Methods for Calculating Atmospheric Refraction and its Perturbation.

Abstract

Equations for tracing rays through the atmosphere in spherical coordinates are developed including lateral refraction effects. The spherically symmetrical case is considered in greater detail and equations for the error in altitude angle are obtained. Perturbation analysis is also performed to obtain the deviations in the refraction error due to differences in some standard atmospheric profile and the actual atmospheric profile. In addition, numerical expressions for evaluating the integrals are given, and some simple standard atmospheric models are discussed.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1982
Accession Number
ADA123802

Entities

People

  • Eugene A. Margerum

Organizations

  • Geospatial Research Laboratory

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Altitude
  • Army
  • Atmospheres
  • Atmospheric Refraction
  • Barometric Pressure
  • Coordinate Systems
  • Differential Equations
  • Engineers
  • Equations
  • Euler Equations
  • Integrals
  • New York
  • Numerical Integration
  • Ray Tracing
  • Refraction
  • Refractive Index
  • Spherical Astronomy

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Fluid Dynamics.
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.