Gnss signal processing to estimate orbits

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are described for processing a set of GNSS signal data derived from signals of GNSS satellites observed at reference station receivers, the data representing code observations and carrier observations on each of at least two carriers over multiple epochs, comprising: obtaining an orbit start vector comprising: a time sequence of predicted positions and predicted velocities for each satellite over a first interval, and the partial derivatives of the predicted positions and predicted velocities with respect to initial positions, initial velocities, force model parameters and Earth orientation parameters, obtaining ionospheric-free linear combinations of the code observations and the carrier observations for each satellite at multiple reference stations, and iteratively correcting the orbit start vector using at each epoch the ionospheric-free linear combinations and predicted Earth orientation parameters, as soon as the ionospheric-free linear combinations of the epoch are available, to obtain updated orbit start vector values comprising a time sequence of predicted positions and predicted velocities for each satellite over a subsequent interval of epochs and an estimate of Earth orientation parameters.