The Effect of Ionospheric Tilt on Radio Direction Finding Position Estimates

摘要

It is generally accepted that the ionosphere tilts; that is to say, an isoionic layer is not at constant height above the surface of the earth. Ionospheric tilt has the effect of deflecting a radio ray out of its great-circle plane and returning it to earth at an angle not that of the true bearing from a receiver to a transmitter. The magnitude of error introduced by this effect on radio direction finding (RDF) position estimates was studied. A model assigning a tilt bias of less than three degrees to each RDF station bearing was constructed. Analysis of a six-station RDF network revealed that this amount of tilt has negligible effect on point estimates of location and their confidence regions. (Author)