GNSS-based orbit and geodetic parameter estimation by means of simulated GENESIS data

The ESA GENESIS mission, which obtained green light at ESA's Council Meeting at Ministerial Level in November 2022 and which is expected to be launched in 2027, aims to significantly enhance the accuracy and stability of the Terrestrial Reference Frame (TRF). This shall be achieved by equipping one satellite at approximately 6000 km altitude with well-calibrated instruments for all four space-geodetic techniques contributing to TRF realizations, i.e., Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) and Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS), and by exploiting the such realized very precise space collocations.

The GENESIS satellite is foreseen to carry a zenith- and nadir-pointing GNSS antenna to track (at least) GPS and Galileo signals. Because of its very high altitude, GENESIS will cover much larger nadir angles as seen from the GNSS transmitting antennas, compared to receivers at ground or in low Earth orbit. This will partly result in GNSS observations with lower signal-to-noise ratios. Furthermore, to date, only little reliable information is available on the GNSS transmit antenna gain and carrier phase patterns at very large nadir angles. These problems lead to questions with respect to the best possible exploitation of GNSS data by GENESIS, e.g., whether phase pattern calibrations will need to be performed by means of tracked GNSS data (which would weaken the GNSS contribution to GENESIS).

The aim of this study is to assess the impact of GNSS transmit antenna phase pattern errors on the GNSS-based POD of GENESIS, as well as global GNSS network solutions for GNSS orbits and clock corrections, Earth rotation and geocenter parameters and station coordinates based on GNSS observations from GENESIS and terrestrial stations. To accomplish this, we employ simulated GNSS pseudo-range and carrier phase data for GENESIS and ground stations, which have been generated based on detailed link-budget computations and a comprehensive set of transmit antenna gain patterns. The data are used for closed-loop simulation investigations, which allow to compare the reconstructed orbit and geodetic parameter solutions to the simulation truth and offer a quantification of the impact of transmit antenna phase pattern uncertainties on the estimated parameters.