Strengthening the GNSS based kinematic positioning of low Earth orbiters for gravity field determination (B03)

• Subject Area: Geophysics ; Geodesy, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics, Cartography
• Term: from 2014 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 239994235

Within the first funding period, B03 investigated new approaches for kinematic orbit determination of low Earth orbiter satellites based on simulated and real GPS data. The first focus was on the concept of receiver clock modelling, which lead to an improved 3D RMS of 29 % for real data analysis. The second topic is the virtual receiver, which combines data from multiple GNSS antennas and strengthens the observation geometry for the radial component by 43 %. This concept will be further investigated in the second funding period. In addition, the direct velocity estimation based on GPS Doppler observations and its impact on gravity field recovery will be studied in detail.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1128: Relativistic Geodesy and Gravimetry with Quantum Sensors - Modelling, Geo-Metrology and Future Technology (geo-Q)
• Applicant Institution: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover
• Project Head: Professor Dr.-Ing. Steffen Schön