Evaluation of Improved Spacecraft Models for GLONASS Orbit Determination

High-fidelity spacecraft models become more important as orbit determination strategies achieve greater levels of precision and accuracy. In this presentation, we assess the impacts of new solar radiation pressure and attitude models on precise orbit determination (POD) for GLONASS spacecraft within JPLs GIPSY-OASIS software. A new solar radiation pressure model is developed by empirically fitting a Fourier expansion to solar pressure forces acting on the spacecraft X, Y, Z components using one year of recent orbit data. Compared to a basic “box-wing” solar pressure model, the median 24-hour orbit prediction accuracy for one month of independent test data improves by 43%. We additionally implement an updated yaw attitude model during eclipse periods. We evaluate the impacts of both models on post-processed POD solutions spanning 6-months. We consider a number of metrics such as internal orbit and clock overlaps as well as comparisons to independent solutions. Improved yaw attitude modeling reduces the dependence of these metrics on the “solar elevation” angle. The updated solar pressure model improves orbit overlap statistics by several mm in the median sense and centimeters in the max sense (1D). Orbit differences relative to the IGS combined solution are at or below the 5 cm level (1D RMS).