ACCURACY LIMITS DUE TO REFRACTION ON ELECTRONIC TRACKING OF SPACE VEHICLES

Abstract

The investigation was concerned with the refractive index of electromagnetic microwaves coming from a space vehicle in an environment where this index equals unity. Originally, this effort was planned to be a continuation of an earlier effort to merely give the results of the computations for higher altitudes of the observation sites. However, the results obtained with the primary accepted assumptions for the approximation of the refractive index versus altitude showed them to be physically unrealistic, and therefore some modifications had to be made. These modifications, which do not invalidate the conclusions drawn in the earlier effort, are discussed in some detail. The results of the new computations are given and are compared with a long series of astronomical measurements. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1961
Accession Number
AD0256327

Entities

People

  • F.w. Hoehndorf

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Altitude
  • Computations
  • Environment
  • Measurement
  • Microwaves
  • Observation
  • Refraction
  • Refractive Index
  • Spacecraft
  • Vehicles

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics.
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Space