Atmospheric sondes and method for tracking
US6421010B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Feb 16, 2001 |
| Grant date | Jul 16, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 16, 2021 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01S5/06
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A system for wind profiling comprises sondes for being borne through the atmosphere by balloons and transmitting signals enabling identifying the sondes, and received by receivers capable of determining the angle of arrival (AOA) of the signals from the sondes, so that they can be tracked. In the preferred embodiment, the signal transmitted by each sonde is a phase-shift-keyed (PSK) signal. The carrier phase difference as measured at two spaced antennas is measured to provide an accurate but ambiguous measure of the difference in distance of the path length between the sonde and receivers, and the symbol phase difference is employed to remove the ambiguity. The difference in path length is then used to determine AOA. Atmospheric data and the sonde identification are encoded using a psuedo-random sequence (PRS) of the PSK symbols.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.