Qiaoli Kong

Temporal-Spatial Variation of Global GPS-Derived Total Electron Content, 1999–2013

To investigate the temporal-spatial distribution and evolutions of global Total Electron Content (TEC), we estimate the global TEC data from 1999 to 2013 by processing the GPS data collected by the International Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Service (IGS) stations, and robustly constructed the TEC time series at each of the global 5°×2.5° grids. We found that the spatial distribution of the global TEC has a pattern where the number of TECs diminishes gradually from a low-latitude region to high-latitude region, and anomalies appear in the equatorial crest and Greenland. Temporal variations show that the peak TEC appears in equinoctial months, and this corresponds to the semiannual variation of TEC. Furthermore, the winter anomaly is also observed in the equatorial area of the northern hemisphere and high latitudes of the southern hemisphere. Morlet wavelet analysis is used to determine periods of TEC variations and results indicate that the 1-day, 26.5-day, semi-annual and annual cycles are the major significant periods. The fitting results of a quadratic polynomial show that the effect of solar activity on TEC is stronger in low latitudes than in mid-high latitudes, and stronger in the southern hemisphere than in the northern hemisphere. But the effect in low latitudes in the northern hemisphere is stronger than that in low latitudes in the southern hemisphere. The effect of solar activity on TECs was analyzed with the cross wavelet analysis and the wavelet coherence transformation, and we found that there appears to be a strong coherence in the period of about 27 days. So the sunspot as one index of solar activity seriously affects the TEC variations with the sun’s rotation. We fit the TEC data with the least squares spectral analysis to study the periodic variations of TEC. The changing trend of TEC is generally -0.08 TECu per year from 1999 to 2013. So TECs decrease over most areas year by year, but TECs over the Arctic around Greenland maintained a rising trend during these 15 years.

On precise orbit determination of HY-2 with space geodetic techniques

As the first radar altimetric satellite of China, HY-2 requires the precise orbit determination with a higher accuracy than that of other satellites. In order to achieve the designed radial orbit with the accuracy better than 10 cm for HY-2, the methods of precise orbit determination for HY-2 with the centimeter-level accuracy based on space geodetic techniques (DORIS, SLR, and satellite-borne GPS) are studied in this paper. Perturbations on HY-2 orbit are analyzed, in particular those due to the non-spherical gravitation of the earth, ocean tide, solid earth tide, solar and earth radiation, and atmospheric drag. Space geodetic data of HY-2 are simulated with the designed HY-2 orbit parameters based on the orbit dynamics theory to optimize the approaches and strategies of precise orbit determination of HY-2 with the dynamic and reduced-dynamic methods, respectively. Different methods based on different techniques are analyzed and compared. The experiment results show that the nonspherical perturbation modeled by GGM02C causes a maximum perturbation, and errors caused by the imperfect modeling of atmospheric drag have an increasing trend on T direction, but errors are relatively stable on the other two directions; besides, the methods with three space geodetic techniques achieve the radial orbit with the precision better than 10 cm.

On simulation of precise orbit determination of HY-2 with centimeter precision based on satellite-borne GPS technique

The HY-2 satellite carrying a satellite-borne GPS receiver is the first Chinese radar altimeter satellite, whose radial orbit determination precision must reach the centimeter level. Now HY-2 is in the test phase so that the observations are not openly released. In order to study the precise orbit determination precision and procedure for HY-2 based on the satellite-borne GPS technique, the satellite-borne GPS data are simulated in this paper. The HY-2 satellite-borne GPS antenna can receive at least seven GPS satellites each epoch, which can validate the GPS receiver and antenna design. What’s more, the precise orbit determination processing flow is given and precise orbit determination experiments are conducted using the HY-2-borne GPS data with both the reduced-dynamic method and the kinematic geometry method. With the 1 and 3 mm phase data random errors, the radial orbit determination precision can achieve the centimeter level using these two methods and the kinematic orbit accuracy is slightly lower than that of the reduced-dynamic orbit. The earth gravity field model is an important factor which seriously affects the precise orbit determination of altimeter satellites. The reduced-dynamic orbit determination experiments are made with different earth gravity field models, such as EIGEN2, EGM96, TEG4, and GEMT3. Using a large number of high precision satellite-borne GPS data, the HY-2 precise orbit determination can reach the centimeter level with commonly used earth gravity field models up to above 50 degrees and orders.

