Research on Attitude Models and Antenna Phase Center Correction for Jason-3 Satellite Orbit Determination

We focused on the researches of two models used for Jason-3 precise orbit determination (POD)—Jason-3 attitude modes and receiver phase center variation (PCV) model. A combined attitude mode for the Jason-3 satellite is designed based on experimental analysis used in some special cases, such as in the absence of quaternions or when inconvenient to use. We researched the linking of satellite attitude with antenna phase center. Specially, to verify the validity of the combined attitude, we analyzed the effects of different attitude modes on receiver phase center offset (PCO) estimation, PCO correction and POD. Meanwhile, the difference analysis of PCO correction based on attitude modes also contains the combined attitude modeling processes. The POD results showed that the orbital accuracies with the combined attitude are slightly more stable than those with attitude event file. By introducing receiver PCVs into POD, the mean residuals root-mean-square (RMS) is reduced by 1.9 mm and orbital 3D-RMS position difference is improved by 5.7 mm. The eight schemes were designed to integratedly verify the effectiveness of different attitude modes and receiver PCVs model. The results conclude that the accuracy using the combined attitude is higher than that of event file, which also prove the feasibility of the combined attitude in integrated POD and it can be as a revision of attitude event file. Using all mentioned attitude modes, the orbital accuracy by introducing PCVs can be improved by the millimeter level. The integrated effects of attitude modes and receiver PCVs on POD are almost consistent with the effects of a single variable. The optimal results of Jason-3 POD indicate that orbital mean radial RMS is close to 1 cm, and the 3D-RMS position difference is within 3 cm.