Orbit Determination System for Low Earth Orbit Satellites

Abstract

The IAI/MBT Precise Orbit Determination system for Low Earth Orbit satellites is presented. The system is based on GPS pesudorange and carrier phase measurements and implements the Reduced Dynamics method. The GPS measurements model, the dynamic model, and the least squares orbit determination are discussed. Results are shown for data from the CHAMP satellite and for simulated data from the ROKAR GPS receiver. In both cases the one sigma 3D position and velocity accuracy is about 0.2 m and 0.5 mm/sec respectively.