Study of the Possibility to Provide PNT Service to Users by Processing Signals from Quasars and Navigation Satellites in a Relocatable Radio Interferometer

A method is proposed for position, navigation and timing (PNT) support based on instant measurements of signals from the global navigation satellite system GLONASS and quasars in radio interferometry systems with very long baseline formed by relocatable small-sized radio telescopes (SRT) whose location is to be updated. This composition of signal sources and the possibility to relocate the SRT to form the radio interferometer’s baseline increase the PNT process stability. The proposed approach relies upon the radio interferometry used for precision positioning of a user according to the coordinates estimation and the SRT time reference, with simultaneous coordinate referencing of the base telescope. It is assumed that in the radio interferometer formed in this manner, both positions do not have precision coordinate references, and the time scale of one of the telescopes, formed by the local standard, needs to be matched and updated regularly. This method can be useful when providing the PNT support to special users whose location has no essential infrastructure.