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Orbit determination using synthetic aperture radarThe use of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images to estimate orbital parameters is studied. The SAR image formation process which requires the ability to repeatedly transmit identical signals and accurately sense the return echoes from a region of terrain is described. The orbit determination capabilities of the SAR system's observables are investigated. Five SAR observations were collected from a simulated shuttle orbit, which was circular with a latitude of 220 km and along-track velocity of 7.7 km/sec, to obtain along-track and line-of-sight direction position measurements; the simulation reveals that only three SAR observations were required to determine the position of the spacecraft to within 100 m. A prototype SAR orbit determination system was developed. The system consists of a VAX 11/780 time-shared computer, a frame buffer, topographic maps, and software for line-pixel location of an object within a SAR image and for orbit determination. The prototype is applied to the processing of a single short arc of Shuttle Imaging-Radar-B (SIR-B) data. It is observed that the SAR data is useful as orbit determination or tracking data; however, the low SNRs in the SIR-B data made feature identification difficult.
Document ID
19860058524
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Taber, W. L.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Synnott, S. P.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Riedel, J. E.
(California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, United States)
Date Acquired
August 12, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1986
Subject Category
Space Communications, Spacecraft Communications, Command And Tracking
Report/Patent Number
AAS PAPER 85-412
Accession Number
86A43262
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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