Use of Orthogonally Linearly Polarized Waves Radiated from a Radio Beacon in the Modulation Methods for Measuring Aircraft Bearing and Roll

Abstract

On the basis of using the Jones vectors and matrices, we develop the polarization-modulation method for determining the aircraft bearing and roll by the radio-beacon radiated waves with orthogonal linear polarization, which was proposed in [1]. The waves are simultaneously radiated from two points with the known coordinates, which are spaced in the measurement plane. The engineering realization of the method, which is based on using the polarization modulator placed in the single-channel microwave transmission line of an onboard receiving antenna of an aircraft, is considered. The polarization modulator has the form of the rotating segment of a circular waveguide with a built-in half-wave phase plate. Mathematical expressions, which provide a clear physical understanding of the aircraft bearing and roll relation to polarization and spectral characteristics of the resulting onboard-recorded wave field of the radio beacon in the linear polarization basis, are presented.