The BeiDou system has been providing a regional navigation service since 27 December 2012. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) user community will benefit from combined Global Positioning System (GPS)/BeiDou positioning due to improved positioning accuracy, reliability and availability. But to achieve the best positioning solutions, precise weights of the GPS and BeiDou observations are important since this involves the processing of measurements from two different satellite systems with different quality. Currently, a priori variances are typically used to determine the weights of different types of observations. However, such an approach may not be precise since many un-modelled errors are not accounted for. The Helmert variance component estimation method is more appropriate in this case to determine the weights of GPS and BeiDou observations. This requires high redundant observations in order to obtain reliable solutions, which will be a concern in the case of insufficient numbers of visible satellites. To address this issue, a weighting approach is proposed by a combination of the Helmert method and a moving-window average filter. In this approach, the filter is applied to combine all epoch-by-epoch weight estimates within a time window. As a result, more precise and reliable weights for GPS and BeiDou observations can be obtained at every epoch. Both static and kinematic tests in open sky and under tree environments are conducted to assess the performance of the new weighting approach. The results indicate significantly improved positioning accuracy.

On 27 December 2012 it was announced officially that the Chinese Navigation Satellite System BeiDou (BDS) was able to provide operational services over the Asia-Pacific region. The quality of BDS observations was confirmed as comparable with those of GPS, and relative positioning in static and kinematic modes were also demonstrated to be very promising. As Precise Point Positioning (PPP) technology is widely recognized as a method of precise positioning service, especially in real-time, in this contribution we concentrate on the PPP performance using BDS data only. BDS PPP in static, kinematic and simulated real-time kinematic mode is carried out for a regional network with six stations equipped with GPS- and BDS-capable receivers, using precise satellite orbits and clocks estimated from a global BDS tracking network. To validate the derived positions and trajectories, they are compared to the daily PPP solution using GPS data. The assessment confirms that the performance of BDS PPP is very comparable with GPS in terms of both convergence time and accuracy.

Fast high precision relative Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning is very important to various applications and ambiguity resolution is a key requirement. It has been a continuing challenge to determine and fix GNSS carrier-phase ambiguity, especially for medium- and long-distance baselines. In past research, with dual-frequency band Global Positioning System (GPS), it is almost impossible for fast ambiguity resolution of medium- and long-distance baselines mainly due to the ionospheric and tropospheric effects. With the launch of the BeiDou system, triple-frequency band GNSS observations are available for the first time. This research aims to test the ambiguity resolution performance with BeiDou triple-frequency band observations. In this research, two mathematical models are compared: zenith tropospheric delay as an unknown parameter versus corrected tropospheric delay. The ambiguity resolution performance is investigated in detail with BeiDou observations. Different distance baselines are tested: 45 km, 70 km and 100 km and the performances are investigated with different elevation cut-off angles. Also the performance with BeiDou alone and combined BeiDou and GPS are compared. Experimental results clearly show that with practical observations of triple-frequency bands, ambiguity of medium- or long-distance baselines can be fixed. The results also show that: the performance of ambiguity resolution with an elevation cutoff angle of 20° is much better than that of 15°; The performance with tropospheric effect corrected is slightly better than that with tropospheric effect as an estimated parameter; Dual-frequency band GPS observations will benefit ambiguity resolution of integrated BeiDou and GPS.

In order to more restrict the transverse orbit error, a new method named “differenced ranges between slave stations by transfer”, similar to Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observation, has been developed in the Chinese Area Positioning System (CAPS). This method has the number of baselines added, the baseline length increased and the data volume enlarged. In this article, the principle of “differenced ranges between slave stations by transfer” has been described in detail, with the clock offset between slave stations and system error which affects the precision of the differenced ranges observation being discussed. Using this method, the differenced observation of the SINOSAT-1 satellite with C-band between slave stations from 6 to 13 June 2005 was conducted. Then a comparison was made between the accuracy of orbit determination and orbit prediction. A conclusion can be drawn that the combination of pseudo-range receiving the own-station-disseminated signal and the differenced range observation between slave-slave stations has a higher orbit determination and prediction accuracy than using only the former.

A type of fixed integral interval sliding method for optimization-based alignment is proposed in this paper. The method is more reasonable and suitable than those in the references due to the appropriate treatment of the noise in the outputs of the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). The undesired sensor noise of sensors includes both random noise and bias. Our optimal alignment is based on an integrated form where the bias will be integrated during the process of alignment. In this respect, the length of the integrated data is a key factor in determining current attitude due to the ambivalent effect of integrating the sensor noise. If the length is too great the precision deteriorates due to the integration of bias. If the length is too small the precision also deteriorates because of the randomness of the noise. The validity of the method is verified by simulation and measured data.

Ship surveillance is important for maritime security and safety. It plays important roles in many applications including ocean environment monitoring, search and rescue, anti-piracy and military reconnaissance. Among various sensors used for maritime surveillance, space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is valued for its high resolution over wide swaths and all-weather working capabilities. However, the state-of-the-art algorithms for ship detection and identification do not always achieve a satisfactory performance. With the rapid development of space-borne Automatic Identification System (AIS), near real-time and global surveillance has become feasible. However, not all ships are equipped with or operate AIS. Space-borne SAR and AIS are considered to be complementary, and ship surveillance using an integrated combination has attracted much attention. In order to summarize the achievements and present references for further research, this paper attempts to explicitly review the developments in previous research as the basis of a brief introduction to space-borne SAR and AIS.

In this note the Middle Latitude Rule is derived. Namely, to reach Great Circle vertex in two steps such that the total distance is a minimum, an initial rhumb line course equal to the orthodromic course at Middle latitude is to be used. The shortest distance is achieved if the rhumb line course is altered towards the vertex at the orthodrome-loxodrome intersection point.