GNSS Orbit Products

IGS analysis centers provide satellite orbit solutions to the CDDIS using pre-determined schedules, e.g., sub-daily, daily, or weekly, depending upon the data product. The IGS analysis center coordinator retrieves these solutions and produces a combined product, which is then in turn archived at the CDDIS. These combination solutions are considered the official IGS products.

IGS orbit combination solutions are available in three forms: ultra-rapid, rapid, and final. The ultra-rapid product, useful for real-time and near real-time applications, is archived at regular intervals four times per day; the ultra-rapid solution includes both observed and predicted satellite orbits. The rapid orbit combination is a daily solution available approximately 17 hours after the end of the previous UTC day. The final, and most consistent and highest quality IGS solutions, consists of daily orbit files, generated on a weekly basis approximately 13 days after the end of the solution week. All orbit solution files utilize the Extended Standard Product- 3 (SP3c) format.

All operational IGS GNSS products (i.e., orbits, station positions, EOP, clock solutions) are available in subdirectories by GPS week. Solution summary files are provided by the analysis centers in which they describe their analysis methods and strategies and list processing statistics. Descriptions of AC analysis procedures and models used are available from the IGS website.

In 2009, 2013, and 2020, the IGS initiated “reprocessing campaigns” (repro1, repro2, and repro3 respectively). The IGS analysis centers re-processed the GNSS data from the global network of IGS stations (from 1994 to 2007 for repro1, from 1994 through 2012/2013 for repro2, from 1994 through 2022 for repro3) to produce a fully consistent set of products utilizing the most recent models and updated processing strategies. These reprocessed solutions are available within the weekly subdirectory structure as outlined below, in /repro1, /repro2, and /repro3 subdirectories.

The starting directory for these files is:

and for GLONASS-only solutions:

At the end of 2022, the IGS made the decision to change the name format going forward of many of its products archived at the CDDIS. A table is available on the IGS website which compares the old and new name formats. The table can be found on the following page:

Name Format Since GPS Week 2238

Append the following directory and file names to the starting directory:

WWWW/AAA0PPPTYP_YYYYDDDHHMM_LEN_SMP_CNT.FMT.gz

as described in the table below.

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CodeMeaning
CODECODE
EMRNRCan
ESAESA
GFZGFZ
GRGGRGS
IGSIGS
JGXJAXA
JPLJPL
MITMIT
NGSNOAA/NGS
SIOSIO
USNUSNO

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CodeMeaning
OPSOperational IGS product
RNNReprocessing campaign N

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CodeMeaning
FINFinal solution combination
RAPRapid solution combination
ULTUltra-rapid solution combination

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CodeMeaning
ERPEarth orientation parameters
ORBSatellite orbits
SUMAnalysis summary

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CodeMeaning
ERPEarth orientation parameters
SP3Satellite orbit solution
SUMAnalysis summary
Code Meaning
WWWW GPS week
AAAanalysis center name
PPPcampaign/project specification
TYPsolution type identifier
YYYY 4-digit year
DDD 3-digit day of year
HH 2-digit hour
MM 2-digit minute
LEN intended product period
SMP temporal product sampling resolution
CNT content type
FMT file format
.gz gzipped file

Name Format Before GPS Week 2237

Append the following directory and file names to the starting directory:

WWWW/AAAWWWWD.TYP.Z

as described in the table below.

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CodeMeaning
codCODE (3 day long arc solution)
cofCODE (1 day solution)
coxCODE GLONASS only
emrNRCan
emxNRCan (GLONASS only)
esaESA
gfzGFZ
grgGRGS
gsiGSI
iacMCC (GLONASS only)
iglIGS final solution combination (GLONASS only)
igrIGS rapid solution combination
igsIGS final solution combination
iguIGS ultra-rapid solution combination
igvIGS ultra-rapid solution combination (GLONASS only)
jplJPL
mccMCC (GLONASS only from SLR data)
mitMIT
migMIT
nclUniversity of Newcastle
ngsNOAA/NGS
sioSIO

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CodeMeaning
ephSatellite orbit solution
erpEarth orientation parameter solution
sp3Satellite orbit solution
sumOrbit solution analysis summary
Code Meaning
WWWW GPS week
AAAanalysis center name/type of solution
Dday of week (0-6, 7 indicates weekly)
HH2-digit hour (00, 06, 12, 18)
TYPtype of solution
.Z UNIX compressed file

Though many products are available, the products listed below have permanent DOIs:

WWWW/igsWWWWD.erp.Z Earth orientation parameter solution
doi: 10.5067/GNSS/gnss_igserp_001
WWWW/igsWWWWD.sp3.Z Satellite orbit solution
doi: 10.5067/GNSS/gnss_igsorb_001
WWWW/igsWWWWD.sum.Z Orbit solution analysis summary
doi: 10.5067/GNSS/gnss_igssum_001
WWWW/igrWWWWD.erp.Z GNSS Rapid Combined Earth Rotation Parameter (ERP) Product
doi: 10.5067/GNSS/gnss_igsrerp_001
WWWW/igrWWWWD.sp3.Z GNSS Rapid Combined Orbit Solution Product
doi: 10.5067/GNSS/gnss_igsrorb_001
WWWW/igrWWWWD.sum.Z GNSS Rapid Combined Orbit Solution Summary Product
doi: 10.5067/GNSS/gnss_igsrsum_001
WWWW/iguWWWWD_HH_cmp.sum.Z GNSS Ultra-Rapid Orbit Solution Comparison Summary Product
doi: 10.5067/GNSS/gnss_igsucsum_001
WWWW/iguWWWWD_HH.erp.Z GNSS Ultra-Rapid Combined Earth Rotation Parameter (ERP) Product
doi: 10.5067/GNSS/gnss_igsuerp_001
WWWW/iguWWWWD_HH.sp3.Z GNSS Ultra-Rapid Combined Orbit Solution Product
doi: 10.5067/GNSS/gnss_igsuorb_001
WWWW/iguWWWWD_HH.sum.Z GNSS Ultra-Rapid Combined Orbit Solution Summary Product
doi: 10.5067/GNSS/gnss_igsusum_001