Feasibility of Fireball Trail Detection Using Ground-Based GPS Receivers
Abstract
The feasibility of using GPS data to detect fireballs is analyzed by first modeling the fireballs trail diffusion and plasma chemistry to get a resulting ion density profile of the trail over time. The signal perturbation caused by the fireball trail is simulated for a ground receiver using an analytic solution for diffraction from a Gaussian lens. Five cases were modeled with varying initial peak ion densities and altitudes taken from fireball and reentry vehicle data. This paper shows that it is feasible to detect a fireball trail using GPS if the fireball has a sufficiently high initial ion density, above approximately 10 (exp 18) m (exp -3), and occurs at an altitude above approximately 75 km. For the five cases the amplitude scintillation index, S4, and phase scintillation index, sigma phi, values of the signal for the last detectable ion density profile were calculated.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1176807
Entities
People
- Ian R. Moffett
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology