Date of Award
3-23-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Department of Engineering Physics
First Advisor
Daniel J. Emmons, PhD.
Abstract
High Frequency (HF) geolocation techniques are commonly used to track the source of uncooperative HF emitters. A traveling ionospheric disturbance (TID) makes geolocation particularly difficult due to large perturbations in the local ionospheric electron density profile. Angle of Arrival (AoA) and ionosonde virtual height measurements collected at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico in January 2014, are analyzed during a medium scale traveling ionospheric disturbance. TID characteristics are extracted from the measurements, and a comparison between the data sets is per- formed to provide a measure of correlation as a function of distance and time between the ionosonde and AoA circuit midpoints. Additionally, ionosonde measurements are used in a simple model to predict AoA elevation angle changes at a downstream HF receiver. The simple model is able to predict changes in AoA elevation angles when the ionosonde North-South tilt is zero; however, as the tilt increases, so too does the error in the simple model
AFIT Designator
AFIT-ENP-MS-18-M-087
DTIC Accession Number
AD1056258
Recommended Citation
Knippling, Kalen L., "A Comparison of High Frequency Angle of Arrival and Ionosonde Data during a Traveling Ionospheric Disturbance" (2018). Theses and Dissertations. 1751.
https://scholar.afit.edu/etd/1751