GNSS rapid precise point positioning enhanced by low Earth orbit satellites

The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites can be used to effectively speed up Precise Point Positioning (PPP) convergence. In this study, 180 LEO satellites with a global distribution are simulated to evaluate their contribution to the PPP convergence. LEO satellites can give more redundant observations and improve satellite geometric distributions, particularly for a single Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). The convergence speed of the PPP float solution using the Global Positioning System (GPS, G) or BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS, C) single system as well as the G/C/Galileo navigation satellite system (Galileo, E)/GLObal NAvigation Satellite System (GLONASS, R) combined system with LEO satellites added is improved by 90.0%, 91.0%, and 90.7%, respectively, with respect to the system without LEO satellites added. We introduced LEO observations to assist GNSS in PPP-AR (Ambiguity Resolution) and PPP-RTK (Real Time Kinematic). The success fix rate of a single system is significantly improved, and the Time-To-First-Fix (TTFF) of G and G/C/E is reduced by 86.4% and 82.8%, respectively, for the PPP-AR solution. We analyzed the positioning performance of LEO satellite assisted G/C/E PPP-RTK in the reference networks of different scales, namely different atmospheric delay interpolation accuracies. The success fix rate of the G/C/E combined system is improved from 86.8 to 94.9%, and the TTFF is reduced by 36.8%, with the addition of LEO satellites in the 57 km reference network. In the 110 km reference network, the success fix rate of the G/C/E combined system is improved from 64.0 to 88.6%, and the TTFF is reduced by 32.1%. GNSS PPP-RTK with adding the LEO satellites in the reference networks of different scales shows obvious improvement because the atmospheric correlation decreases with increasing distance from the reference networks.

Automated summary

Simulations were conducted to evaluate the impact of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites on Precise Point Positioning (PPP) convergence. Adding LEO satellites improved satellite geometric distributions and resulted in faster convergence speeds for GPS, BDS, G/C/E/G/R systems. The introduction of LEO observations also improved the success fix rate and Time-To-First-Fix (TTFF) in PPP-AR and PPP-RTK, as well as enhancing positioning performance in different scales of reference networks.