The Crustal Movement Observation Network of China (CMONOC) has begun receiving BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) observations since 2015, and accumulated more than 2.5 years of data. BDS observations has been widely applied in many fields, and long-term continuous data provide a new strategy for the study of crustal deformation in China. This paper focuses on the evaluation of BDS positioning performance and its potential application on crustal deformation in CMONOC. According to the comparative analysis on multipath delay (MPD) and signal to noise ratio (SNR) between BDS and GPS data, the data quality of BDS is at the same level with GPS measurements in COMONC. The spatial distribution of BDS positioning accuracy evaluated as the root mean square (RMS) of daily residual position time series on horizontal component is latitude-dependent, declining with the increasing of station latitude, while the vertical one is randomly distributed in China. The mean RMS of BDS position residual time series is 7 mm and 22 mm on horizontal and vertical components, respectively, and annual periodicity in position time series can be identified by BDS data. In view of the accuracy of BDS positioning, there are no systematic differences between GPS and BDS results. Based on time series analysis with data volume being 2.5 years, the noise characteristics of BDS daily position time series is time-correlated and corresponding noise is white plus flicker noise model, and the derived mean RMS of the BDS velocities is 1.2, 1.5, and 4.1 mm/year on north, east, and up components, respectively. The imperfect performance of BDS positioning relative to GPS is likely attributed to the relatively low accuracy of BDS ephemeris, and the sparse amount of MEO satellites distribution in the BDS constellation. It is expectable to study crustal deformation in CMONOC by BDS with the gradual maturity of its constellation and the accumulation of observations.
Keywords: BDS; BDS derived velocity field; CMONOC; data quality; positioning accuracy.