66,196 research outputs found
The impact of new signals on precise marine navigation - initial results from an experiment in Harwich Harbour
The General Lighthouse Authorities of the United Kingdom and Ireland (GLAs) are supporting a project at University College London (UCL) to study whether it is possible to meet the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) future requirements for port and harbour approach using future GNSS constellations, as detailed in IMO resolution A.915. This paper presents the results of a trial focusing on the accuracy, integrity, availability and continuity of port navigation, port approach, and docking. Abstract The required accuracy for docking is 0.1 m (95\%), which currently necessitates the use of Real Time Kinematic (RTK) processing. We consider the single-epoch geometry-based approach, which is robust against loss of lock and will fully benefit from the additional satellites. The trial was held at the beginning of May 2008 and saw THV Alert navigate into Harwich Harbour while satellite observation data were recorded from the vessel and from shore-based reference stations. Additional data were obtained from nearby Ordnance Survey reference stations, and two total stations were used to track the vessel’s passage to provide a truth model. Several modernised GPS satellites were tracked. The data were processed under different scenarios, using software developed at UCL, and the positioning performance analysed. Abstract Providing integrity for single-epoch RTK is particularly difficult. The identification of phase observation outliers is not possible before the integer ambiguities are resolved, but an undetected outlier could prevent successful ambiguity resolution. However, it will not always be necessary to fix every ambiguity to achieve the required precision, particularly with a multi-GNSS constellation. This paper introduces a new algorithm for partial ambiguity resolution in the presence of measurement bias that has been developed and tested at UCL. This algorithm results in an improved ambiguity resolution success rate at the expense of computation time
Advanced Multi-Channel SAR Imaging - Measured Data Demonstration
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a well-established technique for remote sensing of the Earth. However, conventional SAR systems relying on only a single transmit and receive aperture are not capable of imaging a wide swath with high spatial resolution. Multi-channel SAR concepts, such as systems based on multiple receive apertures in azimuth, promise to overcome these restrictions, thus enabling high-resolution wide-swath imaging. Analysis revealed that these systems imperatively require sophisticated digital processing of the received signals in order to guarantee full performance independently of the spatial sample distribution imposed by the applied pulse repetition frequency (PRF). A suitable algorithm to cope with these challenges of multi-channel data is given by the “multi-channel reconstruction algorithm”, which demonstrated in comprehensive analysis and system design examples its potential for high perform-ance SAR imaging. In this context, various optimization strategies were investigated and aspects of operating multi-channel systems in burst modes such as ScanSAR or TOPS were discussed. Furthermore, a first proof-of-principle showed the algorithm’s applicability to measured multi-channel X-band data gathered by the German Aerospace Cen-ter’s (DLR) airborne F-SAR system. As a next step in the framework of multi-channel azimuth processing, this paper builds on the results recalled above and continues two paths. Firstly, focus is turned to further optimization of the proc-essing algorithm by investigating the classical Space-Time Adaptive Processing (STAP) applied to SAR. Secondly, attention is turned to the analysis of the measured multi-channel data by elaborating the impact and compensation of channel mismatch and by verifying the derived theory
Recommended from our members
Development and Demonstration of a TDOA-Based GNSS Interference Signal Localization System
Background theory, a reference design, and demonstration
results are given for a Global Navigation Satellite
System (GNSS) interference localization system comprising a
distributed radio-frequency sensor network that simultaneously
locates multiple interference sources by measuring their signals’
time difference of arrival (TDOA) between pairs of nodes in
the network. The end-to-end solution offered here draws from
previous work in single-emitter group delay estimation, very long
baseline interferometry, subspace-based estimation, radar, and
passive geolocation. Synchronization and automatic localization
of sensor nodes is achieved through a tightly-coupled receiver
architecture that enables phase-coherent and synchronous sampling
of the interference signals and so-called reference signals
which carry timing and positioning information. Signal and crosscorrelation
models are developed and implemented in a simulator.
