564
5, MAY 1972
The Role of Time-Frequency in Satellite Position
Determination Systems
EUGENE EHRLICH
Abstract-Many present-day radionavigation satellite systemsem-
ploy the use o r measurement of time or frequencyto provide a position
fix for the user vehicle. For example, the position fix obtained by the U. S.
Navy’s Navigation Satellite Systems (Transit) i s based on the precise
measurement of the Doppler shift from a single satellite observed by the
user vehicle, plus the.sahllitc’s orbital elements and time. The time of the
satellite’s orbit parameter transmission is controlled by a crystal oscillator
having a short-term stability of 2 parts in 10“.
Multiple geostationary sotelliter (36 000-km altitude) have the capa-
bility to provide a near instantaneous position fix using range measure-
ments of the two-waypropagation time of an RF signal initiated at a
ground station and sent toa user vehicle by one satellite. Theuser re-
transmits this signal through the satellites to the ground wherr a position
fix is obtained. Knowledge of user altitude, in the cas. of an aircraft, also
is required. Low-altitude satellites canalso be employed to provide a
position fix via two-way ranging, but with a significant delay in obtain-
ing a position fix. Inherent to this and many other navigation concepts i s
the accurate measurement of frequency, time, or time interval. I f range is
to be described by the time required for an RF signal to propagate between
the satellite and theuser or ground station, time interval becomes signifi-
cant.Forexample, it takes approximately 1 ps for a radio wave to travel
0.3 km in free space.Time interval is often measured by counting cycles
or by phasecomparisons using highly stable and accuratefrequency
sources.
NASAconductedtests of theseconcepts employing the AT5 1 and 3
satellites, and Nimbus 3 and 4 satellites. The testresults indicate that
locations of ships and aircraft can be determined to wlthin 3-5 km,one
sigma, by these satellite methods, andthat location accuracy i s botha
function of the RF employed as well as the extent of knowledge of the
satellite orbit.
I. INTRODUCTION
A CCURATE measurement of time and or frequency has been
amajorrequirementfor navigators ever since it was
realized that an accurate clock was needed to determine
longitude. With the advent of electronic R F transmissions, it has
become apparent that theaccurate frequency stability of a radiat-
ing electromagnetic source is required in karious navigation tech-
niques. The Space Age, with its earth-orbiting satellites carrying
clocks of various compositionand transponders capable of relay-
ing ground-generated signals, has placed a new navigating tool
before the world’s navigators.
The U. S. Navy’s Navigation Satellite System, commonly
called Transit, has been providing operational navigation ser-
vices to military and civilian ships by utilizing the measurement
of the rate of change of range, or the Doppler shift principle (see
Easton [I]). Thesystem employs a highly stable crystal oscillator
carried in a relatively low-orbiting polar satellite. Other satellite
experiments incorporating higher stability oscillators have been
conducted; and studies of navigation satellites operating at the
synchronous orbit altitude and carrying accurate clocks and trans-
ponders are under way.
Three satellite navigation concepts, which appear practical,
will employ either accurate time or frequency as the means for
Manuscript received November 3, 1971; revised January 24, 1972.
The author is with theOffice of SpaceScience and Applications,
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D. C. 20546.
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 6 0 , NO.
determining a position fix; they are 1) multiple satellite range
measurements, 2) satellite range rate, or range and range rate
measurements, and 3) satellite angle measurement.
The measurement of range utilizes measurement of time inter-
val to high accuracy. The propagationtime of a radio wave
traveling in free space is approximately 1 ps,O.3 km.Time
interval measurements are often related to counting cycles or a
phase measurement using a stable accurately known frequency
source. Range rate measurements amount to either looking at
differences in range measurements or the measurement of Doppler
shifted radio frequencies. In either case the use of accurate stable
frequency sources is employed.
Position fixingby angle measurements only hasthe least
dependence upon time and frequency. It has been included, how-
ever, for the sakeof completeness.
Tables I and I1 list representative satellite position location
techniques requiring some form of very accurate measurement
of time, time interval, or frequency in space or on the ground,
to perform navigation.
System A utilizes threerange measurements from three
satellites for an unambiguous determination of position, but it
requires mutual visibility with three satellites for the user. A posi-
tion fix is determined when the orbital information of the three
satellites is known, and the time for an R F signal to travel from
each satellite to thevehicle is obtained. These three time measure-
ments define circles on the earth. The common intersection of
these three circles is the vehicle’s location.
System B provides a position fix by measurement of the range
from twosatellites to the user vehicle coupled with knowledge of
the user vehicle.(See Anderson [2] for further description of
systems A and B.) The system operation requires mutual visi-
bility with at least two satellites for the user. A position fix is
determined as in system A with an aircraft’s altimeter reading
used for the third range value. This system is less accurate than
system A because altimeter accuracy is about 4 6 6 1 m (150-200
ft) andsatellite range accuracy is about 15 m(50 ft).
System C is basically an angle measurement approach com-
bined with a single range measurement. In this approach, a
satellite-borne angle measurement device, such as two mutually
perpendicular long-baseline interferometers operating at a
selected RF, determines the two pointing angles from satellite
to user vehicle. The system implementation requires satellite
attitude information since the orientation of the interferometers
axes must be accurately known for the angle determination in-
volved. Each angle measurement geometrically defines a cone
projected on the earth’s surface. The two cones and the circle
(from the range measurement) intersect at the vehicle’s position.
Keats discusses systems C and D [3].
System D is the familiar Doppler approach. This technique
does not provide an instantaneous or “real-time” determination
of position, but requires several measurements over a period of
time as well as accurate satellite orbital characteristics. Integra-
tion of the Doppler or range-rate curve provides range measure-
EHRLICH: TIME-FREQUENCY I N SATELLITE POSITION DETERMINATION 565

