Frequency-Dependent Ionospheric Refraction Effects on the Doppler Shift of Satellite Signals

Analysis of four-frequency satellite Doppler data has allowed the separation and measurement of frequency-dependent ionospheric contributions to the Doppler shift, providing information useful in the study of errors incurred when tracking radio signals through the ionosphere. These refraction errors affect the accuracy of navigational position fixes obtained by Doppler satellite tracking systems. Some measured ionospheric refraction errors reported here are of interest because their magnitudes are significantly greater than those heretofore predicted from theoretical considerations.     

不同电离层模型对北斗共视的精度影响分析

GNSS共视时间传递已成为远程高精度时间同步的主要技术手段之一,我国自主研制的北斗导航系统已经服务于亚太地区,基于北斗共视进行高精度时间传递已成为我国时频领域的研究热点。为了提高导航系统定位精度,需降低或消除导航定位过程中的各类误差,其中电离层为影响北斗共视的主要误差。研究了常用的几种电离层修正算法,利用2014年7月份的观测数据分析不同电离层模型对北斗共视钟差的精度影响,给出了残差标准差和稳定度值。分析结果表明:经各种电离层修正后,钟差精度都有所提高,其中双频电离层修正最优,比VTEC格网模型和Klobuchar模型分别提高22%和30%。对于不同星座,GEO卫星计算的钟差修正后精度明显优于MEO、IGSO卫星。     

Prediction of Differential Time-e-Delay Errors in HF Hyperbolic Position-Fixing Systems

Differential time-delay errors in HF hyperbolic position-fixing systems arising from ionospheric propagation time delays are estimated by employing a propagation prediction model for several path-pairs. A comparison of the prediction model results with experimental observations indicates that the differential time-delay errors can be reduced significantly by the use of the prediction model.     

Distributed event-triggered adaptive control for second-order nonlinear uncertain multi-agent systems

In this paper, the event-triggered consensus control problem for nonlinear uncertain multi-agent systems subject to unknown parameters and external disturbances is considered. The dynamics of subsystems are second-order with similar structures, and the nodes are connected by undirected graphs. The event-triggered mechanisms are not only utilized in the transmission of information from the controllers to the actuators, and from the sensors to the controllers within each agent, but also in the communication between agents. Based on the adaptive backstepping method, extra estimators are introduced to handle the unknown parameters, and the measurement errors that occur during the event-triggered communication are well handled by designing compensating terms for the control signals. The presented distributed event-triggered adaptive control laws can guarantee the boundness of the consensus tracking errors and the Zeno behavior is avoided. Meanwhile, the update frequency of the controllers and the load of communication burden are vastly reduced. The obtained control protocol is further applied to a multi-input multi-output second-order nonlinear multi-agent system, and the simulation results show the effectiveness and advantages of our proposed method.     

Possible Role of ion Demagnetization in the Plasma Sheet in Auroral arc and Substorm Generation

Ion demagnetization in the plasma sheet causes the formation of field-aligned current that can trigger a magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling feedback instability, which may play an important role in substorm and auroral arc generation. Since field-aligned currents close ionospheric currents, their magnitude is controlled by ionospheric conductivity. The cause of instability is the impact of increasing upward field-aligned currents on ionospheric conductivity, which in turn stimulates an increase in the field-aligned currents. When the magnitude of these currents becomes sufficiently large for the acceleration of precipitating electrons, a feedback mechanism becomes possible. Upward field-aligned currents increase the ionospheric conductivity that stimulates an explosion-like increase in field-aligned currents. It is believed that this instability may be related to substorm generation. Demagnetization of hot ions in the plasma sheet leads to the motion of magnetospheric electrons through a spatial gradient of ion population. Field-aligned currents, because of their effect on particle acceleration and the magnitude of ionospheric conductivity, can also lead to another type of instability associated with the breaking of the earthward convection flow into convection streams. The growth rate of this instability is maximum for structures with sizes less than the ion Larmor radius in the equatorial plane. This may lead to the formation of auroral arcs with widths of the order of 10 km. This instability is able to explain many features of auroral arcs, including their conjugacy in opposite hemispheres. However, it cannot explain very narrow (less than 1 km) arcs.     

