Airborne Magnetic Tape Recorder for Gravity Measurements

摘要

This report treats of the development of an airborne recorder to transcribe onto magnetic tape in digital form the parameters needed to compute the gravitational field encountered by an aircraft at any point above the earth's surface. The number of bits allocated for the recording of each parameter was conditioned by the resolution required for optimum accuracy as well as by the range of values. To determine the accuracy, researchers investigated the current sensing and recording devices employed and reviewed the previous efforts to extract, process, and evaluate previously acquired data. Through this study which included the applicability of different smoothing techniques and determination of the effects of measurement errors on the Eotvos effect, information to guide the computer processing of the data as well as to define the parameters was developed. Based upon a complete design, a prototype recorder was fabricated. Including provisions for recording all parameters, the prototype recorder incorporates the means to digitize five of the more difficult parameters to process manually. (Author)