Insight into spatial analysis of GPS broadcast orbit error towards orbital improvement

Abstract

Broadcast orbits are compared against final orbit to get the error of broadcast orbit. The errors are analysed by presenting the error over space, especially longitude. The satellite trajectory is divided into three sector namely northern, southern, and transitional sectors. Spatial analysis show that the error is correlated with the latitude and longitude. Some consistency pattern can be observed from the distribution of the error in the spatial analysis. Standard deviation (SD) is used to quantify the consistency, providing more quantitative insights into the spatial analysis. Four patterns can be observed in the error distribution, namely consistency in northern and southern sector, consistency of transitional sector, changes after transitional sector, and correlation between ΔX component and ΔY component. The spatial analysis shows potential to be used in broadcast orbit error estimation and prediction. A model that uses this predicted broadcast orbit error as a correction will be designed in the future to improve the broadcast orbit accuracy.