Very Long Baseline Interferometry: Dependencies on Frequency Stability

Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) is a differential technique observing radiation of compact extra-galactic radio sources with pairs of radio telescopes. For these observations, the frequency standards at the telescopes need to have very high stability. In this article we discuss why this is, and we investigate exactly how precise the frequency standards need to be. Four areas where good clock performance is needed are considered: coherence, geodetic parameter estimation, correlator synchronization, and UT1 determination. We show that in order to ensure the highest accuracy of VLBI, stability similar to that of a hydrogen maser is needed for time-scales up to a few hours. In the article, we are considering both traditional VLBI where extra-galactic radio sources are observed, as well as observation of man-made artificial radio sources emitted by satellites or spacecrafts.     

Suborbital and low-thermospheric experiments using sounding rockets in Taiwan

The suborbital flight is a kind of flight, which reaches the space and then comes back to ground without completing one orbital revolution. The atmospheric thermosphere extends from 85 km to 600 km in altitude. Therefore, the suborbital and low-thermospheric experiments to be performed at altitude below 300 km can be combined using the sounding rocket. These experiments include rocket staging, fairing separation, ultrasonic flight, reentry, aerobrake and recovery test, ultraviolet and ionization observations, ozone measurement, etc. The advent of Taiwan's sub-orbital and thermospheric experiments project can be traced back to 1997. This is the year Taiwan's National Space Organization (NSPO) was assigned to be responsible for procuring the sounding rocket for applications in science experiments and space technology research effort. From 1997 to 2010, 8 launches have been completed including one experimental hybrid rocket. All onboard instruments and sensors for sub-orbital and low-thermospheric experiments are developed and integrated by the domestic universities. More launches have been planned in the future. Opportunities for international cooperation in developing new instruments and payloads for future experiments will be possible.     

Plasmaspheric Density Structures and Dynamics: Properties Observed by the CLUSTER and IMAGE Missions

Plasmaspheric density structures have been studied since the discovery of the plasmasphere in the late 1950s. But the advent of the Cluster and Image missions in 2000 has added substantially to our knowledge of density structures, thanks to the new capabilities of those missions: global imaging with Image and four-point in situ measurements with Cluster. The study of plasma sources and losses has given new results on refilling rates and erosion processes. Two-dimensional density images of the plasmasphere have been obtained. The spatial gradient of plasmaspheric density has been computed. The ratios between H⁺, He⁺ and O⁺ have been deduced from different ion measurements. Plasmaspheric plumes have been studied in detail with new tools, which provide information on their morphology, dynamics and occurrence. Density structures at smaller scales have been revealed with those missions, structures that could not be clearly distinguished before the global images from Image and the four-point measurements by Cluster became available. New terms have been given to these structures, like “shoulders”, “channels”, “fingers” and “crenulations”. This paper reviews the most relevant new results about the plasmaspheric plasma obtained since the start of the Cluster and Image missions.     

让直升机的运营更为安全

A350XWB计划于2013年投入商业运营.空中客车公司期望在A350WXB首飞前就使系统达到前所未有的成熟度.为此,空中客车公司在飞机的研制过程中采用了数字模型、虚拟测试和实际功能测试等多种手段,以减少进入飞行试验后的更改.     

A350XWB的高科技

A350XWB计划于2013年投入商业运营.空中客车公司期望在A350WXB首飞前就使系统达到前所未有的成熟度.为此,空中客车公司在飞机的研制过程中采用了数字模型、虚拟测试和实际功能测试等多种手段,以减少进入飞行试验后的更改.     

LEO enhanced Global Navigation Satellite System (LeGNSS) for real-time precise positioning services

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has been widely used in many geosciences areas with its Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) service. However, GNSS still has its own bottleneck, such as the long initialization period of Precise Point Positioning (PPP) without dense reference network. Recently, the concept of PNTRC (Positioning, Navigation, Timing, Remote sensing and Communication) has been put forward, where Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations are recruited to fulfill diverse missions. In navigation aspect, a number of selected LEO satellites can be equipped with a transmitter to transmit similar navigation signals to ground users, so that they can serve as GNSS satellites but with much faster geometric change to enhance GNSS capability, which is named as LEO constellation enhanced GNSS (LeGNSS). As a result, the initialization time of PPP is expected to be shortened to the level of a few minutes or even seconds depending on the number of the LEO satellites involved. In this article, we simulate all the relevant data from June 8th to 14th, 2014 and investigate the feasibility of LeGNSS with the concentration on the key issues in the whole data processing for providing real-time PPP service based on a system configuration with fourteen satellites of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), twenty-four satellites of the Global Positioning System (GPS), and sixty-six satellites of the Iridium satellite constellations. At the server-end, Precise Orbit Determination (POD) and Precise Clock Estimation (PCE) with various operational modes are investigated using simulated observations. It is found out that GNSS POD with partial LEO satellites is the most practical mode of LeGNSS operation. At the user-end, the Geometry Dilution Of Precision (GDOP) and Signal-In-Space Ranging Error (SISRE) are calculated and assessed for different positioning schemes in order to demonstrate the performance of LeGNSS. Centimeter level SISRE can be achieved for LeGNSS.     

基于 FPGA 的 MIL-STD-1553更佳适合系统

基于现场可编程门阵列(FPGA)核心的实施体现了先进的现代航空电子设计方法。这项技术具有多种优势,如废弃组件管理、降低设计风险、提高集成度、减小体积、降低功耗和提高故障平均间隔时间(MTBF)等,吸引着用户将原来的系统迁移到此项技术。M IL-STD-1553的市场可能随着这种趋势     

Using the Global Navigation Satellite System and satellite altimetry for combined Global Ionosphere Maps

For deriving global maps of the Total Electron Content (TEC) from space geodetic techniques usually observations from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) are taken. However, the GNSS stations are inhomogeneously distributed, with large gaps particularly over the sea surface.     

在未知的环境中生存

航空公司何时盈利 航空维修企业的命运掌握在航空公司的手中. 世界航空运输业正处在危难时刻.截至2008年9月30日,多数航空公司的利润减少了80%以上. 美国多数大型航空公司都遭受巨额损失.     

The Processing of Band-Limited Measurements; Filtering Techniques in the Least Squares Context and in the Presence of Data Gaps

This paper discusses the treatment of correlated measurements in the least squares context. We focus on the processing of band-limited measurements and on long time series with a constant sampling interval. Time domain as well as frequency domain approaches were discussed to offer different ways to integrate the filtering process into the optimization scheme as good as possible. The focus was on long equispaced data sets. The application of discrete filters in the space domain makes it possible to decorrelate the observations during data acquisition. This opens the way to a sequential adjustment procedure, where the design matrix is treated row-by-row. Huge systems with millions of observations can be solved by direct or iterative strategies, and both approaches benefit from well-tailored filter techniques. Because of the sequential access the computational effort of this giant task can be easily distributed to a cluster of parallel processors and offers, in addition, the possibility to treat data gaps in a straightforward way. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.