TABLE I
REPRESENTATIVE
SATELLITE
POSITION
TECHNIQUES
A, B, C, AND D
SURFACES
firs REQQ OF p[KITIQ

3
3
mPnEREt

2 3
SPMRES

Ic I
U
ANGLERANGE
I

TABLE I1
REPRESENTATIVE
SATELLITE E, F, G , H,I AND J
Pmrno~TECHNIQUES
IEASmmmn
SvrmrmE8oucRw PERmRLO

2 SPHERES

I HYPERBOLOIO

I SPHERE

2 CMES

3 HYPERBOLOIDS

I'
LY AR=R1-R2
2 HYPERBOLOIM
A R = RI-R3

ALTITUDE 1 SPHERE

RMGE
I WERE
ELEVATIONANGLE
ELEVATION ANGLE RATE 2 CORES

ments. Three such measurements provide position fix data as in used in place of the range measurement for aircraft applications.
system A. The Transit satellites employ this system. (Guier and Surface craft can use only the two angle measurements for a
Weiffenbach fully describe system D [4].) position fix.
System E is similar to system C in that it is basically a n angle System F involves a measurcment of range, range rate, and
measurement technique. However, in this case, the user altitude is radial acceleration from a single satellite. This system may also be
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566 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MAY 1972

implemented by utilizing user altitudeinformation and dis- A . Two-Satellite Ranging Employing Geostationary Satellites
regarding theradial acceleration measurement which can be Experiments were performed with the NASA ATS 1 and 3
difficult and expensive to implement. satellites to demonstrate satellite position location employing the
System G is similar to system E except that two angles, the technique of system B [6]. Both satellites were equipped with the
elevation angles to two satellites, are measured at the user craft. VHF transponders of 100-kHz bandwidth. Transmission from
Such angle measurement requires high precision. The measured vehicle to satellite was at 149.2 MHz, and from satellite to vehicle
elevation angles are used in the same manner as optical sextant or ground was at 135.6 MHz. ATS 1 was locatedabove the
observations of natural celestial bodies. Computation is simple. Pacific Ocean at about 15O”W longitude, and ATS 3 above the
Accurate satellite orbital data are required for good position Atlantic Ocean at about 74”W longitude. The satellite’s latitude
location. was about 0”.
System H measures threerange differences from athree- Range determinations were made by measuring the propaga-
satellite configuration. This approach eliminates the requirement tion time of a radiosignal from theground station to thesatellite,
for allaltimeter information, but places increased complexity on to the user;and return to the ground station. The propagation
the electronic equipment in the user vehicle. Hyperbolic lines of time was then converted to a range measurement by relating it to
position are provided to the vehicle and their point of mutual the known propagation velocity of radio signals. Propagation
intersection is the position fix. This system can be imagined a l a time was measured by placing a time marker in the form of a
Loran-C system in space. coded sequence of pulses on thetransmitted signal and measuring
System I measures two range differences and the user vehicle
the time for thepulse train to go to the user and return.
altitude. This implementation is analogous to the conventional
Each user of the system was assigned a unique digital address
hyperbolic navigation techniques, such as Loran-C, presently
code. When the user’s fix was to be determined, as scheduled by
used for long-range navigation throughout the world. (See Potts
the ground terminal computer, his address code was transmitted
and Wieder [ 5 ] . ) by the ground station to one of the geostationary satellites, the
System J measures range between a single satellite and the
“interrogating satellite,” that would repeat it pulse by pulse. All
user, elevation angle at the user craft, and elevation angle rate.
of the users receive the satellite transmission, but the transponder
This general approach may also be coupled with user craft alti-
of the one user that was addressed automatically recognized the
tude, which may alleviate certain of the difficulties associated with
address code and retransmitted it to both satellites. Each repeated
