METHOD OF CALIBRATING RADAR STATION USING SPACECRAFT WITH REFERENCE REFLECTION CHARACTERISTICS Russian patent published in 2016 - IPC G01S7/40 

FIELD: radio engineering, communication.

SUBSTANCE: disclosed method includes launching a spacecraft with reference reflection characteristics onto an orbit around the Earth, irradiating the said spacecraft with radar signals, receiving and measuring the amplitude of the reflected signals. The spacecraft with reference reflection characteristics comprises a housing in the form of a rectangular prism, one of the faces of which has a radio-reflecting surface. The lateral edge of the rectangular prism is additionally fitted with a flat rectangular plate made of a radio-reflecting material, which is pivotally connected to the housing of the spacecraft. The rectangular plate is turned relative to the face of the rectangular prism having a radio-reflecting surface by an angle α and a dihedral comer reflector is formed. The angle α between the faces of the corner reflector is given in a certain range in degrees. During flight, a ground-based control system transmits to the spacecraft coordinates of the radar station to be calibrated based on the radar cross-section. Receivers of a GLONASS and/or GPS navigation system and an on-board digital computer system determine the current coordinates of the centre of mass of the spacecraft, the angles of the current spatial orientation of the spacecraft, the position of the centre of mass of the spacecraft relative to the coordinates of the radar station being calibrated, as well as the orientation of the axes of the bound coordinate system of the spacecraft relative to the line of vision of the radar station being calibrated. Simultaneously, the on-board digital computer system calculates and determines the spatial position of the bisector of the angle of the corner reflector relative to the line of vision of the radar station being calibrated, and the spacecraft orientation system then aligns the position of the bisector of the angle of the corner reflector with the line of vision of the radar station being calibrated. Further, the spacecraft orientation system maintains the alignment of the bisector of the angle of the corner reflector with the line of vision of the radar station being calibrated until the spacecraft exits the zone of the line of sight of the radar station being calibrated. As a result, the maximum of the main lobe of the scattering indicatrix of the corner angle coincides with the line of vision of the radar station being calibrated.

EFFECT: broader functional capabilities and higher accuracy of calibrating radar stations.

6 cl, 6 dwg