Matera Laser Collocation Experiment

Abstract

Three laser ranging stations were collocated at Matera, Italy, in January, February, and March 1986. They observed 92 passes of the LAGEOS satellite, of which 56 passes were observed by more than one system. This set of data allows intercomparison of the three laser ranging systems, and assessment of the Quick Look data from each system. In addition, this data set allows examination of tropospheric refraction models using dispersion since two distinct optical wavelengths were used. It has been found that the three laser ranging systems agree to within 1.7 cm in range. It has also been found that the nominal refraction model has no significant errors greater than 0.12 cm in Zenith refraction and 0.64 cm in the mapping function down to 20 deg elevation. Keywords: Laser ranging; Satellite tracking; Calibration; Tropospheric refraction; Intercomparison, Normal Point computation.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 27, 1987
Accession Number
ADA182214

Entities

People

  • Anthea J. Coster
  • Edward M. Gaposchkin
  • Lorraine E. Kurtz

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Accuracy
  • Atmospheric Temperature
  • Barometric Pressure
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Sets
  • Databases
  • Frequency
  • Information Science
  • Measurement
  • Meteorological Data
  • Navigation
  • Preprocessing
  • Range Finding
  • Standards
  • Surface Temperature
  • Water Vapor

Readers

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics.
  • Atmospheric Remote Sensing.
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Directed Energy - Lasers
  • Space