the user craft angle measurement approach. Implementation is
it pulse by pulse. If the user was an aircraft, its altitude as de-
difficult and experiments have not been conducted.
termined by its own altimeter was included in its response. The
In addition to the variety of satellite-only navigation tech-
ground terminal measured the time from the first repetition by
niques described above, experiments using a satellite-to-relay
the interrogating satellites to thetimes of the user’s return by each
ground-based navigation signals, such as Omega, have demon-
of the twosatellites. With these measurements, the ground termi-
strated certainadvantages for bothposition locating and the
nal could determine the ranges from the two known positions of
transfer of time.
the satellites to the user. All of the pulses transmitted from the
This paper will describe the details of selected and representa-
ground station were clocked from a continuously runningdigital-
tive actice navigation satellite systems with emphasis on the role
clock pulse generator.
of time and frequency accuracies required. Passive navigation
The user received the pulses from the ATS satellite on a stan-
satellite systems are described by Easton [ I ] in this issue.
dard AMaircraft receiver. All of the pulses received were applied
to a pulse-time matching circuit. Locally generated pulses were
11. ACTIVENAVIGATION SATELLITE SYSTEMS then applied to a pulse-time matcher, which adjusted the timing
In active navigation satellite systems the user vehicle-be it of the locally generated pulses so that they corresponded to the
ship, aircraft, or other mobile platform-has the capability to timing of the received pulses. The local pulses were generated at
initiate and/or transpond R F signals to the satellite for-retrans- the same rate as the ground terminal pulse rate within an ac-
mission earthward. Such systems afford no “secure communica- curacy of one part inl o 7 or better-an accuracy achievable from
tion” and will normally be utilized by civilian craft, or craft a moderately priced oscillator. The pulse-time matcher averaged
which desire to have others know where they are. one thousand or more received pulses in establishing the timing
Active systems may be used in applications such as air traffic of the locally generated pulse train. The averaging process im-
control, shiptraffic, monitoring of free-drifting balloons or buoys, proved the timing accuracy by the square rootof the number of
and search-and-rescue actions. Common to active systems is the pulses averaged.
capability to have a master ground station calculate a user’s There were separate receivers at the ground terminals for the
vehicle position and relay it to the user if necessary, or store it for two satellites. If the transmissions from thesatellites were on the
future use. This feature may reduce the cost of user navigation same frequency, they could be distinguished at the groundtermi-
equipment, since the need for a computer can be eliminated. The nal by directive antennas.
space or vehicle equipment needed to perform active satellite Each receiver output was applied to an address code recog-
navigation requires no technological breakthroughs. Implementa- nizer of a type that may conceptually be described as a tapped
tion of such systems can be made available within a few years delay line. Prior to the interrogation of an individual user, the
after a go-ahead decision. taps were switched to a summing circuit corresponding to the
The NationalAeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) code of the user to be addressed. When the address code was re-
has conducted numerous active satellite-navigation and position- ceived from a satellite, a single output pulse occurred at the out-
fixing experiments with aircraft, ships, buoys, and other mobile put of the summing circuit.
vehicles, as well as studies of potentially attractiveadvanced The first return from the interrogating satellite produced a
navigation satellite systems. Representative navigation satellite time reference pulse, followed by the second return from the in-
experiments will be reviewed. terrogating satellite and the sinde return from the other satellite.

