Considering Satellite Attitude Quaternions in BeiDou Precise Point Positioning Performance

The use of theoretical modeling algorithms to compute the satellite altitude causes some errors which are eventually absorbed by the satellite clocks. This adversely reduces the fixed positioning performance in global navigation satellite system (GNSS) precise point positioning (PPP). Currently, different International GNSS service (IGS) analysis centers (ACs) provide satellite altitude quaternions which are an auxiliary dataset necessary in PPP fixed solutions. Hence, this study aims at a comprehensive evaluation of the effect of accounting for the BeiDou satellite attitude quaternions in PPP. The quaternions provided by different ACs are applied to BeiDou PPP using different weighting schemes suitable for handling satellites in three distinct orbits. The obtained numerical results indicate that considering the quaternions in BeiDou PPP reduces the observation residuals, improves the ambiguity fixing, and enhances positioning performance.