Low Earth Orbit Enhanced GNSS: Opportunities and Challenges
A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Satellite Missions for Earth and Planetary Exploration".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 September 2025 | Viewed by 459
Special Issue Editors
Interests: satellite laser ranging; laser time transfer; planetary laser ranging
2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3. Key Laboratory of Time Reference and Applications, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710600, China
Interests: high-precision GNSS positioning and navigation; LEO POD and clock determination; LEO-augmented PNT services; integrity monitoring; PPP-RTK
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) services are generally provided by Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). The current GNSS opts for Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites to reduce the number of satellites needed for global coverage. The trade-off is that the distance significantly reduces the strength of the received signal. However, the situation is now changing, as Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations are expected to augment GNSS with drastically reduced launch costs. LEO is changing the status quo for GNSS PNT. The addition of navigation signals from LEO satellites provides lots of benefits. The most immediate impact is that the signals can be over around thousand times stronger than GNSS signals on the ground, making them attractive for use where GNSS signals are obstructed. Another attractive point is the low signal latency, which is advantageous for real-time applications. In the future, the LEO constellation will better integrate high-speed communication technology, making the application scenarios more diversified. Despite all the benefits, the challenges are also enormous. With the establishment of the LEO constellation, it is foreseeable that space debris will grow explosively. The tipping point for the Kessler syndrome could be reached within the next decade. It would create a hazardous environment in space, complicating current and future space operations and potentially leading to a significant disruption of both commercial and scientific activities. Cleaning up the existing debris in LEO remains a technical and economic challenge that has yet to be overcome. In addition, estimation of the real-time high-precision LEO satellite orbital and clock products, and determination of the LEO-specific systematic biases are all essential but challenging tasks for LEO-enhanced GNSS applications.
The current special issue aims to study the assistance and application expansion of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT). Topics include but are not limited to LEO-based navigation enhancement technologies such as LEO constellation orbit design, precise orbit determination, centimeter-level real-time positioning, and seamless integration of navigation and communication. It also covers higher spatiotemporal resolution monitoring and big data analysis for space environment monitoring, weather forecasting, and other related areas.
Prof. Dr. Ziang Zhang
Prof. Dr. Kan Wang
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- navigation augmentation
- integrity monitoring
- GNSS anti-spoofing
- global navigation satellite system
- low orbit constellation
- satellite orbit determination
- communication Integration
- space environment monitoring
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