基于参考站误差估计的GNSS区域增强技术

研究了应用于民航航路、铁路、内河水运等领域的分布式卫星导航区域增强系统的定位方法,分析了参考站误差、单参考站电离层和对流层误差,提出了一种基于参考站误差估计的多站差分GNSS区域增强技术。仿真结果表明,该方法可减小参考站误差对多站差分的影响,解决现有技术中单差分系统用户与地面站的距离增加定位误差增大的问题,并增加了定位精度,同时提高了系统的可靠性和覆盖效率。     

Reduction of Positional Estimate Errors in HF Hyperbolic Position-Fixing Systems

A simple ionospheric prediction model is employed to determine the reduction in the positional estimate errors in HF hyperbolic position-fixing systems provided by the use of the model. Quantitative results of positional estimate errors before and after the application of the model to experimental time-delay data are compared.     

数值求解可压缩N—S方程的增量迭代法

本文在Beam-Warming格式的基础上,引入通量分裂的概念,应用行高斯迭代技术提出了一个二阶隐式的求解BFC坐标变换下的N-S方程的增量迭代法。它消除了因式分解带来的寄生误差,合理地处理了控制方程中的粘性项,具有较好的收敛性和稳定性。二维Poissuill流动和Couette流动的计算结果和精确解吻合良好。S形进气道的数值解反映出的现象和实验结果是一致的。     

Atmospheric Error in Range and Range-Rate Measurements between a Ground Station and an Artificial Satellite

The propagation errors caused by the atmosphere are investigated in order to find out the causes of the observed errors in range and range-rate measurements between a ground station and an artificial satellite. The calculations show that the observed errors are mostly caused by the measuring instruments. The propagation errors are mainly caused by increases, decreases, or fluctuations of the refractive index of the atmosphere, and the errors caused by the refraction of the propagation path are about 10 percent of the errors caused by the decrease of the propagation velocity. The tropospheric range errors are less than 150 meters and are approximately expressed by a cotangent function, and they are reduced by about 90 percent through the use of monthly average refractivity profiles of the troposphere. The ionospheric errors are usually negligible at centimeter radio waves (less than 10 cm), and even at decimeter waves or meter waves almost all errors can be removed by the use of two different frequencies on the down-link so that the range can be made independent of frequency.     

HOI延迟对LEO卫星简化动力学POD的影响

通常使用无电离层(IF)线性组合(LC)消除低地球轨道(LEO)卫星简化动力学精密定轨(POD)一阶电离层延迟误差,忽略了高阶电离层(HOI)延迟误差。随着LEO卫星POD技术的发展,计算不同轨道高度的HOI延迟并探索其变化已成为进一步提高POD精度的重要手段。首先,使用国际参考电离层-2016(IRI-2016)和国际地磁参考场第13代(IGRF-13)模型,计算电离层穿刺点(IPP)位置和地磁场强度。其次,使用平滑星载GNSS数据计算电离层斜路径总电子含量(STEC)。然后,分别计算GOCE、GRACE-A和SWARM-A/B卫星的二阶和三阶电离层延迟。最后,评估了HOI延迟对LEO卫星重叠轨道分析、卫星激光测距(SLR)检核和精密科学轨道(PSO)比较结果的影响。实验结果表明：HOI延迟对LEO卫星简化动力学POD的影响大约在毫米至厘米的数量级上;HOI延迟对LEO卫星简化动力学POD外符合精度的影响分别达到0.92,0.22,0.21和0.18 mm;随着LEO卫星轨道高度的增加,HOI延迟对LEO卫星简化动力学POD的影响减小。     

Error Analysis for Relay Type Satellite-Aided Search and Rescue Systems

An analysis is made of the errors in the determination of the position of an emergency transmitter in a satellite-aided search and rescue system. The satellite is assumed to be at a height of 820 km in a near-circular near polar orbit. Short data spans of four minutes or less are used. The error sources considered are measurement noise, transmitter frequency drift, ionospheric effects, and error in the assumed height of the transmitter. The errors are calculated for several different transmitter positions, data rates, and data spans. The only transmitter frequency used was 406 MHz, but the result can be scaled to different frequencies.     

A Comparison of Numerical Methods for Solving Optimal Control Problems

Linear systems with quadratic performance criteria typically lead to two-point boundary value problems. The numerical solution of such problems is often difficult because of roundoff and truncation errors. In this paper numerical methods for digital computer solutions are considered for a system described by a given second-order linear differential equation and the results are compared. The results show that where accurate analytic solutions cannot be obtained, the invariant imbedding technique yields more accurate results, for a given integration grid interval, than the other methods considered.     