Modeling GPS multipath effect based on spherical cap harmonic analysis

Abstract Most GPS positioning errors can be eliminated or removed by the differential technique or the modeling method, but the multipath effect is a special kind of system or gross error, so it is difficult to be simulated or eliminated. In order to improve the accuracy of GPS positioning, the single-epoch pseudorange multipath effects at GPS station were calculated, and firstly modeled based on the spherical cap harmonic (SCH), which is the function of satellite longitude and latitude with the robust method. The accuracy of the kinematic point positioning technique was improved by correcting pseudorange observations with the multipath effect calculated by the SCH model, especially in the elevation direction. The spherical cap harmonic can be used to model the pseudorange multipath effect.

Deformation caused by the 2011 eastern Japan great earthquake monitored using the GPS single-epoch precise point positioning technique

Crustal deformation can provide constraints for studying earthquake rupture and shock wave transmission for the Mw9.0 eastern Japan great earthquake. Using the single-epoch precise point positioning (PPP) method and the appropriate positioning flow, we process GPS data from six IGS (International GNSS Service) sites (e.g., MIZU, TSK2, USUD, MTKA, AIRA and KSMV) located in Japan and obtain the positioning results with centimeter scale precision. The displacement time series of the six sites are analyzed using the least squares spectral analysis method to estimate deformations caused by the Mw9.0 mainshock and the Mw7.9 aftershock, and the cumulative displacements after 1 day. Mainshock displacements at station MIZU, the nearest site to the mainshock in the North (N), East (E), and Up (U) directions, are −1.202 m, 2.180 m and −0.104 m, respectively, and the cumulative deformations after 1 day are −1.117 m, 2.071 m and −0.072 m, respectively. The displacements at station KSMV, the nearest site to the Mw7.9 aftershock in the N, E and U directions, are −0.032 m, 0.742 m and −0.345 m, respectively. The other sites obviously experienced eastern movements and subsidence. The deformation vectors indicate that the horizontal displacements caused by the earthquake point to the epicenter and rupture. Elastic bounds evidently took place at all sites. The results indicate that the crustal movements and earthquake were part of a megathrust caused by the Pacific Plate sinking under the North American Plate to the northeast of Japan island arc.

Gravity Tides Extracted from Relative Gravimeter Data by Combining Empirical Mode Decomposition and Independent Component Analysis

The static observation data from a relative gravimeter contain noise and signals such as gravity tides. This paper focuses on the extraction of the gravity tides from the static relative gravimeter data for the first time applying the combined method of empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and independent component analysis (ICA), called the EMD-ICA method. The experimental results from the CG-5 gravimeter (SCINTREX Limited Ontario Canada) data show that the gravity tides time series derived by EMD-ICA are consistent with the theoretical reference (Longman formula) and the RMS of their differences only reaches 4.4 μGal. The time series of the gravity tides derived by EMD-ICA have a strong correlation with the theoretical time series and the correlation coefficient is greater than 0.997. The accuracy of the gravity tides estimated by EMD-ICA is comparable to the theoretical model and is slightly higher than that of independent component analysis (ICA). EMD-ICA could overcome the limitation of ICA having to process multiple observations and slightly improve the extraction accuracy and reliability of gravity tides from relative gravimeter data compared to that estimated with ICA.

