High-precision measurement of satellite velocity using the EISCAT radar

Nygrén, T.; Markkanen, J.; Aikio, Anita; Voiculescu, Mirela

doi:10.5194/angeo-30-1555-2012

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Three important references concerning the employment of the EISCAT sensors for space objects observations are Nygrén et al (2012), Markkanen et al (2013) and Vierinen & Krag (2017). In particular, the sensor which has to be dedicated mainly to tracking observations is the EISCAT UHF radar working at 930MHz frequency located in Tromsø, Norway.…”

Section: Eiscat Uhf Sensor and Main Featuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A clear step in this direction is not only the increased availability of the german TIRA radar, but also the exploitation of european instruments originally conceived for different purposes such as the EISCAT (European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association, see Figure 1) facilities, for the observation of decaying objects, and space debris in general (see e.g. Nygrén et al (2012)). It is straightforward that these European stations are to be preferred with respect to other, less affordable, instruments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Radar-based Re-Entry Predictions with very limited tracking capabilities: the GOCE case study

Cicalò¹,

Lemmens²

2018

Preprint

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we know about TIRA-like performances.We have set up a realistic simulation scenario for a re-entry campaign. Re-entry predictions and ballistic coefficient calibrations are performed and compared for TIRA-only, EISCAT-only, and both radar available situations. The results are compared in terms of differences in the orbital states over the total observation time span, in the ballistic coefficient estimation, and in the corresponding re-entry epoch.The main conclusion is that, provided a minimum amount of necessary observational information, EISCAT-based re-entry predictions are of comparable accuracy to TIRA-based (but also to GPS-based, and TLE-based if TLE errors are properly accounted) corresponding ones. Even if the worse tracking capabilities of the EISCAT sensor are not able to determine an orbit at the same level of accuracy of TIRA, it turned out that the estimated orbits are anyway equivalent in terms of re-entry predictions, if we consider the relevant parameters involved and their effects on the re-entry time. What happens to be very important is the difficulty in predicting both atmospheric and attitude significant variations in between the current epoch of observation and the actual re-entry. For this reason, it is not easy to keep the actual accuracy of the predictions much lower than 10% of the residual lifetime, apart from particular cases with constant area to mass ratio, and low atmospheric environment variations with respect to current models.A corresponding GOCE ballistic coefficient estimation based on TLE only is presented, and it turns out to be very effective as well. Some critical cases which consist in a minimum amount of observational information, or in difficulties in obtaining OD convergence, are presented, and a list of possible countermeasures is proposed.An experiment with real EISCAT,TIRA, and TLE data is also presented, for the case of 2012-006K AVUM R/B. Additional experiments with simulated trajectories are presented as well, with analogous results.

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Section: Eiscat Uhf Sensor and Main Featuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radar-based Re-Entry Predictions with very limited tracking capabilities: the GOCE case study

Cicalò¹,

Lemmens²

2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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High-precision measurement of satellite range and velocity using the EISCAT radar

Markkanen¹,

Nygrén

Markkanen³

et al. 2013

Ann. Geophys.

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Abstract. This paper is a continuation of an earlier work by Nygrén et al. (2012), where the velocity of a hard target was determined from a set of echo pulses reflected by the target flying through the radar beam. Here the method is extended to include the determination of range at a high accuracy. The method is as follows. First, the flight time of the pulse from the transmitter to the target is determined at an accuracy essentially better than the accuracy given by the sampling interval. This method makes use of the fact that the receiver filtering creates slopes at the phase flips of the phase modulated echo pulse. A precise flight time is found by investigating the echo amplitude within this slope. A value of velocity is calculated from each echo pulse as explained in the earlier paper. Next, the ranges together with velocities from a single beam pass are combined to a measurement vector for a linear inversion problem. The solution of the inversion problem gives the time-dependent range and velocity from the time interval of satellite flight through the radar beam. The method is demonstrated using the EISCAT (European Incoherent Scatter) UHF radar and radio pulses reflected by a satellite. The achieved standard deviations of range are about 5–50 cm and those of velocity are about 3–25 mm s−1.

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High-precision measurement of satellite velocity using the EISCAT radar

Cited by 2 publications

References 22 publications

Radar-based Re-Entry Predictions with very limited tracking capabilities: the GOCE case study

Radar-based Re-Entry Predictions with very limited tracking capabilities: the GOCE case study

High-precision measurement of satellite range and velocity using the EISCAT radar

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