Citation
Abstract
Measurement of the round-trip propagation time to a spacecraft when the signal path passes close by the sun is a severe challenge because of the high noise and time-varying signal delay encountered. Scintillation in the solar corona widens the spectrum of the received carrier signal so that it can not be efficiently tracked by the conventional phase locked receivers of the DSN. A substantial improvement in performance can be achieved by matching the processing bandwidth to the dynamical conditions of the near-Sun signal path. This processing can be performed off-line with software after the signal is open-loop digitized and recorded. This article gives a detailed description and estimates the performance of such a system.
Details
- Volume
- 42-44
- Published
- April 15, 1978
- Pages
- 54–62
- File Size
- 747.6 KB