DOCUMENT 820-13; REV. A
DSN SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
DETAILED INTERFACE DESIGN
TRK-2-23
DSN Tracking System Interfaces
Media Calibration Data Interface
(Insert this module in Document 820-13; Rev. A)
EFFECTIVE DATE: Mark IVA Implementation
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Initial Release Date: June 1, 1985
Approved by: s/Joseph A. Wackley (430)
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s/Herbert N. Royden (335)
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s/Gene L. Goltz (314)
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A. PURPOSE
This module defines the formats and content of the media calibration
data provided by the Tracking System Analytic Calibration (TSAC) group.
B. REVISION AND CONTROL
Revisions or changes to the information herein presented may be
initiated in accordance with the procedures in Section I of this document.
C. GENERAL INFORMATION
Media calibrations provided by the DSN are used by project navigation
teams to improve the accuracy of spacecraft orbit determination; they are
also used by project Radio Science teams and other investigators. The
calibrations comprise corrections for the effects of transmission media
(troposphere, ionosphere, and solar plasma) on the radio metric data. The
media calibrations are to be provided at intervals determined by the accuracy
and timeliness requirements of the primary users and by negotiations with the
various DSN users.
D. DATA FORMATS
1. General Description
All TSAC calibrations are provided in the form of card images (or
punched cards, if necessary) in files on the JPL user's computer. On the
Univac 1100/81 computers, the files are in field data format (SDF); on all
other computers, they are in American Standard Code for Information
Interchange (ASCII) format.
TSAC media calibrations conform to the Command Statement
Processor (CSP) English-like command language used by the Orbit Determination
Program (ODP) to adjust, delete, or weight data points. The language is
described in detail in the DPTRAJ-ODP User's Reference Manual (618-783 Rev.
B, Vol. 1, Section 36).
In general, a CSP command consists of a verb and optional scope
limiters and computation specifiers, terminated by a period. A command may,
and frequently does, extend over more than one card image. The CSP commands
produced by the TSAC software comprise a small subset of those used by the
ODP. Elements of CSP commands used in the TSAC media calibrations are given
in Table TRK-2-23-2; examples of the calibrations are given below under the
sub-headings Tropospheric Calibrations, Ionospheric Calibrations, and Solar
Plasma Calibrations.
Table TRK-2-23-1. CSP Elements Used in TSAC Media Calibrations
|===================================================================|
| Type of Element | Elements Used |
|===========================|=======================================|
| Verbs | ADJUST, DELETE |
|---------------------------+---------------------------------------|
| Scope Limiters | Time Span Limiters: |
| | FROM BEFORE |
| | TO AFTER |
| | AT |
| | |
| | Network (Complex or Station): |
| | DSN |
| | C10 11, 12, 13, 14 |
| | C40 42, 43, 44 |
| | C60 61, 62, 63 |
| | |
| | Band: S, X; L (VAX ODP only) |
| | |
| | Source: SCID, QUASAR |
| | |
|---------------------------+---------------------------------------|
| Computation Specifiers | Series Type: |
| | BY NRMPOW BY DNRMPOW |
| | BY CONST BY DCONST |
| | BY TRIG BY DTRIG |
| | |
| | Model: |
| | DRY NUPART (dry troposphere) |
| | WET NUPART (tropospheric water vapor) |
| | CHPART (ionosphere) |
| | DRVID (ionosphere + solar plasma) |
| | |
| | Data Type: |
| | DOPPLER F1, F2, F3, F3C |
| | RANGE PLOP |
| | VLBI |
| | DVLBI |
| | |
|===========================|=======================================|
2. Time Formats
Times are preceded by a time-span limiter (FROM, TO, AT,
BEFORE, or AFTER) and are enclosed in parentheses. The format is
(YY/MM/DD,HH:MM:SS). The year, month, day, hour, and minute values are
integers; seconds are double precision. Up to three of the right-most time
fields may be omitted. When omitted, their values are taken to be zeroes.
The calibrations apply only during the times specified by the time-span
limiter(s). If the limiter is AT, the time span depends on the computer
word length. On the UNIVAC (36-bit word length), the time span is from one
microsecond before the given time to one microsecond after; on the VAX
(32-bit word length), it is from one millisecond before to one millisecond
after.
3. Number Formats
The formats for integers and single- and double-precision floating-
point numbers are the same as in FORTRAN. In addition, the sign of the
exponent of a floating point number may replace the letter D or E; for
example, 1.234E-3 may be written 1.234-3.
4. Comments
Additional explanatory information, not to be used by the ODP, may
appear on a command provided that it is preceded by the number sign (#).
Characters following the number sign are ignored by the ODP.
5. Series Type
Media calibrations may be specified by a normalized power series
(NRMPOW), a single constant (CONST), or a Fourier series (TRIG). If the
coefficients or constant are double precision, the computation specifier is
preceded by the letter "D" (e.g., DNRMPOW).
If the ADJUST command contained BY NRMPOW (C0, C1, ..., CN) FROM (S)
TO (E), where S and E refer to the start and end times for the command, the
calibration is computed from the normalized power series C0 + C1 * X + C2 *
X^2 + ... + CN * X^N. This polynomial is called "normalized" because the
time argument of the series, T, has been replaced by the normalized,
dimensionless argument X, which is defined to be -1 when T = S and +1 when T
= E. This normalization is done by a change of variable given by
X = 2*( (T-S)/(E-S) ) -1.
Up to 24 single-precision or 12 double-precision coefficients are allowed in
one series.