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EHRLICH : TIME-FREQUENCY IN SATELLITE POSlTION DETERMINATION 567

The time interval between the reference pulse and the following
returns were separately measured, and from these measurements
the ranges from thesatellites to theuser were determined.
Numerous ship andaircraft position location tests were con-
ducted by ranging to the ATS1 and 3 inthe previously described
manner. InJune 1969, theCoast Guart Cutter V d i m t was
equipped with a 300-W power amplifier and a specially designed
t
-L
e14 20 49

tone-coderangingresponder attached to a radio transmitter-

receiving unit. The antennawas a pairof crossed dipoles connected
for circular polarization and having a gain of less than 0 dB.
During early July, the ship was interrogated through one of the
satellites at 3-s intervals. A plotof fix precision was made foreach
time interval.
During the first test period, the satellite-ship signal paths were
relatively good. Only one of the twenty-six fix estimates fell out-
side a 1-nmi (1.85-km) radius circle. The second period had gen-
erally good signallevels, but there were several points which were
displaced farther from the best fit curve than is typical of the
previous or following time periods. The reason has not been defi- 142349
t
e 14 2 3 52 4
t
ritely assigned, but it is most probable that it represents a known ONE' NAUTICAL MILE
characteristic of the receiving equipment. The receivers exhibited 0 VORTAC (1.85 km)
142322
a change in timedelay of 5 to 7 ps with changes in received signal
level. A comparison of the range measurements for ATS 1 and 3
reveals that. the displacement of the range measurements is highly
t
correlated in the returns from the two satellites; this indicates
that thevariance in time delay occurred in thereceiver on the ship
as it received the interrogation signal from ATS 3.
A major objective of the aircraftflights was a test of the two-
€
93'20'Y

Fig. 1. Comparison of satellite and VORTAC position

satellite position-fixing performance under good signal conditions iixes-DC-6B aircraft, June 12, 1969.
over land and water with a high-speed vehicle. Interrogations
were made at 3-s intervals through AT'S 3, and responses were
returned from the aircraft through both ATS 1 and ATS 3. The
horizon mode of the,antenna provided the best performance, the
elevation angle to ATS 1 being 9' and to the ATS 3 being 33'.
Many hundredsof two-satellite ranging messurementswere made
during the flight. From these, ten were selected for comparison
with VORTAC [7] position determinationsand were in such close
agreement that they could not be separately plotted to the scale
of the mapin Fig. 1. The VORTAC positions were determined to
the nearest minute. l'represents 1 nmi (1.85km) in latitude and
approximately 0.7 nmi (1.30 km) in longitude. All of the arbi-
trarily selected satellite position fixes agreed with the VORTAC
positions within f3' of latitude and f2' of longitude. Fig. 2. Satellitetrafficcontroltechnology.
Precision plots showed the deviation of individual fix de-
terminations from a meanvalue which was determined from best-
fit curves as computed from the range measurements from each B. Position Location uia Satellite Relay of Omega
satellite. Factors not included in the !ix position plots are bias In a potentially attractive and comparatively simple satellite
errors caused by ionospheric propagation delay, satellite tracking navigation technique a vehicle receives signals from a ground-
uncertainty,aircraftaltitudeuncertainty, and equipmenttime based navigation system and relays these signals to a geosta-
delay bias. With the possible exception of aircraft altitude un- tionary orbitingsatellite for retransmission to a ground computing
certainty,these bias changes have periods of hours, days, or center. This technique has been developed by NASA's Goddard
longer. All of the factors that affect the short-term variations in Space Flight Center and is called the Omega Position Location
accuracy are included in the precision plots. These are sea-reflec- Experiment or OPLE [81.
tion interference multipath, changing SNR, and changing signal The OPLEsystem concept is based on the reception of Omega
level and its effect on receiver time delay, as well as short-term signals from at least three stations; the communication circuit,
fluctuations in ionospheric time delay. connecting the vehicle to the central processing location, is pro-
The largest test factor in fix precision is sea-reflection multi- vided by a synchronous satellite repeater capable of operating
path. This can be minimized by improved antenna designs, al- with a large number of vessels. Both the vehicle and the satellite
though it may remain as the factor that contributes the largest function essentially as transponders, although different frequency
errors toposition fix accuracy at VHF. Its effect on overall system regimentation and stabilization schemes are employed. As shown
performance can be minimized if its characteristics are recognized in Fig. 2 , the system consists of 1) an OPLE Control Center
and certain precautionstaken in the operationof the system. (OCC), 2) the ATS 3 synchronous satellite, and 3) OPLE plat-

