguities are resolved. Based on this performance, the relative orbit is estimated for two weeks of two difference years, 2003 when there are lots of ESF occurred, and 2004 when only few ESF occurred. For 2003, the averaged baseline error over two weeks is about 15 mm. That is about 4 times larger than the case of 2004 (3.6 mm). Ionospheric status achieved from K-Band Ranging sensor also shows that more Equatorial Spread-F occurred at 2003 than 2004. Investigation on raw observations and screening process revealed that the ionospheric irregualarities caused by Equatorial Spread-F gave significant effects on GPS signal like signal loss or enhancement ionospheric error, From this study, relative orbit determination using GPS observations should consider the effect of Equatorial Spread-F and adjust orbit determination strategy, especially at the time of solar maximum.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.351-362
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• 2012

We made a study on real-time determination method for relative position using the laser-measured distance data between satellites. We numerically performed the determination of relative position in accordance with extended Kalman filter algorithm using the vectors obtained through nonlinear equation of relative motion, laser simulator for distance measurement, and attitude determination of chief satellite. Because the spherical parameters of relative distance and direction are used, there occur some changes in precision depending on changes in relative distance when determining the relative position. As a result of simulation, it was possible to determine the relative position with several millimeter-level errors at a distance of 10 km, and sub-millimeter level errors at a distance of 1 km. In addition, we performed the determination of relative position assuming the case that global positioning system data was not received for long hours to see the impact of determination of chief satellite orbit on the determination of relative position. The determination of precise relative position at a long distance carried out in this study can be used for scientific mission using the satellite formation flying.

• Journal of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2012

Precise Point Positioning (PPP) has been widely used in navigation and orbit determination applications as we can obtain precise Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite orbit and clock products. Kinematic PPP, which is based on the GPS measurements only from the spaceborne GPS receiver, has some advantages for a simple precise orbit determination (POD). In this study, we developed kinematic PPP technique to estimate the orbits of GRACE-A satellite. The comparison of the mean position between the JPL's orbit product and our results showed the orbit differences 0.18 cm, 0.54 cm, and 0.98 cm in the Radial, in Along-track, and Cross-track direction respectively. In addition, we obtained the root mean square (rms) values of 4.06 cm, 3.90 cm, and 3.23 cm in the satellite coordinate components relative to the known coordinates.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2003

A precise kinematic orbit determination (P-KOD) procedure for Low Earth Orbiter(LEO) using the GPS ion-free triple differenced carrier phases is presented. Because the triple differenced observables provide only relative information, the first epoch's positions of the orbit should be held fixed. Then, both forward and backward filtering was executed to mitigate the effect of biases of the first epoch's position. p-KOD utilizes the precise GPS orbits and ground stations data from International GPS Service (IGS) so that the only unknown parameters to be solved are positions of the satellite at each epoch. Currently, the 3-D accuracy off-KOD applied to CHAMP (CHAllenging Min-isatellite Payload) shows better than 35 cm compared to the published rapid scientific orbit (RSO) solution from GFZ (GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam). The data screening for cycle slips is a particularly challenging procedure for LEO, which moves very fast in the middle of the ionospheric layer. It was found that data screening using SNR (signal to noise ratio) generates best results based on the residual analysis using RSO. It is expected that much better accuracy are achievable with refined prescreening procedure and optimized geometry of the satellites and ground stations.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2016

This paper presents an algorithm for Real-Time Orbit Determination (RTOD) of navigation satellites for the Korean Regional Navigation Satellite System (KRNSS), when the navigation satellites generate ephemeris by themselves in abnormal situations. The KRNSS is an independent Regional Navigation Satellite System (RNSS) that is currently within the basic/preliminary research phase, which is intended to provide a satellite navigation service for South Korea and neighboring countries. Its candidate constellation comprises three geostationary and four elliptical inclined geosynchronous orbit satellites. Relative distance ranging between the KRNSS satellites based on Inter-Satellite Ranging (ISR) is adopted as the observation model. The extended Kalman filter is used for real-time estimation, which includes fine-tuning the covariance, measurement noise, and process noise matrices. Simulation results show that ISR precision of 0.3-0.7 m, ranging capability of 65,000 km, and observation intervals of less than 20 min are required to accomplish RTOD accuracy to within 1 m. Furthermore, close correlation is confirmed between the dilution of precision and RTOD accuracy.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.183-196
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• 1998

The Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR) image and the Digital Elevation Model(DEM) of an target area are put into use to generate three dimensional image map. An method of image map generation is explained. The orbit and attitude determination of satellite makes it possible to model signal acquisition configuration precisely, which is a key to mapping image coordinates to geographic coordinates of concerned area. An application is made to RADARSAT in the purpose of testing its validity. To determine the orbit, zero Doppler range is used. And to determine the attitude, Doppler centroid frequency, which is the frequency observed when target is put in the center of antenna's view, is used. Conventional geocoding has been performed on the basis of direct method(mapping image coordinates to geographic coordinates), but in this reserch the inverse method(mapping from geographic coordinates to image coordinates) is taken. This paper shows that precise signal acquisition modeling based on the orbit and attitude determination of satellite as a platform leads to a satellite-centered accurate geocoding process. It also shows how to model relative motion between space-borne radar and target. And the relative motion is described in ECIC(earth-centered-initial coordinates) using Doppler equation and signal acquisition geometry.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 2009

The orbit ephemeris of Global Positioning System(GPS) is one element to determine the surveying accuracy and there are broadcasting ephemeris and precise ephemeris, IGS rapid orbit and IGS ultra rapid orbit in the orbit ephemeris of GPS. In this study, test area was selected in Uljin, Kyungsanbukdo and GPS surveying was accomplished at 37 points in the test area. Then baseline solution was done on 74 baseline using broadcasting ephemeris and precise ephemeris and analysis by TGO and the results were compared. Comparison results were showed that there were nearly no difference between the two results but in case of relative precision of the baseline, it was slightly better the baseline results of precise ephemeris which showed 0.706ppm than the baseline results of broadcasting ephemeris which showed 0.708ppm.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.221-228
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• 2015

To protect and manage the Korean space assets including satellites, it is important to have precise positions and orbit information of each space objects. While Korea currently lacks optical observatories dedicated to satellite tracking, the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) is planning to establish an optical observatory for the active generation of space information. However, due to geopolitical reasons, it is difficult to acquire an adequately sufficient number of optical satellite observatories in Korea. Against this backdrop, this study examined the possible locations for such observatories, and performed simulations to determine the differences in precision of optical orbit estimation results in relation to the relative baseline distance between observatories. To simulate more realistic conditions of optical observation, white noise was introduced to generate observation data, which was then used to investigate the effects of baseline distance between optical observatories and the simulated white noise. We generated the optical observations with white noise to simulate the actual observation, estimated the orbits with several combinations of observation data from the observatories of various baseline differences, and compared the estimated orbits to check the improvement of precision. As a result, the effect of the baseline distance in combined optical GEO satellite observation is obvious but small compared to the observation resolution limit of optical GEO observation.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.21-34
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• 2005

The initial conditions that generate bounded motion in eccentric reference orbit are determined for satellite formation flying. Because Hill's equations cannot describe the relative motion between two satellites in eccentric orbit, a new relative dynamics utilizing the nonlinearity and eccentricity correction for Hill's initial conditions is implemented. The constraint that matches angular rates of chief and deputy satellites is used to obtain the bounded motion between them. The constraint can be applied to satellite formation motions in eccentric orbit, since it implicates J2 perturbation due to the central body's aspherical gravitational forces. The periodic bounded motions are analyzed for the orbit with the eccentricity of less than 0.05 and about 0.5 km relative distance between chief and deputy satellites. It is mainly illustrated that the satellite formations in small eccentric orbits can have hounded motions; consequently, the formation can be kept by matching angular rates of the satellites. These results demonstrate an useful method that reduces the cost for operating satellites by providing effective initial conditions for satellite formation flying in eccentric orbit.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• v.2
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• pp.203-208
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• 2006

The main research conducted previously on GPS ionosphere in China is first introduced. Besides, the current investigations include as follows: (1) GPS-based spatial environmental, especially the ionosphere, monitoring, modeling and analysis, including ground/space-based GPS ionosphere electron density (IED) through occultation/tomography technologies with GPS data from global/regional network, development of a GNSS-based platform for imaging ionosphere and atmosphere (GPFIIA), and preliminary test results through performing the first 3D imaging for the IED over China, (2) The atmospheric and ionospheric modeling for GPS-based surveying, navigation and orbit determination, involving high precisely ionospheric TEC modeling for phase-based long/median range network RTK system for achieving CM-level real time positioning, next generation GNSS broadcast ionospheric time-delay algorithm required for higher correction accuracy, and orbit determination for Low-Earth-orbiter satellites using single frequency GPS receivers, and (3) Research products in applications for national significant projects: GPS-based ionospheric effects modeling for precise positioning and orbit determination applied to China's manned space-engineering, including spatial robot navigation and control and international space station intersection and docking required for related national significant projects.