Integrated GNSS Doppler velocity determination for GEOHALO airborne gravimetry

A gravity sensor onboard an aircraft always measures the sum of all accelerations acting on the sensor. To separate the accelerations caused by the movement of the aircraft from the gravitational accelerations, the movement, including position, velocity, and acceleration of the aircraft, must be mea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:GPS solutions 2021-10, Vol.25 (4), Article 146
Main Authors: He, Kaifei, Xu, Tianhe, Förste, Christoph, Petrovic, Svetozar, Wang, Zhenjie, Tian, Yumiao, Flechtner, Frank
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acceleration
Airborne sensing
Aircraft
Atmospheric Sciences
Automotive Engineering
Data processing
Doppler effect
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Electrical Engineering
Geophysics/Geodesy
Gravimetry
High altitude
Kinematics
Original Article
Position measurement
Space Exploration and Astronautics
Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics
Subtraction
Velocity
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Description
Summary:A gravity sensor onboard an aircraft always measures the sum of all accelerations acting on the sensor. To separate the accelerations caused by the movement of the aircraft from the gravitational accelerations, the movement, including position, velocity, and acceleration of the aircraft, must be measured independently. Nowadays, this is possible using GNSS. Obviously, this means that the kinematic acceleration must be measured or derived from GNSS measurements as accurately as the gravity survey. Compared to the traditional airborne gravimetry, the determination of positions and velocities from GNSS is a big challenge for the special HALO aircraft, which is characterized by high-altitude and long-range flying capability. A strategy of integrated GNSS Doppler velocity determination based on a combination of robust estimation and Helmert variance components estimation (VCE) is proposed in this study to fulfill the requirements for this aircraft. This strategy is tested by processing GNSS Doppler data recorded onboard the HALO aircraft. The velocity obtained has been applied in the data processing of the GEOHALO airborne gravimetry campaign of 2012. The results show that the proposed strategy improves GNSS Doppler velocity determination accuracy and allows the subtraction of the kinematic vertical accelerations from the GEOHALO airborne gravimetry records.
ISSN:1080-5370
1521-1886
DOI:10.1007/s10291-021-01183-2