Radiometric Navigation Update

James L. Nettles; A. James Witsmeer; Robert E. Wilt

doi:10.1117/12.959134

23 December 1980 Radiometric Navigation Update

James L. Nettles, A. James Witsmeer, Robert E. Wilt

Proceedings Volume 0238, Image Processing for Missile Guidance; (1980) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.959134
Event: 24th Annual Technical Symposium, 1980, San Diego, United States

Abstract

Boeing Aerospace Company (BAC) of Seattle, Washington and Sperry Microwave Electronics of Clearwater, Florida have developed a multiple-beam radiometric navigation update system. This paper describes the system design, flight test program, and preliminary results. The system was designed and its performance evaluated using analytically derived formulas for performance measures and detailed Monte Carlo simulations. As a result BAC recommended a five or seven fixed beam radiometer. Sperry built a seven-beam, 35 GHz radiometer which BAC flight tested in 1979 to demonstrate its effectiveness over a variety of test scenes under various environmental conditions. Four scenes were selected for the flight test varying from land-water to highly forested regions. Preliminary analysis of the flight test results confirm the expected performance improvement over the single-fixed-beam system tested in 1975. This approach to a terrain sensing millimeter wave radiometer would be applicable to low altitude penetrating aircraft. The system is low cost, with no moving parts; low volume, requiring only a single receiver with small wide-beam antennas; and stealthy, being completely passive. Radiometry can also be complementary to todays terrain correlation approach since flat areas usually contain a maximum of cultural features; where one system works poorly the other works well. This test program provides a data base for studying a wide variety of pattern matching and correlation algorithms, with and without attitude compensation, and using various subsets of the full seven-beam combination.

Citation Download Citation

James L. Nettles, A. James Witsmeer, and Robert E. Wilt "Radiometric Navigation Update", Proc. SPIE 0238, Image Processing for Missile Guidance, (23 December 1980); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.959134

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
11 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Radiometry

Antennas

Navigation systems

Missiles

Image processing

Monte Carlo methods

Clouds

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years