USE OF OPTICALLY PUMPED RUBIDIUM VAPOR FREQUENCY STANDARD AS MASTER OSCILLATOR IN SATELLITE TRACKING STATIONS,
Abstract
By means of clock time transfer, the precise location of a tracking station can be established through the computation of orbits relative to other known locations. Once the tracking site has been established in earth-coordinates, time can be precisely recovered at the station via the satellite link independent of all other time and frequency standard transmissions. Current practice in the tracking network is to set station time by monitoring high frequency transmissions (WWV, WWVH, etc) and to determine working oscillator drift characteristics by monitoring standard VLF transmissions (WWVL, GBR, NBA, etc). Employment of commercially available ultra stable standards as master oscillators in ground stations of a tracking network will eliminate dependency on standard broadcast transmissions. Presented in this report is a method of instrumentation with procedures for holding station time error to within = 100 microseconds relative to UT-2 (over a period of approximately 100 days) and frequency to within a few parts in 10 to the llth power per month; epoch will be determined according to observations of the U. S. Naval Observatory. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1963
- Accession Number
- AD0424483
Entities
People
- R. F. Gavin
Organizations
- Johns Hopkins University