Precise Relative Orbit Determination of Twin GRACE Satellites

When formation flying spacecrafts are used as platform to gain earth oriented observation, precise baselines between these spacecrafts are always essential. Gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) mission is aimed at mapping the global gravity field and its variation. Accurate baseline of GRACE satellites is necessary for the gravity field modeling. The determination of kinematic and reduced dynamic relative orbits of twin satellites has been studied in this paper, and an accuracy of 2 mm for dynamic relative orbits and 5 mm for kinematic ones can be obtained, whereby most of the double difference onboard GPS ambiguities are resolved.