SPOTR

Abstract

Present operational requirements need a simple method to accurately determine the position and height of terrestrial locations on a worldwide basis. Recently, artificial satellites have been used as radar reference points in the sky for determining the position and height of such locations. Satellite systems such as Secor (1) have shown that it is possible to achieve accuracies of the order of a few meters under optimum conditions. However, the unknown variations of the satellite's orbit require the placing of several reference ground stations close to the unknown location, so that simultaneous observations will reduce the satellite orbit errors. If the position and height of widely separated locations are needed, the method becomes quite cumbersome, for it requires the repeated physical relocation of the ground reference stations.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 25, 1970
Accession Number
ADA411765

Entities

People

  • Alexander Shapiro
  • B. S. Yaplee
  • E. A. Uliana

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Atomic Clocks
  • Coefficients
  • Corner Reflectors
  • Equations
  • Error Analysis
  • Ground Stations
  • Longitude
  • Lunar Topography
  • Mathematical Analysis
  • Radar
  • Radar Targets
  • Satellite Orbits
  • Space Sciences
  • Standards
  • Transmitters

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computer Vision.
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Satellites