Analysis of the Bias on the Beidou GEO Multipath Combinations

Abstract

The Beidou navigation satellite system is a very important sensor for positioning in the Asia-Pacific region. The Beidou inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites have been analysed in some studies previously conducted by other researchers; this paper seeks to gain more insight regarding the geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites. Employing correlation analysis, Fourier transformation and wavelet decomposition, we validate whether there is a systematic bias in their multipath combinations. These biases can be observed clearly in satellites C01, C02 and C04 and have a great correlation with time series instead of elevation, being significantly different from those of the Beidou IGSO and MEO satellites. We propose a correction model to mitigate this bias based on its daily periodicity characteristic. After the model has been applied, the performance of the positioning estimations of the eight stations distributed in the Asia-Pacific region is evaluated and compared. The results show that residuals of multipath series behaves random noise; for the single point positioning (SPP) and precise point positioning (PPP) approaches, the positioning accuracy in the upward direction can be improved by 8 cm and 6 mm, respectively, and by 2 cm and 4 mm, respectively, for the horizontal component.