Correction for Ionospheric Refraction for COBRA DANE

Abstract

A hit-to-hit correction for range error arising from ionospheric refraction has been developed for the COBRA DANE radar. First a FORTRAN procedure was developed to compute monthly median refraction corrections over the field of view. These were provided to the radar in the form of equivalent look-up tables. A FORTRAN program was developed for the radar computed index values for each target position (azimuth, elevation, and range) and a correction was determined for each radar hit. This procedure removed about 75 percent of the monthly mean ionospheric effect. A further reduction was then made by using first and update factor determined by the Air Force Global Weather Central and then a more accurate update derived from a two-frequency calibration made by the radar itself. These procedures are shown to be capable of removing up to 90 percent of the mean ionospheric effect.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 18, 1977
Accession Number
ADA053222

Entities

People

  • Delia E. Donatelli
  • Maria C. Picardi
  • Richard S. Allen

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Air Force
  • Altitude
  • Calibration
  • Computations
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Contractors
  • Core Storage
  • Electron Density
  • Electrons
  • Elevation
  • Errors
  • Low Elevation
  • Measurement
  • Physics Laboratories
  • Procedures (Computers)

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Approximation Theory.
  • Radar Systems Engineering.
  • Space/Atmospheric Physics.