Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) array antenna receivers are effective for suppressing wideband jamming. However, its anti-jamming performance decreases sharply when the number of wideband interference surpasses the number of array elements. Since a large number of jammers are often used in navigation countermeasures, it is crucial to keep array antenna receivers available in such conditions. Aiming at this issue, two main tasks were performed in this research and are presented in this paper: Firstly, the direction sensitivity of the sup-freedom anti-jamming performance is revealed and an anti-jamming method for array antenna receivers based on antenna rotation is proposed. Secondly, in order to determine the optimal rotation angle rapidly, a variable-step iteration algorithm based on gradient descent is proposed. Theoretical analysis and simulation show the effectiveness of the proposed anti-jamming method and the efficiency of the implementation algorithm. In a typical airborne scenario with a maximum azimuth difference of 90°, the anti-jamming ability of the proposed method improved by 21~26 dB and 5~10 dB for arrays adopting the PI (power inversion) and MVDR (minimum variance distortionless response) algorithms, respectively. The iterative efficiency improved by 78.35–99.63% in comparison with a traversal of 0.1° search resolution. The proposed method and algorithm are not limited to airborne scenarios and they might be influential to anti-jamming algorithms in the data domain.

The Yunyao Aerospace Constellation Program is the core project being developed by Yunyao Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd., Tianjin, China. It aims to provide scientific data for weather forecasting, as well as research on the ionosphere and neutral atmosphere. It is expected to launch 90 high time resolution weather satellites. Currently, the Yunyao space constellation provides nearly 16,000 BDS, GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo multi-system occultation profile products on a daily basis. This study initially calculates the precise orbits of Yunyao LEO satellites independently using each GNSS constellation, allowing the derivation of the neutral atmospheric refractive index profile. The precision of the orbit product was evaluated by comparing carrier-phase residuals (ranging from 1.48 cm to 1.68 cm) and overlapping orbits. Specifically, for GPS-based POD, the average 3D overlap accuracy was 4.93 cm, while for BDS-based POD, the average 3D overlap accuracy was 5.18 cm. Simultaneously, the global distribution, the local time distribution, and penetration depth of the constellation were statistically analyzed. BDS demonstrates superior performance with 21,093 daily occultation profiles, significantly exceeding GPS and GLONASS by 15.9% and 121%, respectively. Its detection capability is evidenced by 79.75% of profiles penetrating below a 2 km altitude, outperforming both GPS (78.79%) and GLONASS (71.75%) during the 7-day analysis period (DOY 169–175, 2023). The refractive index profile product was also compared with the ECWMF ERA5 product. At 35 km, the standard deviation of atmospheric refractivity for BDS remains below 1%, while for GPS and GLONASS it is found at around 1.5%. BDS also outperforms GPS and GLONASS in terms of the standard deviation in the atmospheric refractive index. These results indicate that Yunyao satellites can provide high-quality occultation product services, like for weather forecasting. With the successful establishment of the global BDS-3 network, the space signal accuracy has been significantly enhanced, with BDS-3 achieving a Signal-in-Space Ranging Error (SISRE) of 0.4 m, outperforming GPS (0.6 m) and GLONASS (1.7 m). This enables superior full-link occultation products for BDS.

Antenna arrays with adaptive filtering can protect the integrity and functionality of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers against interference. However, a major problem with existing adaptive array processing algorithms is that they cause phase distortions and introduce bias errors into the carrier phase measurement, limiting high-precision applications. In this paper, a robust phase compensation technique is proposed to reduce the phase distortion. First, a phase bias detection method is developed to trigger the phase compensation technique. Then, the phase bias is estimated using a robust estimation method and compensated for in the GNSS receiver. The proposed technique operates in real time and causes no processing delay, while requiring only a minor modification to existing GNSS receivers. This technique is applied to the power inversion adaptive antenna, and can also be extended to a wide variety of adaptive antennas. The simulation experiments verify the applicability of the proposed technique and also confirm its superiority over existing techniques.

Adaptive antenna arrays are widely used to protect Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers from interference. However, conventional blind anti-jamming array processing methods can cause satellite signal attenuation, which reduces signal tracking precision and measurement accuracy. To alleviate this problem, this paper proposes the noncoherent channel combining method for GNSS signal tracking with an adaptive antenna array. A two-stage processing architecture is applied in the proposed method, where the first stage implements interference suppression, and the second stage achieves noncoherent channel combining. The proposed method has the advantage of blind characteristics that can be implemented without any other auxiliary information. It also reveals a unified processing architecture for anti-jamming array processing methods. Thus, a detailed comparison and analysis of the proposed method with several typical blind anti-jamming methods is performed. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and its superiority over existing methods in terms of tracking performance.

Global Navigation Satellite System signals are often affected by multipath errors, which impact the accuracy of positioning measurements. Traditional methods frequently fail to effectively mitigate multipath errors across different environments, primarily due to their inherent sensitivity to varying conditions. Here, we propose a multipath error cancellation method that utilizes antenna jitter, which mitigates multipath errors by rapidly changing the relative phases of direct and multipath signals without requiring changes to the receiver structure. The model that combines theoretical analysis with experimental verification is conducted to identify the minimum jitter amplitude required for effective error reduction in straight-line jitter scenarios. Moreover, extensive satellite data collection and verification were performed in Changsha, China, from December 2023 to August 2024. The results indicate that the proposed method enhances robustness and applicability across various environments compared to traditional approaches. Notably, it enables a vehicle-mounted antenna, priced at just a few dollars, to achieve positioning accuracy comparable to that of high-precision antennas costing thousands of dollars, making advanced positioning technology more accessible.

Multi-antenna Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers with adaptive array processing are widely used in harsh jamming environments. However, spoofing is still a security threat to multi-antenna systems because it can go unnoticed by existing array anti-jamming techniques. Direction-of-arrival estimation is one possible technique to identify a spoofing attack. However, such methods are expensive to implement due to the need for array calibration. In this paper, a simple spoofing detection method with anti-jamming capability is proposed. This method can be operated without any supporting information or sensors, thanks to its blind characteristics. Specifically, multichannel anti-jamming processing is first used to suppress jamming, and then an extended double difference carrier phase (DDCP) model is established. Based on the above, a test statistic for spoofing detection is derived using the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) approach. The detection performance is analyzed theoretically and the detection threshold is derived. Furthermore, methods to reduce false alarms are also discussed. Finally, several real-world experiments are performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.