RAWINSONDE SYSTEM WITH RADIO FREQUENCY REJECTION CAPABILITY

CURRENT RAWINSONDE SYSTEMS (1990) ARE USED ON TEST RANGES TO MEASURE AND TELEMETER BALLOON POSITION, ALTITUDE, UPPER ATMOSPHERE WINDS, TEMPERATURE, RELATIVE HUMIDITY, AND BAROMETRIC PRESSURE. THE LORAN-C SIGNAL USED TO DETERMINE SONDE POSITION IS SUBJECT TO NATURALLY OCCURRING INTERFERENCE DURING STORM ACTIVITY. THE METEOROLOGICAL CHANNELS USED TO TELEMETER SONDE DATA TO THE GROUND ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO MAN-MADE AND NATURAL CO-CHANNEL AND ADJACENT CHANNEL INTERFERENCE. THE GPS NAVIGATIONAL SYSTEM IS IMMUNE TO INTERFERENCE AND IS HIGHLY ACCURATE. THE ARS SYSTEM WILL STUDY UTILIZING A GPS FRONT-END ON THE BALLOON AND GPS PROCESSING ON THE GROUND TO PRODUCE AN INEXPENSIVE, HIGHLY ACCURATE SYSTEM IMMUNE TO INTERFERENCE. THE GPS SIGNAL IS SNAPSHOT DIGITIZED AND TELEMETERED TO THE GROUND OVER EXISTING METEOROLOGICAL CHANNELS. THE GPS SIGNAL WILL BE PROCESSED BY THE GROUND PROCESSOR YIELDING INEXPENSIVE SONDE ELECTRONICS. INTERFERENCE CANCELLATION IS APPLIED TO THE METEOROLOGICAL CHANNEL AT THE GROUND RECEIVING STATION. THE ROBUST MORE PROPERTY RESTORAL BEAMSTEERING ALGORITHM IS UTILIZED TO ACHIEVE BLIND ADAPTIVE INTERFERENCE CANCELLATION WITHOUT THE NEED FOR CALIBRATION DATA OR SONDE DOA VECTORS. THE SYSTEM IS CAPABLE OF TRACKING MULTIPLE SONDES. THE INTERFERENCE CANCELLATION CONCEPTS DEVELOPED HERE SHOULD HAVE BROAD APPLICATION TO COMMERCIAL SYSTEMS. THE EXPLOSIVE GROWTH OF COMMERCIAL SATELLITE AND MOBILE/CELLULAR TELEPHONY SYSTEMS IN THE PAST DECADE HAS RESULTED IN INCREASED SPECTRAL CROWDING OVER MANY REGIONS OF THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM. THE USE OF THE SPATIAL INTERFERENCE CONCEPTS DEVELOPED HERE CAN BE DIRECTLY APPLIED TO THESE EXISTING SYSTEMS BY ADDING NEW RECEIVER FRONT ENDS.