GPS Data Application of the KOMPSAT-2

The use of GPS receiver at outer space becomes common in low earth orbit. The KOrea Multi-Purpose SATellite-1 (KOMPSAT-1) which was launched in December 1999 has used GPS receiver's navigation solution to perform the Orbit Determination (OD) in the ground. At the circumstance of using only one ground station, the Orbit Determination using GPS receiver is good method. Because the accuracy of navigation solution acquiring directly from GPS receiver is not enough in satellite application such as map generation, post-processing concepts such as the Precise Orbit Determination (POD) are applied to satellite data processing to improve satellite position accuracy. The POD uses GPS receiver's raw measurement data instead of GPS receiver's navigation solution. The KOrea Multi- Purpose SATellite-2 (KOMPSAT-2) system newly uses the POD technique for large scale map generation. The satellite was launched in the end of July 2006. The satellite sends high resolution images in panchromatic band and multi-spectral bands to the ground. The satellite system uses GPS receivers as source of time synchronization and command reference in the satellite, provider of navigation solution for the OD, and provider of raw measurement data for the POD. In this paper, mechanical configuration and operations of the GPS receiver will be presented. The GPS data characteristics of the satellite such as time synchronization, command reference, the OD using GPS receiver's navigation solution, and the POD using GPS receiver's raw measurement data will be presented and analyzed. The enhancement of performance compared with it of the previous satellite will also be analyzed.