Engineering topics
Lowe, S. T.
Publications and source records attributed to Lowe, S. T..
X/Ka Celestial Frame Improvements: Vision to Reality
In order to extend the International Celestial Reference Frame from its S/X-band (2.3/8.4 GHz) basis to a complementary frame at X/Ka-band (8.4/32 GHz), we began in mid-2005 an ongoing series of X/Ka observations using NASA s Deep Space Network (DSN) radio telescopes. Over the course of 47 sessions, we have detected 351 extra-galactic radio sources covering the full 24 hours of right ascension and declinations down to -45 degrees. Angular source position accuracy is at the part-per-billion level. We developed an error budget which shows that the main errors arise from limited sensitivity, mismodeling of the troposphere, uncalibrated instrumental effects, and the lack of a southern baseline. Recent work has improved sensitivity by improving pointing calibrations and by increasing the data rate four-fold. Troposphere calibration has been demonstrated at the mm-level. Construction of instrumental phase calibrators and new digital baseband filtering electronics began in recent months. We will discuss the expected effect of these improvements on the X/Ka frame.
Carrier phase delay altimetry from low eleveation GPSR measurements
GPS-Reflections (GPSR) observations at very low elevation angles take advantage of the apparent smoothness of the surface to enable phase-delay altimetry, of centimetric nominal precision, higher than the GPSR code-delay estimates.
Extending the ICRF to Higher Radio Frequencies
The ICRF forms the basis for all astrometry including use as the inertial coordinate system for navigating deep space missions. This frame was defined using S/X-band observations over the past 20+ years. In January 2002, the VLBA approved our proposal for observing time to extend the ICRF to K-band (24 GHz) and Q-band (43 GHz). The first step will be observations at K- and Q-bands on a subset of ICRF sources. Eventually, K- and Q-band multi-epoch observations will be used to estimate positions, flux density and source structure for a large fraction of the current S/X-band ICRF source list. This work will benefit the radio astronomy community by extending the VLBA calibrator list at these bands. In the longer term, we would also like to extend the ICRF to Ka-band (32 GHz). A celestial reference frame will be needed at this frequency to support deep space navigation. A navigation demonstration is being considered for NASA's Mars 2005 mission. The initial K- and Q-band work will serve to identify candidate sources at Ka-band for use with that mission.
Observing system simulation experiments for GPS altimetry
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Ground-based GPS altimetry: the Crater-Lake experiment and coastal monitoring
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The limiting accuracy of GPS-reflection altimetry from the Crater Lake experiment
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A nanoradian differential VLBI tracking demonstration
The shift due to Jovian gravitational deflection in the apparent angular position of the radio source P 0201+113 was measured with very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) to demonstrate a differential angular tracking technique with nanoradian accuracy. The raypath of the radio source P 0201+113 passed within 1 mrad of Jupiter (approximately 10 Jovian radii) on 21 Mar. 1988. Its angular position was measured 10 times over 4 hours on that date, with a similar measurement set on 2 Apr. 1988, to track the differential angular gravitational deflection of the raypath. According to general relativity, the expected gravitational bend of the raypath averaged over the duration of the March experiment was approximately 1.45 nrad projected onto the two California-Australia baselines over which it was measured. Measurement accuracies on the order of 0.78 nrad were obtained for each of the ten differential measurements. The chi(exp 2) per degree of freedom of the data for the hypothesis of general relativity was 0.6, which suggests that the modeled dominant errors due to system noise and tropospheric fluctuations fully accounted for the scatter in the measured angular deflections. The chi(exp 2) per degree of freedom for the hypothesis of no gravitational deflection by Jupiter was 4.1, which rejects the no-deflection hypothesis with greater than 99.999 percent confidence. The system noise contributed about 0.34 nrad per combined-baseline differential measurement and tropospheric fluctuations contributed about 0.70 nrad. Unmodeled errors were assessed, which could potentially increase the 0.78 nrad error by about 8 percent. The above chi(exp 2) values, which result from the full accounting of errors, suggest that the nanoradian gravitational deflection signature was successfully tracked.
A measurement of planetary relativistic deflection
The technique of differential VLBI, over two DSN California-Australia baselines, is used to measure the angular deflection of the ray path of P0201 + 113 when it passed within 200 arcsec of Jupiter on March 21, 1988. Its angular position was measured 10 times over 4 hr on that date, with a similar measurement set on April 2, 1988, to detect the differential angular deflection of the ray path. According to general relativity, the expected gravitational bend of the ray path averaged over the March experiment duration was approximately 300 microarcsec, projected onto the two California-Australia baselines over which it was measured. Measurement accuracies of the order of 160 microarcsec were obtained for each of the ten differential measurements. The chi(2) per degree of freedom of the data for the noise and tropospheric fluctuations fully accounted for the scatter in the measured angular deflections. The chi(2) per degree of freedom for the hypothesis of no gravitational deflection by Jupiter was 4.1, which rejects the no-deflection hypothesis with greater than 99.999-percent confidence.
A demonstration of nanoradian VLBI tracking for deep space navigation
Differential VLBI measurements of the shift in angular position of P 0201+113 due to the effect of Jupiter's gravitational field demonstrate a nanoradian-level, natural-source tracking capability. The high accuracy was achieved by measuring the VLBI delay and delay rate of the target as well as the delays and rates of 5 or more natural radio sources, forming a local reference frame. This accuracy should also be attainable with spacecraft targets. A set of angular positions were inferred for each of two epochs in March and April of 1988. These positions were then differenced to measure the effect of the Jovian gravitational deflection. The differential measurement is largely insensitive to radio source position and structure errors. An additional analysis of the same data, using another source, P 0202+14, as the target, verified that a null planetary gravitational deflection result could also be obtained for a raypath far from any planet. For both targets, the RMS angular scatter of the differential deflections about their expected behavior was about 1.3 nanoradians.
The definition and stability of local inertial reference frames
VLBI measurements of extragalactic radio sources are utilized to develop a definition system for local inertial reference frames. Significant astrometric errors are identified and minimized by means of a parameter-estimation technique. A reference frame is measured for 30 min to observe the radio emission of the object to be located in the frame as well as the emission from about five additional sources which define the frame. Because the structures of the objects are unknown and tropospheric fluctuations exist, limiting errors exist for both single-epoch position determination and epoch-to-epoch differential position measurements. Data are presented regarding relativistic gravitational deflection by Jupiter which show that the local reference frame is stable at 240 microarcseconds over 12 days.