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A Xylophone Detector of Gravitational RadiationWe discuss spacecraft Doppler tracking searches for gravitational waves in which Doppler data recorded on the ground are linearly combined with Doppler measurements made on board a spacecraft. By using the four-link radio system first proposed by Vessot and Levine, we describe a new method for removing from the combined data the frequency fluctuations due to the Earth troposphere, ionosphere, and mechanical vibrations of the antenna on the ground. This technique provides also a way for reducing by several orders of magnitude, at selected Fourier components, the frequency fluctuations due to other noise sources, such as the clock on board the spacecraft or the antenna and buffeting of the probe by nongravitational forces. In this respect spacecraft Doppler tracking can be regarded as a xylophone detector of gravitational radiation. In the assumption of calibrating the frequency fluctuations induced by the interplanetary plasma, a strain sensitivity equal to 4.7 x 10(exp -18) at 10(exp -3) Hz is estimated. This experimental technique could be extended to other tests of the theory of relativity, and to radio science experiments that rely on high-precision Doppler measurements.
Document ID
19980009746
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Tinto, Massimo
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA United States)
Date Acquired
August 17, 2013
Publication Date
August 1, 1997
Publication Information
Publication: Proceedings of the Workshop on the Scientific Applications of Clocks in Space
Subject Category
Instrumentation And Photography
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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