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568 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MAY 1972

Y ULTENNA

wF

r-l LIMITER

ATTEH
1 11.YI4kHz
. T O DIGITAL
CLOCK FREO.
DIVIDER

10.2 kHz ( H A W E L
FILTER
A
L F- 115.705 LIMITER
T F- 115.705 LIMITER

I
EW 55 Hz
3 - 1 A

I 11.33 LHx CHANNEL

FILTER 1

13.6 LHz CHANNEL

I
FILTER
* F s 115.390 ’ LIMITER
ew IAO n. +
Fig. 3. Platformfunctional diagram.

.forms working in conjunction with 4) the Omega network. The A/R tone and the basic timing. Oscillator fi is present to provide
OCC controls the operation of the vehicle equipment by means of one of four permissible transmission frequencies. To obtain maxi-
interrogation signals. An interrogation sequence, initiated by the mum use of the available satellite transponder bandwidth, each
K C , is relayed to all the‘ platforms in the area of coverage pro- platform is assigned achannelapproximately 2.5 kHz wide
vided by the satellite. Upon receipt of a unique address, and upon within the transponder bandwidth.
the conclusion ofthe complete interrogation cycle, a given plat- The experimental OCC performs five basic operating func-
form will turneon allsof its circuitry, including a timer which con- tions :
trols the response sequence. 1) interrogation of the platforms via the satellite;
The correctly addressed vehicles respond by transmitting a 2) simultaneous acquisition and continuous tracking of vehi-
previously assigned single frequency acquisition, reference (A/ R) cles ;
signal: and the Omega transmission mode is initiated. In this 3) reception and processing of the Omega VLF signals to ob-
mode, the Omega signals are passed through a VLF receiver. tain the platform locations;
This receiver accepts signals in aband from 10.2 through 13.6 kHz 4) direct monitoring of the Omega stations to provide the re-
and compresses them to a bandwidth of 2 kHz. The mixing signals quired timing references;
used in this process are derived from a temperature-controlled 5) simulation of full OPLE system operation by transmitting
crystal oscillator. In Fig. 3, oscillatorf2 provides the temperature- noise signals in unused platform channels.
compensatedfrequency sourcewith a stability of 1 part in lo6over
6 mo. It serves as the local oscillator source for upconverting A variety of mobile vehicle experiment tests were conducted
and for compressing the Omega spectrum, as well as for the with OPLE equipment and the ATS 3 satellite. In June 1968 an
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570 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEE, MAY 1972

