GNSS atmospheric estimation with federated ionospheric filter

• US 9,091,757 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2011
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trimble Navigation Limited (Trimble Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Trimble Navigation Limited (Trimble Inc.)
• Inventors: Chen, Xiaoming
• Primary Examiner(s): Lau, Tung S
• Application Number:
  US13/117,092
• Publication Number:
  US 20120092213A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,524 Days
• Field of Search: 702/3
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/32 Multimode operation in a single same satellite system, e.g. GPS L1/L2
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/44 Carrier phase ambiguity resolution; Floating ambiguity; LAMBDA [Least-squares AMBiguity Decorrelation Adjustment] method

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are presented for estimating environmental parameters from GNSS signals in real time. Some embodiments estimate a float solution using a federated ionospheric filter. Some embodiments fix ambiguities for improved estimates.

Claims

1. A method of operating a processor having associated data storage and program code enabling the processor to estimate environmental parameter values from GNSS signal data, comprising;

obtaining GNSS data collected at a plurality of stations distributed over a region from signals received from GNSS satellites over multiple epochs,

obtaining a satellite differential code bias (DCB) per satellite,

applying a federated ionospheric filter operated by the processor to estimate (i) a receiver DCB per station from the GNSS data and the satellite DCB per satellite, and (ii) a total electron content (TEC) per station per satellite from the GNSS data and the satellite DCB per satellite, the TEC comprising a number of electrons in a column with a cross-sectional area of one square meter centered on a signal path.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying a geometric filter operated by the processor to estimate from the GNSS data a set of values for atmospheric parameters comprising at least one of;

(i) a zenith tropospheric delay per station, (ii) a zenith tropospheric delay per station and a set of tropospheric gradients per station, and (iii) a slant total delay per station per satellite,

obtaining meteorological data for locations within the region, and

operating the processor to determine values over the region for at least one of;

(1) integrated precipitable water vapor (IPWV) and (2) tropospheric slant wet delay, from the set of values for atmospheric parameters and from the meteorological data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the satellite DCB per satellite comprises one of (i) retrieving a satellite DCB per satellite from an external source, and (ii) operating the processor to compute a satellite DCB per satellite from the GNSS data collected at a network of reference stations.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein applying a federated ionospheric filter operated by the processor to estimate the TEC per station per satellite comprises:

estimating values for ionospheric model parameters and for a stochastic ionospheric delay term per satellite per station in the federated ionospheric filter, and

determining the TEC per station per satellite from the estimated values for the ionospheric model parameters and the stochastic ionospheric delay terms.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein applying a federated ionospheric filter operated by the processor comprises:

for each satellite,

applying to the GNSS signal data an ionospheric subfilter operated by the processor to estimate values for local states representing parameters unique to that satellite and values for common states representing parameters common to all receivers,

providing values for the common states and associated statistical information to a master filter operated by the processor; and

preparing updated estimates for the local states when updated values for the common states are provided by the master filter; and

applying the master filter operated by the processor to the values for the common states and the associated statistical information to estimate updated values for the common states, and to provide the updated values to the ionospheric subfilters operated by the processor.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the TEC per station per satellite comprises a value mapped to vertical.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining meteorological data comprises obtaining surface meteorological data for locations within the region.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining meteorological data comprises obtaining radiosonde temperature data for locations within the region.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein elapsed time between obtaining the GNSS data and determining values over the region for the TEC is no more than about five seconds.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the states unique to the satellite comprise:

a set of parameters characterizing ionosphere across the region, a stochastic ionospheric delay term per station per satellite, and an integer ambiguity per station per satellite.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the states common to all satellites comprise a receiver DCB per station.

12. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

operating the processor to reset states in the master filter operated by the processor to zero with infinite variance before any observation update at each epoch, and then applying the decorrelated observations from each subfilter operated by the processor to the master filter operated by the processor.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein elapsed time between obtaining the GNSS data and determining values over the region for the TEC and at least one of the IPWV and the tropospheric slant wet delay is no more than about five seconds.

14. Apparatus for processing GNSS signal data to estimate environmental parameter values, comprising a federated ionospheric filter operative to estimate (i) a receiver differential code bias per station from satellite differential code biases and the GNSS signal data, and (ii) a total electron content (TEC) per station per satellite from the satellite differential code biases and the GNSS signal data, the TEC comprising a number of electrons in a column with a cross-sectional area of one square meter centered on a signal path.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

a geometric filter adapted to estimate from the GNSS signal data a set of values for atmospheric parameters comprising at least one of;

(i) a zenith tropospheric delay per station, (ii) a zenith tropospheric delay per station and a set of tropospheric gradients per station, and (iii) a slant total delay per station per satellite, and

an atmospheric watch module to determine values over the region for at least one of (1) integrated precipitable water vapor and (2) tropospheric slant wet delay, from the estimated values for atmospheric parameters and from meteorological data for the region.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising an element to obtain a differential code bias per satellite by one of (i) retrieving a differential code bias per satellite from an external source, and (ii) computing a differential code bias per satellite from the GNSS signal data collected at a network of GNSS reference stations.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, comprising:

a module to estimate values for ionospheric model parameters and for a stochastic ionospheric delay term per satellite per station, and

a module to determine the TEC per station per satellite from the estimated values for the ionospheric model parameters and the stochastic ionospheric delay terms.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the federated ionospheric filter comprises:

an ionospheric subfilter for each satellite adapted to

estimate values for local states representing parameters unique to that satellite and values for common states representing parameters common to all receivers, from the GNSS signal data and a satellite differential code bias,

provide values for the common states and associated statistical information to master filter; and

prepare updated estimates for the local states when updated values for the common states are provided by the master filter; and

a master filter adapted to estimate updated values for the common states from the values for the common states and the associated statistical information, and to provide the updated values to the ionospheric subfilters.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the TEC per station per satellite comprises a value mapped to vertical.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the meteorological watch module is adapted to use surface meteorological data for locations within the region as at least a subset of the meteorological data.

21. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the meteorological watch module is adapted to use radiosonde sounding data as at least a subset of the meteorological data.

22. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein elapsed time between obtaining the GNSS signal data and determining values over the region for the TEC is no more than about five seconds.

23. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein elapsed time between obtaining the GNSS signal data and determining values over the region for the TEC and at least one of integrated precipitable water vapor and tropospheric slant wet delay is no more than about five seconds.

24. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the states unique to the satellite comprise:

a set of parameters characterizing ionosphere across the region, a stochastic ionospheric delay term per station per satellite, and an integer ambiguity per station per satellite.

25. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the states common to all satellites comprise a receiver differential code bias per station.

26. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the federated ionospheric filter is operative to reset states in the master filter to zero with infinite variance before observation update at each epoch, and then to apply the decorrelated observations from each subfilter to the master filter.

27. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions to perform a method, the method comprising:

obtaining GNSS data collected at a plurality of stations distributed over a region from signals received from GNSS satellites over multiple epochs,

obtaining a satellite differential code bias (DCB) per satellite, and

operating a federated ionospheric filter to estimate (i) a receiver DCB per station from the GNSS data and the satellite DCB per satellite, and (ii) a total electron content (TEC) per station per satellite from the GNSS data and the satellite DCB per satellite, the TEC comprising a number of electrons in a column with a cross-sectional area of one square meter centered on a signal path.