The Total Atmospheric Effects Mitigation (TAEM) System for Improved Space Surveillance Radar Performance

PRA proposes to team with JPL to develop the Total Atmospheric Effects Mitigation (TAEM) System to include both ionospheric and tropospheric mitigation for space surveillance radar (SSR) performance enhancement. This concept builds on PRA’s innovative measurement technologies originally developed for the ETEC System and the ionospheric electron density modeling capability of JPL’s Global Assimilative Ionospheric Model (GAIM). The proposed TAEM Measurement System will measure refractive and scintillation properties of both the ionosphere and troposphere. Measurements generated for incorporation into the ionospheric state estimation model will include time-of-arriva, and signal amplitude for both L1 and L2 GPS signals for all visible GPS satellites above two degrees elevation. The proposed system will incorporate these measurements into the TAEM 3-D Regional Ionospheric Electron Density Estimation Model, an assimilative 3-D ionospheric electron state estimation model to be developed by JPL. This model will use Kalman filtering techniques to update a physics-based dynamic ionospheric electron density model designed for high-quality estimation in the surveillance band of interest to SSRs. The combined output of the TAEM 3-D Regional Ionospheric Estimation Model and the PRA Enhanced Tropospheric Effects Compensation processing will be used to supply mitigation of ionospheric and tropospheric effects for ground-based SSRs.