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The BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) comprises geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites as well as inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) and medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites. Owing to their special orbital characteristics, GEO satellites require frequent orbital maneuvers to ensure that they operate in a specific orbital window. The availability of the entire system is affected during the maneuver period because service cannot be provided before the ephemeris is restored. In this study, based on the conventional dynamic orbit determination method for navigation satellites, multiple sets of instantaneous velocity pulses parameters which belong to one of pseudo-stochastic parameters were used to simulate the orbital maneuver process in the orbital maneuver arc and establish the observed and predicted orbits of the maneuvered and non-maneuvered satellites of BeiDou regional navigation satellite system (BDS-2) and BeiDou global navigation satellite system (BDS-3). Finally, the single point positioning (SPP) technology was used to verify the accuracy of the observed and predicted orbits. The orbit determination accuracy of maneuvered satellites can be greatly improved by using the orbit determination method proposed in this paper. The overlapping orbit determination accuracy of maneuvered GEO satellites of BDS-2 and BDS-3 can improve 2–3 orders of magnitude. Among them, the radial orbit determination accuracy of each maneuvered satellite is basically better than 1 m. simultaneously, the combined orbit determination of the maneuvered and non-maneuvered satellites does not have a great impact on the orbit determination accuracy of the non-maneuvered satellites. Compared with the multi GNSS products (indicated by GBM) from the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), the impact of adding the maneuvered satellites on the orbit determination accuracy of BDS-2 satellites is less than 9 %. Furthermore, the orbital recovery time and the service availability period are significantly improved. When the node of the predicted orbit is traversed approximately 3 h after the maneuver, the accuracy of the predicted orbit of the maneuvered satellite can reach that of the observed orbit. The SPP results for the BDS reached a normal level when the node of the predicted orbit was 2 h after the maneuver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• GTS distribution of orbit determination can be optimized by the proposed algorithm. • GTS saturated number for orbit determination can be got by the proposed algorithm. • ISL can weaken the influence of GTS distribution and number on orbit determination. A precise satellite orbit is the basis for high-precision services for users, and the determination of high-precision satellite orbits depends on the reasonable distribution and volume of ground tracking stations (GTSs). In July 2020, the BeiDou global navigation satellite system (BDS-3) was completed and began to be operated globally. Based on the principle of dynamic orbit determination, we first developed an algorithm to determine the optimal distribution and number of GTSs for accurate satellite orbit determination. Subsequently, based on 10 GTSs located in China, the optimal distribution and number of GTSs with and without inter-satellite link (ISL) ranging observations were determined. Finally, real measurements of GTS and ISL ranging observation data were used to validate the GTS results yielded by the algorithm. Using 18 BDS-3 satellites, and based on non-ISL observations and 10 Chinese regional GTSs, we found that GTSs distributed near the equator contributed significantly to the accuracy of orbit determination for these satellites compared to other GTSs. Orbit determination results obtained from the measured data of the optimal GTSs were more accurate than those obtained from the measured data of uniformly distributed global GTSs. Upon the addition of 55 uniformly distributed GTSs worldwide, the orbit determination accuracy for BDS-3 satellites tended to plateau. Moreover, following the addition of ISL, although the distribution and number of GTSs was optimized using the proposed algorithm, the orbit determination results from the measured data revealed that a change in the distribution and number of GTSs had a limited effect on the BDS-3 orbit determination results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Under regional GTS, ISL significantly improves BDS-3 orbit determination accuracy. • The initial weight ratio has little effect on the result when VCE algorithm is used. • VCE algorithm has contribute to fusion data processing of L-band and Ka-band. The BeiDou global navigation satellite system (BDS-3) has established the Ka-band inter-satellite link (ISL) to realize a two-way ranging function between satellites, which provides a new observation technology for the orbit determination of BDS-3 satellites. Therefore, this study presents a BDS satellite orbit determination model based on ground tracking station (GTS) observations and ISL ranging observations firstly to analyze the impact of the ISL ranging observations on the orbit determination of BDS-3 satellites. Subsequently, considering the data fusion processing, the variance component estimation (VCE) algorithm is applied to the parameter estimation process of the satellite orbit determination. Finally, using the measured data from China's regional GTS observations and BDS-3 ISL ranging observations, the effects of ISL ranging observations on the orbit determination accuracy of BDS-3 satellites are analyzed. Moreover, the impact of the VCE algorithm on the fusion data processing is evaluated from the aspects of orbit determination accuracy, Ka-band hardware delay parameter stability, and ISL ranging observation residuals. The results show that for China's regional GTSs, the addition of BDS-3 ISL ranging observations can significantly improve the orbit determination accuracy of BDS-3 satellites. The observed orbit determination accuracy of satellite radial component is improved from 48 cm to 4.1 cm. In addition, when the initial weight ratio between GTS observations and ISL ranging observations is not appropriate, the various indicators which include orbit determination accuracy, ISL hardware delay, and ISL observation residuals were observed to have improved after the adjustment of the VCE algorithm. These results validate the effectiveness of the VCE algorithm for the fusion data processing of the GTS observations and ISL ranging observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A new BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) Real Time Kinematic (RTK) algorithm based on zero-combined observations and ionosphere constraints is developed in this study. When applying the zero-combined observations, the Double-Differenced (DD) ionospheric residuals are estimated as unknown parameters by adding the a priori information, i.e., the spatial and temporal ionosphere constraints. An experimental dataset was used to perform the validation and analysis. The results show that the proposed algorithm can precisely correct the DD atmosphere residuals, not only for the short baselines but also for the long baselines. Besides, the positioning results reveal much smaller noise and are more stable than the method of utilizing ionosphere-free combinations. A positioning accuracy of about 1–2 cm can be achieved with the BDS RTK for the baseline of 100 km. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]