Evaluation of BDS-2 real-time orbit and clock corrections from four IGS analysis centers

Abstract Real-time precise orbit/clock product is fundamental to BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) real-time precise point positioning (PPP). In order to explore achievable performance of BDS real-time orbit/clock products and thus offer usage recommendations for BDS real-time PPP users, this paper studies BDS real-time orbit/clock corrections provided by four International GNSS Service (IGS) Analysis Centers (ACs), i.e. Wuhan University (WHU), Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ) and Centre National d’ Etudes Spatiales (CNE) for seven consecutive days staring from day of year (DOY) 324, 2019. Firstly, the availability of BDS-2 real-time orbit/clock corrections is studied. Larger than 85% availabilities are identified for all ACs. During the test period, DLR does not provide all Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites’ corrections, whereas CNE does not provide C14/C16’s corrections. Secondly, the BDS real-time orbit accuracy is analyzed. Results indicate that the real-time orbit accuracy of GEO satellites is at meter level, and those of Inclined Geosynchronous Satellite Orbit (IGSO)/Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites are at decimeter level. Among all ACs, the accuracy of CNE’s three-dimensional (3D) orbit correction is the best, which is 2.391/0.278/0.271 m for GEO/IGSO/MEO satellites, respectively. DLR has the largest orbit errors of 1.116/0.504 m for IGSO/MEO satellites. Thirdly, the BDS real-time clock offset precision is investigated. On the one hand, CNE’s real-time corrections still perform best with 1.19/0.28/0.32 ns clock offset precision for GEO/IGSO/MEO satellites, respectively. On the other hand, DLR’s real-time clock is the worst with 2.61/1.91 ns IGSO/MEO clock offset precision. Finally, all corrections are applied to estimate 47 Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) station’s BDS-2 real-time PPP on DOY 330, 2019. Results show an average of 0.53-1.46 h convergence time and 8.8-10.9 cm positioning accuracy in the static mode. In the meantime, the average convergence time in the kinematic mode is 2.11-9.84 h, much longer than the static counterpart. The corresponding converged positioning accuracy is 30.7-68.0 cm. To sum up, WHU/GFZ/CNE’s real-time corrections are proven with satisfied orbit/clock performance, thus are recommended for BDS-2 real-time PPP.