Iterative ray-tracing for autoscaling of oblique ionograms
AssigneeAtmospheric & Space Technology Research Associates LLC
InventorsGeoffrey Crowley, Timothy M. Duly, Clive Winkler, Syed Irfan Azeem
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Abstract
This invention relates generally to ionogram image processing, autoscaling and inversion systems and methods for ionospheric monitoring, modeling, and estimation of the same. One advantage of the present invention is to provide a system, e.g., a lightweight, low-power, and fully-autonomous ionospheric monitoring system that is able to provide fully processed and highly accurate ionosphere characterization in near real-time over a low data-rate satellite link.
Claims20
A method of iterative ray tracing, comprising the steps of:
- receiving a first input comprising data indicative of an OI ionogram;
- reducing at least one of noise and other spurious signals in the data, with computational equipment to programically produce a first output comprising first output data;
- autoscaling the first output data, with computational equipment, to programically produce a second output comprising data indicative of a substantially separated O-trace and an X-trace;
- iteratively processing the second output, with computation equipment, to programically predict the electron density profile over the measurement region.
An apparatus for calculating iterative ray tracing, comprising:
- a networking system, processor, memory, and storage.
A system for iterative ray tracing, comprising:
- receiving a first input comprising data indicative of an OI ionogram at an image processing module;
- reducing at least one of noise and other spurious signals in the data, with the image processing module to programically produce a first output comprising first output data;
- autoscaling the first output data received from the image processing module, with an autoscaling and extraction module to programically produce a second output comprising data indicative of a substantially separated O-trace and an X-trace;
- and
- iteratively processing the second output received from the autoscaling and extraction module, with an inversion module, to programically predict the electron density profile over the measurement region.
The system of claim 6, wherein the inversion module comprises an initialization for inversion module and an inversion module.
A method of iterative ray tracing, comprising the steps of:
- receiving a data set including data indicative of an oblique incidence (OI) ionogram;
- processing the data set for extracting information (IOI) for one or more traces of the ionogram, wherein the information IOI includes at least information indicative of reflections of radio signals at a set of group ranges and a set of frequency bins;
- performing, using computational equipment, a first inversion process and a second inversion process using the information IOI, wherein
- the first inversion process comprises:
- processing ray tracing, using the information IOI, for information (IVI) indicative of reflections of radio signals at a set of group ranges and a set of frequency bins with respect to vertical incidences (VIs);
- and
- determining, using the information IVI, an initial electron density profile, wherein the second inversion process determines a further electron density profile using the initial electron density profile in an iterative process.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.