HILAT: A Pre-Launch Overview.
Abstract
Among the many nuclear-weapons effects that must be accounted for in the design of c3I systems is that of radiowave scintillation produced by scattering in high-altitude structured plasmas. accordingly, the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA) conducts a vigorous research program on the nature of such structure and the mechanisms for its production. Past results have indicated significant similarity between that nature and those mechanisms in nuclear-disturbed cases and in the case of the ambient ionosphere disturbed by geophysical process, the variety of which is greatest at high latitudes. To further DoD's knowledge of the three-dimensional spectrum of the scattering structures and its understanding of their production, evolution, and decay, DNA and the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory, along with their respective contractors, have joined together to prepare a multi-experiment satellite mission, called HiLat, to collect definitive data on those processes. In view of applications to any military or civilian system that must transmit radio signals through the disturbed high-latitude ionosphere, including for instance satellite-based search-and-rescue systems, cooperation also is being received from the National Research Council of Canada. The satellite designed to meet these diverse but highly complementary objectives, P83-1, is scheduled for launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1530 Z on 27 June 1983.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 13, 1983
- Accession Number
- ADA137266
Entities
People
- E. J. Fremouw