TABLE 111 bits of data storage; a second flight offered 350 interrogations per
OMEGA VERSUS OPLE FIXES
SHIPBOARD orbit and 100 OOO bits of data storage. The ultimate system is
limited to 2000 interrogations per orbit, and data memory mod-
Iu. ules of 1 500 000 bits have been developed.
The IRLS elapsed-time counter, as previously mentioned, is
l4'5l.R' 5930.2' reset to zero when the new interrogation sequenceis loaded into
1233.3' 6011.1'
113!l.7' 6lP.8' the satellite. This counteris synchronized by the spacecraft clock,
11'48.4' W4i.l'
11*41.0' GZ%S.0' which is stable to 0.1 parts in lo6, and updated each 0.4 s to
11*2%5' W0.Y provide a word corresponding to the time portion of an interroga-
ll.5Q.0' 6llo.Y
lOrn.4' RoP.5' tion command.
10*15.B' 60'16.1'
1051.1' 60.15.8' Recording: At the completion of the orbit, the ground station
11'04.2'
II.SI.V
60'16.1'
80.41.4'
sends a commandfor the readoutof all digital data stored during
the orbit. This is performed through the spacecraft command
To convert feet to meters multiply by 0.305. system.- With the data received on the ground and stored in a
b Mag = Magnitude of deviation from the true (shipboard Omega) buffer memory, further processing is required to separate the
position when using OPLE. message frames. A smalldata processor sorts out framesby em-
=(Lat*+LongZ)l'*.
ploying the rules of coding designedinto thesystem and assembles
the data into a suitable format for transmission to the central data
mately 10 km, and the average difference was about 3 km. A processing site located attheGoddard SpaceFlightCenter.
direct comparison between the Omega receiver aboard ship and There the location of each platform is computed, and the next
OPLE fixes is summarized in Table111.The difference of range is interrogation sequenceis generated.
from less than 1 km to 7 k m , with a 3-km average. As more data Location: The platformis located by making multiple measure-
are gathered on propagation characteristics of the Omega net- ments ofthe distance between itand thesatellite, and using these
work, and more stations activated, it is likely that the system's measurements in ageometrical equation. This geometryis shown
position fixing accuracy will be improved. in Fig. 6. Computer analysis of this problem has shown that two
measurements of distance R 1 and R Zare sufficient to establish the
C. Multiple Ranging to a Single Satellite platform locations. The two measurements R1 and R , define a
There exist numerousapplications of satellite navigation plane triangle to be calculated. The vertical projection of this
which do not require instantaneous position fixes. Ships, buoys, triangle on theearth's surface defines a spherical triangle having,
and balloons are examples of those users whose velocity is suf- as its vertices, the subsatellite points 1 and 2 along the ground
ficiently low not to cause appreciable errors in position when track, and the platformposition. Once this construction is com-
awaiting the required period of time to make a fix. A Goddard plete and thesubsatellite points' coordinates have been computed
Space Flight Center navigationsatellite technique called Interro- from the ephermeris data, the surface station coordinates can be
gation, Recording, and Location System (IRLS) employed three computed.
or morerange measurements taken between various vehicles and The measurement of the distances R1 and R Z is made by
the Nimbus 3 satellite [9]. This technique, equivalentt o integrat- measuring the round-trip propagation time of the radiosignal be-
ing the Transit Doppler curve, provides sufficient data along with tween the satellite and the platform, and by using the propagation
the satellite orbit to determine a position fix. velocity of light to determine the distance.To measure accurately
Interrogation: As its name implies, the IRLS performs three thepropagationtime,acounterinthe satellite, driven by a
functions, thefirst of whichis interrogation. This function allows 1.6-MHz clock,is started at the beginning of each received range
the satellite to communicate with any specific surface vehicle by code pattern. The counter contains 15 stages and is capable of
assigning each a discrete address. A command consists
parts: first, the address of the vehicle to be interrogated; and one-way range resolution of
second, the exact time, referenced to satellite-orbit time, of the
-
of two resolving time increments of 0.625 ~ s which
100 m.
, is equivalent to a

