Altitude Information Research Articles

기준국을 이용한 실내·외 절대 고도 산출 및 3D 항법

The topic of this paper is the advanced absolute altitude determination for 3-D positioning using barometric altimeter and the reference station. Barometric altimeter does not provide absolute altitude because atmosphere pressure always varies over the time and geographical location. Also, since Global Navigation Satellites system such as GPS, GLONASS has geometric error, the altitude information is not available. It is the reason why we suggested the new method to improve the altitude accuracy. This paper shows 3-D positioning algorithm using absolute altitude determination method and evaluates the algorithm by real field tests. We used an accurate altitude from RTK system in Seoul as a reference data and acquired the differential value of pressure data between a reference station and a mobile station equipped in low cost barometric altimeter. In addition, the performance and advantage of the proposed method was evaluated by 3-D experiment analysis of PNS and CNS. We expect that the proposed method can expand 2-D positioning system 3-D position determination system simply and this 3-D position determination technique can be very useful for the workers in the field of fire-fighting and construction.

Pedestrian navigation using inertial sensors and altitude error correction

Purpose – The aim of this article is to present a PIN (pedestrian inertial navigation) solution that incorporates altitude error correction, which eliminates the altitude error accurately without using external sensors. The main problem of PIN is the accumulation of positioning errors due to the drift caused by the noise in the sensors. Experiment results show that the altitude errors are significant when navigating in multilayer buildings, which always lead to localization to incorrect floors. Design/methodology/approach – The PIN proposed is implemented over an inertial navigation systems (INS) framework and a foot-mounted IMU. The altitude error correction idea is identifying the most probable floor of each horizontal walking motion. To recognize gait types, the walking motion is described with angular rate measured by IMU, and the dynamic time warping algorithm is used to cope with the different dimension samples due to the randomness of walking motion. After gait recognition, the altitude estimated with INS of each horizontal walking is checked for association with one of the existing in a database. Findings – Experiment results show that high accuracy altitude is achieved with altitude errors below 5 centimeters for upstairs and downstairs routes in a five floors building. Research limitations/implications – The main limitations of the study is the assumption that accuracy floor altitude information is available. Originality/value – Our PIN system eliminates altitude errors accurately and intelligently, which benefits from the new idea of combination of gait recognition and map-matching. In addition, only one IMU is used which is different from other approach that use external sensors.

Remote Sensing of Earth's Limb by TIMED/GUVI: Retrieval of thermospheric composition and temperature

AbstractThe Global Ultraviolet Imager (GUVI) onboard the Thermosphere‐Ionosphere‐Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite senses far ultraviolet emissions from O and N2 in the thermosphere. Transformation of far ultraviolet radiances measured on the Earth limb into O, N2, and O2 number densities and temperature quantifies these responses and demonstrates the value of simultaneous altitude and geographic information. Composition and temperature variations are available from 2002 to 2007. This paper documents the extraction of these data products from the limb emission rates. We present the characteristics of the GUVI limb observations, retrievals of thermospheric neutral composition and temperature from the forward model, and the dramatic changes of the thermosphere with the solar cycle and geomagnetic activity. We examine the solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) irradiance magnitude and trends through comparison with simultaneous Solar Extreme EUV (SEE) measurements on TIMED and find the EUV irradiance inferred from GUVI averaged (2002–2007) 30% lower magnitude than SEE version 11 and varied less with solar activity. The smaller GUVI variability is not consistent with the view that lower solar EUV radiation during the past solar minimum is the cause of historically low thermospheric mass densities. Thermospheric O and N2 densities are lower than the NRLMSISE‐00 model, but O2 is consistent. We list some lessons learned from the GUVI program along with several unresolved issues.

Distributed Filtering-Based Autonomous Navigation System of UAV

In this paper, we propose a systematic framework for the autonomous navigation system based on distributed filtering for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The proposed framework consists of the design and algorithm of the autonomous navigation. Therein, the camera mounted on the UAV functions as a navigation sensor targeted for navigation and positioning. In order to reduce the computational complexity and exclude the risk caused by Global Positioning System (GPS) outage, an autonomous navigation system based on distributed filtering is designed and realized. When GPS is available by monitoring the GPS integrity, sensor information from Strapdown Inertial Navigation System (SINS) and GPS is fused using a 7-state Conventional Kalman Filter (CKF) to estimate the full UAV state (position, velocity and attitude); when GPS is unavailable, sensor information from gyroscopes, accelerometers and magnetometer is fused using a 4-state Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to estimate the attitude and heading of the UAV, and sensor information from SINS and vision positioning system is fused using a 7-state Incoordinate Interval Kalman Filter (IIKF) to estimate the position and velocity of the UAV. In addition, the second-order vertical channel damping loop is adopted to fuse measurements from a barometer with those of SINS, which suppresses the divergence of the vertical channel error and makes the altitude information calculated by SINS trustable. Both ground and flight experiments of the autonomous navigation system have been carried out. The test results show that the system can provide stabilized attitude information in long durations, and can realize the automatic flight control of UAV.