OTHR multipath tracking with uncertain coordinate registration

Multipath probabilistic data association (MPDA) exploits discrete multipath propagation to improve tracking performance for systems such as over-the-horizon radar (OTHR). The original formulation assumed a known ionospheric environment for mapping radar measurements to ground coordinates. We consider an extension of the technique that allows for ionospheric uncertainties affecting the transformation between slant and ground coordinates in addition to the usual sensor noise. A new technique, MPDA for uncertain coordinate registration (MPCR), is described and tested on simulated and real OTHR data. The study assumes a two-layer spherical mirror ionosphere with random fluctuations of the ionospheric heights around known mean values. An extensive Monte Carlo analysis of track errors and track loss is carried out for MPCR under two scenarios and the results are compared with a baseline probabilistic data association (PDA) approach and with MPDA. The results indicate the high reliability of the MPCR approach.     

Optimal Estimation and Attitude Control of a Solar Electric Propulsion Spacecraft

Established procedures of linear, quadratic, Gaussian optimal estimation and control are developed and interpreted for their application ion to the problem of attitude control of spacecraft with dycallyamially significant elastic appendages. Results are presented both in general terms and for specific application to a solar electric spacecraft. aft. Comparisons are made between alternative coordinattems, systems, and a realistic range of design parameters is considered. For single axis control, system evaluation is accomplished by simulation of a fifteenth-order spacecraft plant with alternative second-order, fourth-order, and sixth-order constant gain estimators. Results point out the importance of modeling errors.     

Improved Carrier Tracking by Smoothing Estimators

Smoothing as a way to improve the carrier phase estimation is proposed and analyzed. The performance of first-and second-order Kalman optimum smoothers are investigated. This perfomance is evaluated in terms of steady-state covariance error computation, dynamic tracking, and noise response. It is shown that with practical amounts of memory, a second-order smoother can have a position error due to an acceleration or jerk step input less than any prescribed maximum. As an example of importance to the NASA deep space network (DSN), a second-order smoother can be used to track the Voyager spacecraft at Uranus and Neptune encounters with significantly better performance than a second-order phaselocked loop.     

Real-Time Specifications of the Geospace Environment

We report the recent progress in our joint program of real-time mapping of ionospheric electric fields and currents and field-aligned currents through the Geospace Environment Data Analysis System (GEDAS) at the Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory and similar computer systems in the world. Data from individual ground magnetometers as well as from the solar wind are collected by these systems and are used as input for the KRM and AMIE magnetogram-inversion algorithms, which calculate the two-dimensional distribution of the ionospheric parameters. One of the goals of this program is to specify the solar-terrestrial environment in terms of ionospheric processes, providing the scientific community with more than what geomagnetic activity indices and statistical models provide. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Dynamics of the disturbed ionosphere

The ionospheric storm process at F layer heights is reviewed and an explanation in terms of wind-induced diffusion of atomic oxygen is given.     

Strapdown inertial measurement units for motion compensation forsynthetic aperture radars

It is shown that synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) motion can be compensated by using an antenna-mounted strapdown inertial measurement unit (IMU) as the motion sensing system, but sensor and system errors affect SAR image quality. A strapdown IMU consists of three accelerator channels and three gyro channels. Strapdown IMU errors include gyro-scale and accelerometer-scale factor and bias errors, velocity error, platform tilt, and errors induced by limited inertial sensor bandwidth. The effects of these errors on the SAR image quality are presented in terms of the SAR impulse response. IMU errors that cause low-frequency phase errors (less than one cycle per array time) are categorized in terms of quadratic and cubic phase errors. IMU errors that cause high-frequency phase errors (greater than one cycle per array time) are categorized in terms of the integrated sidelobe ratio and peak sidelobe ratio. A motion compensation system conceptualization is described wherein a strapdown IMU is attached to an antenna and transfer-aligns to the aircraft's master navigator     

Deducing turbulence parameters from transionospheric scintillation measurements

The theoretical framework and experimental methodology used to interpret observations of ionospheric scintillations in terms of geophysical processes are reviewed and recent experimental observations of ionospheric scintillations are discussed in this paper. During the past 15 years significant progress has been made in several areas. In particular, significant advances have been made in theoretical understanding of the strong scintillation regime and the effects of short-term temporal variations of the scintillation producing irregularities on observations made with spaced-receiver geometries in both weak and strong scintillations. This improved understanding of the scintillation process has significantly increased the utility of the technique particularly in the equatorial latitudes where geometrical effects are least important.