Compensation for Propagation Uncertainties in the OMEGA Navigation System.
Abstract
During the past decade, an increased demand for long-range navigation aides has been exhibited by commercial and military interests. Fishing fleets, oil exploration companies, and global airlines are among the host of potential users for which very accurate, remotely available navigation information is imperative. OMEGA is a long range radio navigation system that has shown considerable promise in such applications and in fact has demonstrated a world-wide capability with accuracies on the order of 1 to 2 nautical miles. Although OMEGA has gained modest acceptance within the navigation community (particularly in marine applications), it is a propagation limited system and several problems persist. Certain changes in the daytime and nighttime characteristics of the transmission medium cause day to night changes in the received navigation signals, inducing what is known as diurnal shift. In addition to this repeatable (and somewhat predictable) phenomenon, unusual solar activity can cause severe and rapid changes in the medium which also affects the received signal. Large volumes of predicted diurnal shift values have been published which reduce errors caused by diurnal shift, but their usage is cumbersome at best and, of course, they cannot account for errors induced by high solar activity or other anomalous propagation conditions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1976
- Accession Number
- ADA047124
Entities
People
- Robert Lee Vanallen
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology