Time Synchronization and Performance of BeiDou Satellite Clocks in Orbit

Abstract

The time model of Beidou satellite clocks is analyzed. The general relations of satellite clocks with the system time are studied. The error sources of two-way radio time transfer between satellites and uplink stations are analyzed. The uncertainty of type A is about 0.3 ns in Beidou system. All the satellite clocks in orbit of Beidou satellite navigation system are evaluated by the clock offsets observed by the two-way radio time transfer. The frequency stabilities at a sample time of 10000 s and 1 day for all the satellite clocks are better than . It means that the performance of Beidou satellite clocks in orbit is consistent with the ground test, and the results in orbit are a little better than those in ground vacuum.