If the ADJUST command contains BY CONST (C), the calibration is given
by the constant C.
If the ADJUST command contains BY TRIG (P, A0, A1, B1, A2, B2, ..., AN,
BN) AFTER (S), the calibration is given by the Fourier series
A0 + A1 cos x + B1 sin x + A2 cos 2x + B2 sin 2x + ...
+ AN cos Nx + BN sin Nx,
where x = 2 * PI * (T-S)/P; P is the period of the fundamental mode, in
seconds.
6. Sign of Calibration
In the ODP, the calibration is, effectively, always subtracted from
the observable. Range calibrations, then, will always be positive; a
positive sign corresponds to a range delay.
7. Tropospheric Calibrations
Tropospheric calibrations are currently given by a normalized power
series representing the seasonal variation over a two-year span. Two
series are given for each station or complex; the "dry" and "wet" components
of one-way zenith range delay in meters. The dry component, typically about
2 meters, is the delay due to the nonwater-vapor components of the atmosphere
(N2, O2, CO2, and Ar), whose proportions are essentially constant. The wet
component, typically a few centimeters, is the contribution of the highly
variable water-vapor content of the atmosphere. The program using the
tropospheric calibrations must determine the line-of-sight delay by mapping
each zenith component to the elevation angle corresponding to the line-of-
sight; the ODP performs this function by using separate dry and wet mapping
tables.
An example of the format for tropospheric calibrations is given in
Figure TRK-2-23-1 of this module.
|===========================================================================|
|ADJUST (ALL) BY NRMPOW (.5385215940876400-001,-.1545263252791661+000, |
| .6120410421392178+000,.8393903860788785+000,-.1757061589993537+001, |
| -.1192449606993796+001,.1774783212089319+001,.6265889342013949+000, |
| -.7481685636314813+000,-.1116904190364361+000,.1136781820255777+000) MODEL|
| (WET NUPART) FROM (83/1/1,00:00:00.01) TO (85/1/1) DSN (C10). |
|===========================================================================|
Figure TRK-2-23-1. Format for Tropospheric Calibrations
8. Ionospheric Calibrations
Ionospheric calibrations are given by a normalized power series for
each spacecraft pass at each DSN complex. The calibration represents the
one-way line-of-sight ionospheric range delay in meters at S-band (2295 MHz).
>From this polynomial, the ODP calculates Doppler corrections (in Hz) and
range corrections (in range units) for each data point in its OD file.
The magnitude of the vertical ionospheric range delay at each complex
depends on time of day, season, and time since start of the current solar
cycle; it can range from less than 1 meter to more than 8 meters. Because
the slant-range adjustment factor can vary from unity at zenith to about 3.5
at 0 degrees elevation, the resulting total variation in line-of-sight
ionospheric calibration can range from less than 1 meter to more than 25
meters.
The time spans of each polynomial, except in special circumstances, are
from spacecraft rise (0 deg) to spacecraft set (0 deg) at the station or
complex.
An example of the format for ionospheric calibrations is given in
Figure TRK-2-23-2.
|===========================================================================|
|ADJUST (ALL) BY NRMPOW (.127504448000000D+001,-.363046489000000D+000, |
| .221433675000000D+001,.385002747000000D+000,-.476505244000000D-001, |
| -.379998393000000D+000) MODEL (CHPART) FROM (84/10/31.20:40:55) TO |
| (84/11/1,10:45:30) DSN (C40). #S/C32 PRED S66 841011 |
|===========================================================================|
Figure TRK-2-23-2. Format for Ionospheric Calibrations
9. Solar Plasma Calibrations
Solar plasma calibrations are given by a single constant that applies
only at the time tag of an individual data point. Units are the same as
those of the observables; for example, range units for range and Hertz for
Doppler. The TSAC software reads the ODP input data file to get the time
tags, and also removes the ionospheric portion of the downlink S/Z dual-
frequency Doppler measurements so that only the solar plasma contributions
remain.
An example of the format for solar plasma calibrations is given in
Figure TRK-2-23-3.
|===========================================================================|
|ADJUST (F2) BY CONST (.38755-001) AT (84/10/1.00:03:30) DSN (43) BAND (S). |
|ADJUST(PLOP) BY CONST (.69398+002) AT (84/10/1.00:19:46) DSN (43) BAND (S).|
|ADJUST (F2) BY CONST (.36505-001) AT (84/10/1.00:20:30) DSN (43) BAND (S). |
|ADJUST (F2) BY CONST (.20189-001) AT (84/10/1.00:36:30) DSN (43) BAND (S). |
|ADJUST(PLOP) BY CONST (.54675+002) AT (84/10/1.00:38:03) DSN (43) BAND (S).|
|ADJUST (F2) BY CONST (-.58993-001) AT (84/10/1.00:47:30) DSN (43) BAND (S).|
|ADJUST (F2) BY CONST (-.50877-001) AT (84/10/1.00:54:30) DSN (43) BAND (S).|
|ADJUST(PLOP) BY CONST (.69124+002) AT (84/10/1.00:56:20) DSN (43) BAND (S).|
|ADJUST (F2) BY CONST (-.70260-001) AT (84/10/1.01:01:30) DSN (43) BAND (S).|
|===========================================================================|
Figure TRK-2-23-3. Format for Solar Plasma Calibrations
NB: First number in parentheses has been truncated from 10 mantissa digits
to 5 mantissa digits to permit display within 80 character line limit here.