Based on the orbital geometry of the satellite (which is pre-

interrogation. Each command word is digitally coded and consists dictable t o within 0.3 km) it has been computed that there is a
of 32 bits, of which 16 specify the address and 16 specify time. 95-percent probability that the location error will be less than
The interrogation sequence for anygiven orbit is predicted by a 2 km when the range distance is measured with an accuracy of
computer, and transmittedto the satellite when it passes overthe 0.5 km. This is achieved by maintaining several tolerancesin the
ground acquisition and command station. system. The transceiver time delay must be known within 0.5 ps
At the appropriate time, the command sequence described or 0.15 km. Since there is a transceiver on thesatellite and one in
above is transmitted to the satellite, where it is stored in the the platform, thisis a total errorof 1 .Ops or 0.3 km. The two-way
command memory. When the satellite-clock time (which is reset range measurement is resolved by a 1.6-MHz clock to 0.625 ps,
to zero upon receipt of the signal from the command station) or -0.2 km, which yieldsa one-way range resolution of -0.1 km.
coincides with the time of the first command, the satellite begins Additional "time jitter" and instabilities in the system account
transmission of the address in the first command. This is done by for 0.5 ps or 0.15 km. The total range measurement error in the
transmitting the address codeof the vehicleserially at the rate of system is the total of these errors (0.3, 0.1, and 0.15) or 0.55 km
1041 bits/s, as a digital subcarrier of the fundamental system bit (worst case).
rate of 12.5 kbits/s. The vehicle receives the signal, decodes itfor
comparison with its own address, and,if it corresponds, verifies 111. STATUS OF NAVIGATION SATELLITE CONCEPTS
its identity to the satellite. At the end of this two-way communica-The major potentialusers of navigational satellites appear to
tion with the vehicle, which can include the transmission of any be the over-ocean airlines and the oceanic maritime industry.
digital data, thecommand memory is updated and thenext com- Both transportation organizations need improved navigationaids.
mand is compared to satellite time. This procedure is repeated The airlines want to reduce the 225 km wide lateral-separation
for each command. requirement presently in force over the oceanic regions to 85 km,
The first flight provided 20 interrogations per orbit and20 OOO and eventually to 55 km. The present requirement is costly in
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EHRLICH : TIME-FREQUENCY IN SATELLlTE POSITION DETERMINATION
OCEANOGRARII
Fig. 6. Interrogation, recording, and locationsubsystem.
terms of the air-space use, added travel time, and fuelconsumed.
Ships require a low-cost all-weather world-wide navigation aid
that can provide good position accuracy both on the high seas
and in confluent water regions.
To meet the aviation needs, the Federal Aviation Administra-
tion and the European Space Research Organization are planning
to implement a two-satellite multiple-range system (system B) in
the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean regions in the 1975-1976 time
period, operating at the L-band frequency (1535 MHz to 1660
MHz). This frequency was allocated to aeronautical and mari-
time navigation by means of space techniques at the 1971 World
Administrative Radio Conference (WARC).Range tests con-
ducted by NASA, using the ATS 5 satellite in 1969-1970, indicate
that aircraft location-position accuracy should be about 1 km.
The Maritime Administration(MARAD) hasindicated strong
interest in space technology for improving the economic position
of the U. S. shipping fleet. NASA and MARAD have plans for
joint satellite-ship experiments in nsvigation and communica-
tions, employing the two-satellite timedelay measurements at the
L-band frequency.
The OPLE technique of hyperbolic navigation transfer to a
satellite is presently underactive review within several U. S.
government agencies as a technique for locating vehicles in dis-
tress. With the recent approval at the1971 WARC of 100 kHz at
the 406-MHz frequency as a vehiclesatellite link for emergency
position indicating radio beacons (EPIRB) NASA,in conjunction
with organizations responsible for search and rescue activities, is
considering experimentation with the Synchronous Meteorologi-
cal Satellites that have receivers at the401-MHz frequency.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
The use of time, time interval,and frequency has been shown
to be a significant and integral part of position determination by
satellites. Experiments during 1%7-1970 have successfully dem-
onstrated the transfer of accurate timeand frequency information
between ships, aircraft, balloons, buoys,and otherplatforms and
groundAuthorized
stationslicensed use limitedand
fornavigation to: Iran Univ of fixing
position Sciencefunctions.
and Tech. Downloaded on1%5.
571
PROJECTION ON EARTH
The excellent results of experiments employing simultaneous
ranging between ships and aircraft and two geostationary altitude
satellites (ATS 1 and 3) have provided strong motivation to the
U. S. and Europeanorganizations to proceed into prototype
operational satellite systems. The transfer of Omega navigation
phase data, received by a vehicle, to a geostationarysatellite
36 OOO km away and retransponded 36 OOO km to an earth station
for processing position fix information has also been successfully
demonstrated. OPLE demonstrated that the phase of the Omega
frequency pattern can be retained for useful navigation data when
transferred via a satellite. The technology developed and demon-
strated from these OPLE tests has made possible a new concept
for aglobal rescue and alertingtechnique that may save the
lives of passengers and crew of ships and/or aircraft.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author wishes to thank W. Hanson of theNational
Bureau of Standards for helpful comments in the preparationof
this manuscript.
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[3]E. K a t s , “A navigation system using distance and direction mea-
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[4]W. H. Guier and G. C . Weiffenbach, “A satellite Doppler naviga-
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niv of Science and Tech. Downloaded on July 19,2010 at 09:12:44 U
Authorized licensed use limited to: Iran Univ of Science and Tech. Downloaded on July 19,2010 at 09:12:44 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.