Multiple-emitter subspace-based TDOA estimation techniques
are developed as well as emitter identification and localization
algorithms. Simulator performance is compared to the CramérRao
lower bound for single-emitter TDOA precision. Results are
given for a test exercise in which the system accurately locates
emitters broadcasting in the amateur radio band in Austin, TX.Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanic
Fundamental Radar Properties: Hidden Variables in Spacetime
A derivation of the properties of pulsed radiative imaging systems is
presented with examples drawn from conventional, synthetic aperture, and
interferometric radar. A geometric construction of the space and time
components of a radar observation yields a simple underlying structural
equivalence between many of the properties of radar, including resolution,
range ambiguity, azimuth aliasing, signal strength, speckle, layover, Doppler
shifts, obliquity and slant range resolution, finite antenna size, atmospheric
delays, and beam and pulse limited configurations. The same simple structure is
shown to account for many interferometric properties of radar - height
resolution, image decorrelation, surface velocity detection, and surface
deformation measurement. What emerges is a simple, unified description of the
complex phenomena of radar observations. The formulation comes from fundamental
physical concepts in relativistic field theory, of which the essential elements
are presented. In the terminology of physics, radar properties are projections
of hidden variables - curved worldlines from a broken symmetry in Minkowski
spacetime - onto a time-serial receiver.Comment: 24 pages, 18 figures Accepted JOSA-
Low-frequency radio navigation system
A method of continuous wave navigation using four transmitters operating at sufficiently low frequencies to assure essentially pure groundwave operation is described. The transmitters are keyed to transmit constant bursts (1/4 sec) in a time-multiplexed pattern with phase modulation of at least one transmitter for identification of the transmitters and with the ability to identify the absolute phase of the modulated transmitter and the ability to modulate low rate data for transmission. The transmitters are optimally positioned to provide groundwave coverage over a service region of about 50 by 50 km for the frequencies selected in the range of 200 to 500 kHz, but their locations are not critical because of the beneficial effect of overdetermination of position of a receiver made possible by the fourth transmitter. Four frequencies are used, at least two of which are selected to provide optimal resolution. All transmitters are synchronized to an average phase as received by a monitor receiver
Recommended from our members
A Dense Reference Network for Mass-Market Centimeter-Accurate Positioning
The quality of atmospheric corrections provided
by a dense reference network for centimeter-accurate carrierphase
differential GNSS (CDGNSS) positioning is investigated.
A dense reference network (less than 20 km inter-station distance)
offers significant benefits for mass-market users, enabling lowcost
(including single-frequency) CDGNSS positioning with rapid
integer ambiguity resolution. Precise positioning on a massmarket
platform would significantly influence the world economy,
ushering in a host of consumer-focused applications such as
globally-registered augmented and virtual reality and improved
all-weather safety and efficiency for intelligent transportation
systems, applications which have so far been hampered by the
several-meter-level errors in standard GNSS positioning. This
contribution examines CDGNSS integer ambiguity resolution
performance in terms of network correction uncertainty, and
network correction uncertainty, in turn, in terms of network
density. It considers the total error in network corrections: a
sum of ionospheric, tropospheric, and reference station multipath
components. The paper’s primary goal is to identify the network
density beyond which mass-market users would see no further
significant improvement in ambiguity resolution performance. It
finishes by describing development and deployment of a low-cost
dense reference network in Austin, Texas.Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanic
Empirical Comparison of Chirp and Multitones on Experimental UWB Software Defined Radar Prototype
This paper proposes and tests an approach for an unbiased study of radar waveforms' performances. Using the ultrawide band software defined radar prototype, the performances of Chirp and Multitones are compared in range profile and detection range. The architecture was implemented and has performances comparable to the state of the art in software defined radar prototypes. The experimental results are consistent with the simulations
SIGNAL: A Ka-band Digital Beam-Forming SAR System Concept to Monitor Topography Variations of Ice Caps and Glaciers
This paper discusses the implementation of an endto-
end simulator for the BIOMASS mission. An overview of
the system architecture is provided along with a functional
description of the modules that comprise the simulator
- …