RESULTS OF A DIFFERENTIAL OMEGA TEST IN THE MACKENZIE RIVER DELTA

Abstract

In 1969 the Gravity Division of the Observatories Branch, Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, Ottawa, in cooperation with the Research, Development, and Programming Division of the Telecommunications and Electronics Branch of the Department of Transport, undertook an evaluation of the worldwide Omega Navigation System in the Arctic for the Polar Continental Shelf Project. Omega is a long‐range, very low frequency radio navigation system. It consists of 4 (Norway, Trinidad, Hawaii, and New York) of the planned 8 transmitters and provides navigational coverage for the North Atlantic area, North America, and parts of South America (Scull, 1969 and Dick‐Peddie, 1968). These stations presently transmit two frequencies (10.2 kHz and 13.6 kHz) in a sequential pattern synchronized in phase by means of atomic clocks (Tracor, 1968 and Findlay, 1968). The Omega receiver measures the difference of phase of received signals from a pair of transmitters. This measurement defines one line of position (LOP) in a family of hyperbolic lines. Lines of positions defined by the zero phase difference are the lines of position that are numbered on an Omega chart, and the distance between two such lines is known as a lane. A position is determined by the intersection of two lines of position within known lanes.