Analysis of the Effect of Orbital Perturbation on Global Navigation Satellite System Precise Point Positioning Technique

Abstract

Post-processing of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations from Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) require that, corrections for satellite orbital perturbation be applied to the downloaded CORS ephemeris data prior processing. This study aims at investigating the extent of the effect of orbital perturbations on Precise Point Positioning (PPP). Four (4) processing techniques adopted include the direct broadcast ephemeris Only, IGS ultra-rapid orbit solution, IGS rapid orbit solution, and IGS final orbit solution. The solutions from the four approaches were compared and the results showed estimated errors of 7m, 1m and 1m for East, North and Height components respectively.