Photographing Satellite Reflected Laser Pulses For Geodetic Stereo Triangulation

Contents: The use of artificial satellites for geodesy; Satellite and ground instrumentation; AFCRL laser-satellite geodesy; AFCRL geodetic dual laser system; Intervisible (geometric) adjustment theory; Short arc geodetic adjustment (SAGA) theory; Geometric results from geodetic satellite (ANNA 1B) optical data; Improvement of the GEOS-1 North American tracking network from multiple short arc geodetic adjustments; Near term prospects for positional accuracies of 0.1 to 1.0 meters from satellite geodesy; Results from simulations of continuously integrated doppler for precise aircraft positioning; Simultaneous recovery of satellite and station positions utilizing the short arc method; Least-squares collocation method for combination of satellite-derived gravitational and terrestrial gravity.

A novel laser system designed and developed for satellite illumination is based on the use of two ruby lasers. It obtains range with a Q-switched laser and angular information by photographing satellite-reflected high-energy normal-mode laser pulses against stellar fields. The Q-switched laser system, operated in a controlled multipulse mode, is capable of up to 10 range measurements in a single pumping period. This increases confidence in the validity of the measurements especially since they are obtained in the presence of the high background noise that is encountered in daylight range measurements. The difference in satellite range within a 400-microsec time frame has been observed by means of the multipulse approach. (Author).