Effect of Troposphere and Ionosphere on C-Band Radar Track Data and Correction of Tracking Parameters

摘要

At any launch base radar tracking is critical for assessing the state of the launch vehicle for range safety function as well as for trajectory monitoring. Tracking data corrected for refraction effects is essential for estimating the flight performance. This paper presents the refraction effects of troposphere and ionosphere on the radio waves of C-Band radars in terms of errors in the measured tracking parameters. Application of mapping functions for correcting refraction errors in C-Band radar track data is studied and a comparison of the performance of mapping functions is presented. The mapping functions not only show good convergence at low elevations but also correct around 90 per cent of the refraction error in elevation.