Total Electron Content Anomalies Before Mw 6.0+ Earthquakes in the Seismic Zone of Southwest China Between 2001 and 2013

To investigate the coupling relationship between ionospheric variations and great earthquakes in the seismic zone of southwest China, the total electron content (TEC) anomalies before Mw 6.0+ earthquakes in that area between 2001 and 2013 were analyzed to study the precursors of great earthquakes. To analyze the lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere effect, TEC estimated by the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe was used to determine anomalies prior to 18 moderate-to-great earthquakes with magnitudes of ≥ 6.0. Spatial and temporal TEC variations in the seismic zone were calculated and examined to study the relationship between the identified TEC anomalies and subsequent earthquakes. The results showed that ionospheric anomalies were observed before 72 % of earthquakes and among those anomalies, positive and negative anomalies accounted for approximately 58 % and 42 % of anomalies, respectively. Most of the ionospheric anomalies could be observed within 1 to 6 days prior to the earthquakes and approximately 82 % of ionospheric anomalies usually occurred between 13:00 and 18:00 in the regions local time. Furthermore, the anomaly amplitudes and occurrence time were proportional to the magnitude of the earthquake but the relationship was not linear. After eliminating the effect of solar activities and geomagnetic storms, some obvious and regular anomalous behavior in TEC could be detected on the 19th day before several earthquakes and the peak of anomaly enhancement coincided with the vertical projection of the epicenter. Our results indicate that these TEC anomalies may be the ionospheric precursors of forthcoming earthquakes in the seismic belt of southwest China.

Orthometric height connection across sea with ship-borne gravimetry and GNSS measurement along the ship route

A new method is proposed to connect the orthometric height datum of island far from mainland with measurements of both ship-borne gravimetry and GNSS along the ship route connecting these datums. The methodology of route height datum connection is based on the astronomical leveling principle. The effect of the deflection of the vertical (DOV) error and the ellipsoidal height difference error are major factors on the precision of the orthometric height connection. To improve the computational accuracy of DOVs along the ship route, the collinear adjustment is used to improve the accuracy of the gravity measurements and GNSS ellipsoidal heights. The remove-restore technique in conjunction with the measured DOVs on the mainland and island is used to improve the estimation accuracy of the DOVs along the ship route. The least squares collocation method is used to estimate the residual DOVs. The covariance of gravity anomalies and cross-covariance function between gravity anomalies and DOVs are derived from the disturbing potential spherical harmonic expansion. The optimal partition number is also studied for the high precision orthometric height connection across sea. Finally, we use the proposed method to connect the orthometric height datum point on Qingdao coast in Shandong Province of China with the datum point on Caoyu coast in Fujian Province of China.

Local oceanic vertical deflection determination with gravity data along a profile

ABSTRACT Deflections of the vertical (DOVs) over oceans cannot be directly measured, which restricts their applications. A local covariance function of anomalous potential is put forward in this paper in conjunction with the least-squares collocation (LSC) method to compute the oceanic DOVs utilization of oceanic gravity data along a profile. The covariance functions of gravity field quantities have been derived directly as functions of x, y and z without the need to introduce coordinate transformations corresponding to along- or cross-profile components. In the proposed methodology, gravity data along a profile were used to calculate the residual gravity anomaly using the remove-compute-restore technique. The residual gravity anomaly was used to calculate the parameters of the proposed covariance function of the local anomalous gravity field, which was used in the LSC to compute the residual DOVs along the profile. The residual DOVs added model DOVs to recover the DOVs along the profile. The results of a simulation experiment prove that the proposed methodology is feasible and effective.

Long-term prediction of polar motion using a combined SSA and ARMA model

To meet the need for real-time and high-accuracy predictions of polar motion (PM), the singular spectrum analysis (SSA) and the autoregressive moving average (ARMA) model are combined for short- and long-term PM prediction. According to the SSA results for PM and the SSA prediction algorithm, the principal components of PM were predicted by SSA, and the remaining components were predicted by the ARMA model. In applying this proposed method, multiple sets of PM predictions were made with lead times of two years, based on an IERS 08 C04 series. The observations and predictions of the principal components correlated well, and the SSA