ORDER-OF-MAGNITUDE IMPROVEMENT IN SHORT BASELINE, PRECISION SATELLITE GEODESY

AT THE PRESENT TIME, COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE GEODESY INSTRU- MENTS, E.G., THE MACROMETER(TM) INTERFEROMETRIC SURVEYING SYSTEM, ARE CAPABLE OF MEASURING BASELINES OF ONE KILOMETEROR LESS TO THREE-DIMENSIONAL ACCURACIES OF APPROXIMATELY 3 MM. THESE INSTRUMENTS USE SIGNALS OF THE NAVSTAR GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS) SATELLITES WHICH BROADCAST IN THE ONE-TO-TWO GHZ FREQUENCY RANGE. MULTIPATH INTERFERENCE IS THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF SHORT BASELINE MEASUREMENT UNCERTAIN- TY WHICH IS THERFORE INVERSELY PROPORTIONAL TO SIGNAL FRE- QUENCY . STEINBRECHER CORPORATION PROPOSES TO INVESTIGATE THE FEASIBILITY OF GREATLY INCREASING THE ACCURACY OF SHORT BASELINE VECTOR MEASUREMENTS BY RECEIVING SIGNALS FROM MIL- LIMETER-WAVE SATELLITES AS WELL AS THOSE FROM THE GPS. THE PROPOSED PHASE I OBJECTIVE IS TO DEVELOP DATA REDUCTION AL- RITHMS FOR SIMULATING REALISTIC MEASUREMENT SCENARIOS WITH THE GOAL OF ACHIEVING 100 MICROMETER THREE-DIMENSIONAL AC- CURACY ON BASELINES UP TO ONE KILOMETER LONG. EXPERIMENTAL INSTRUMENTATION WOULD BE CONSTRUCTED AND TESTED DURING PHASE II. THE PHASE I EFFORT WOULD BUILD ON STEINBRECHE CORPORATION'S PIONEERING DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS WHICH HAVE ES- TABLISHED THE CURRENT STATE OF THE ART OF PRECISION SATEL- LITE-BASED GEODESY. MACROMETER (TM) IS A TRADEMARK OF AERO SERVICE DIVISION, WESTERN GEOPHYSICAL CORPORATION OF AMERICAHOUSTON, TEXAS.