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The dynamic orbit determination of a low Earth orbiter using global positioning system single-frequency measurements has been implemented. Currently two methods are being applied to eliminate or reduce ionospheric path delay in single-frequency measurement. One is a group and phase ionosphere calibration technique using code pseudorange and L1 carrier phase, and the other is application of total electron content values from an ionospheric model using only L1 carrier phase to determine the orbit. A new method based on the latter has been developed, which estimates the scale factors of total electron content values in the location of a low Earth orbiter once per each measurement time. Orbit determination using actual global positioning system measurements of the TOPEX/POSEIDON and the Challenging minisatellite payload was conducted to verify the accuracy of the new method. It is verified that, if the total electron content's scale factor estimation technique were applied, 1-m level position accuracy (1σ) for low Earth orbit below 500-km altitudes could be achieved using precision orbit determination based on the global positioning system double-differencing method.

This article investigates the problem of data preprocessing for the precision orbit determination (POD) of low earth orbit satellite using GPS raw data. Several data preprocessing algorithms have been developed to edit the GPS data automatically such that outlier deletion, cycle slip identification and correction, and time tag error correction. The GPS data are precisely edited for the accuracy of POD. Some methods of data preprocessing are restricted to the rate of the collections of the pseudorange and carrier phase measurements. This study considers the preprocessing efficiency varied with the rate, the quality of receiver and the altitude of the satellite's orbit. We also propose the proper methods in accordance with the rate for single frequency and dual frequency receivers.