Balloon Track Data Analysis.

Abstract

The primary goal of this program was to design a post-flight data processing system to measure gravity to 1 mgal accuracy. The purpose was to analyze data from balloons flights and to assess the feasibility of measuring gravity to this accuracy. Emphasis during the effort would be on determining the relative contribution of the various error sources to the overall error budget. Primary emphasis was on assessing the performance of GPS as the main tracking system. To facilitate this assessment, a direct comparison of the accuracies in determining gondola position, velocity, and acceleration will be made between GPS tracking, radar tracking, and tracking performance. It is anticipated that using a differential-GPS approach would yield position, velocity, and acceleration accuracies which are significantly better than ground-based radar. The proposed method of estimating gravity based on gravimeter, gondola package tracking data, and inertial motion sensing package data involves an integrated high-order Kalman filter approach.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 31, 1987
Accession Number
ADA184750

Entities

People

  • M. Moses
  • P. Burkhardt
  • R. Fowler

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Air Force
  • Algorithms
  • Altitude
  • Calibration
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Data Analysis
  • Global Positioning Systems
  • Kalman Filters
  • Measurement
  • Navigation
  • Radar
  • Radar Tracking
  • Simulators
  • Specifications
  • Standards

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Inertial Navigation Systems.
  • Sensor Fusion and Tracking Systems.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Space Objects