Laser ranging error budget for the TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite.
A laser ranging error budget is detailed, and a specific error budget is derived for the TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite. A ranging uncertainty of 0.76 cm is predicted for TOPEX/POSEIDON at 20 degrees elevation using the presently designed laser retroreflector array and only modest improvements in present system operations. Atmospheric refraction and satellite attitude effects cause the predicted range error to vary with satellite elevation angle from 0.71 cm at zenith to 0.76 cm at 20 degrees elevation. This a priori error budget compares well with the ~1.2-cm rms a posteriori polynomial orbital fit using existing data taken for an extant satellite of similar size and orbit.
Pulse position modulated (PPM) ground receiver design for optical communications from deep space
Pulse position modulation (PPM) provides a means of using high peak power lasers for transmitting communications signals from planetary spacecraft to earth-based receiving stations. Large aperture (approximately 10 m diameter) telescopes will be used to collect and focus the laser communications signal originating from a deep space transmitter on to a PPM receiver. Large area (1 - 3 mm diameter) sensitive detectors, preceded by appropriate narrow (0.1 - 0.2 nm) optical band-pass filters and followed by low-noise, high-gain, amplifiers will serve as the PPM receiver front end. A digital assembly will form the backbone of the receiver. The PPM receiver will achieve and maintain slot synchronization based on sub slot sums generated by a field programmable-gated array (FPGA). Spacecraft dynamics and timing issues between the ground- based receiver and the transmitter on board the spacecraft must be taken into account. In the present report, requirements and design of a prototype PPM receiver being developed over the next year will be elaborated. The design is driven by the need to demonstrate and validate PPM reception using a variety of detectors under simulated conditions representative of those to be encountered in a deep space optical communications link.
Atmospheric drag effects on the KOMPSAT-1 satellite during geomagnetic superstorms
We examine the atmospheric drag on the low earth-orbiting satellite, KOMPSAT-1 in a sun-synchronous orbit at ~685-km altitude starting in 1999, during a 3-month (October-December) period in 2003. This 3-month interval includes the October 29-30 and November 20 magnetic superstorms and weak to moderate storms. We observed that the daily KOMPSAT-1 drag acceleration transiently responses to transient storm-time disturbances. That is, there is an one-to-one correspondence between the KOMPSAT-1 drag accelerations and the storm events. We find that the drag acceleration correlates strongly with the level of geomagnetic disturbance. This indicates that the trajectory of KOMPSAT-1 is significantly perturbed during extremely disturbed intervals because of atmospheric density increase. The main contributor to the density increase is Joule heating associated with the geomagnetic activity rather than the solar EUV radiation, as reported by previous studies. We suggest that understanding how the upper atmosphere responses to the geomagnetic-associated heating is important to predict space weather impacts on low earth-orbiting satellites.