Experimental Observations of Naval Space Surveillance Satellite Signals with an Out-of-Plane Receiving Station

摘要

Experimental observations were made during May 1981 of satellites transiting the Naval Space Surveillance System's radio frequency fence. The receiving stations's location at Riverside, Maryland is well out of the plane of the NAVSPASUR fence; this made possible testing the efficiency of an out-of-plane station in enabling single-pass orbit determination. A signal-processing algorithm was developed that made possible the extraction of an additional item of information from each satellite transit by chirp processing. It was concluded that both an out-of-plane station and chirp processing have promise for enabling single-pass NAVSPASUR orbit determination. (Author)