Interpolação espacial de dados médios mensais pluviométricos com redes neurais artificiais

A falta de informação quanto à distribuição da precipitação é um sério obstáculo para se compreender e modelar sua variabilidade, surgindo assim a necessidade de se obter informações para regiões que não apresentam estações de medição ou que apresentem falhas em seu banco de dados por meio da interpolação. Desta forma, o objetivo deste estudo consiste em utilizar Redes Neurais Artificiais (RNA's), propondo diferentes procedimentos para sua utilização, na interpolação espacial de dados pluviométricos no Estado de Alagoas. Para o estudo foram utilizadas 245 estações pluviométricas localizadas nos Estados de Alagoas e Pernambuco, das quais se usou as informações de latitude, longitude, altitude e precipitação das estações próxima à estação base que se desejou estimar a precipitação, como parâmetros de entrada das redes. A utilização de RNA´s, no preenchimento de falhas de dados pluviométricos, mostrou diferença estatística em apenas um procedimento adotado pelas redes. As estimativas realizadas para o mês de novembro apresentou resultados mais coerentes com os observados nas estações bases, devido a menor variabilidade espacial da precipitação neste mês.

Assessment of InSAR Atmospheric Correction Using Both MODIS Near-Infrared and Infrared Water Vapor Products

Water vapor variations affect the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) signal transmission and the accuracy of the InSAR measurements. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) near infrared (nIR) water vapor product can correct InSAR atmospheric effects effectively, but it only works for the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images acquired during the daytime. Although the MODIS infrared (IR) water vapor product owns poorer accuracy and spatial resolution than the nIR product, it is available for daytime as well as nighttime. In order to improve the accuracy of water vapor measurements from the MODIS IR product, a differential linear calibration model (DLCM) has been developed in this paper. The calibrated water vapor measurements from the IR product are then used for wet delay map production and nighttime overpass SAR interferogram atmospheric correction. Results show that the accuracy of the MODIS IR product can be improved effectively after calibration with the DLCM, and the derived wet delays are more suitable for InSAR atmospheric correction than original measurements from the IR product. Furthermore, a MODIS altitude-correlated turbulence model (MATM) is incorporated to correct the atmospheric effects from another descending ASAR interferogram. Results show that the MATM can reduce altitude-dependent water vapor artifacts more effectively than the traditional correction method without the need to incorporate the altitude information.

Research on Flight Altitude Information Fusion Method for ADS/INS/GPS Integrated Systems Based on Federated Filter

The precision of the altitude measurement system installed in some type airplane does not fulfill the need of the airborne equipment, this paper propose a method based on the federated filter which utilizes the data of the air data computer system (ADS), inertial navigation system (INS) and the GPS to improve the precision and stability of the altitude output. The results of simulation show that the algorithm takes full advantage of all of the sub-system, which reduces the error of the ADS and improves the altitude output precision. Meanwhile the method may separate some faulted sub-system (e.g. GPS) and reform the system, which renders the system better fault tolerant and real-time performance.

Error model estimation for airborne beacon‐based surveillance

A next-generation aircraft collision avoidance system under development is designed to reduce unnecessary alerts while reducing the risk of mid-air collision. Current and future collision avoidance systems rely upon range, bearing and altitude information from airborne, beacon-based surveillance. Realistic models of surveillance error characteristics are needed in order to develop and certify the safety and performance of these systems. Prior models of bearing measurements assumed uncorrelated Gaussian noise. This study explains how hidden Markov models can be used to capture the time-correlated error characteristics exhibited by recorded surveillance data. Simulations show the impact of this higher-fidelity model on predicted collision avoidance performance.

Volcanic ash detection with infrared limb sounding: MIPAS observations and radiative transfer simulations

Abstract. Small volcanic ash particles have long residence times in the troposphere and the stratosphere so that they have significant impact on the Earth's radiative budget and consequently affect climate. For global long-term observations of volcanic aerosol, infrared limb measurements provide excellent coverage, sensitivity to thin aerosol layers, and altitude information. The optical properties of volcanic ash and ice particles, derived from micro-physical properties, have opposing spectral gradients between 700 and 960 cm−1 for small particle sizes. Radiative transfer simulations that account for single scattering showed that the opposing spectral gradients directly transfer to infrared limb spectra. Indeed, we found the characteristic spectral signature, expected for volcanic ash, in measurements of the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) after the eruption of the Chilean volcano Puyehue-Cordón Caulle in June 2011. From these measurements we derived an ash detection threshold function. The empirical ash detection threshold was confirmed in an extensive simulations study covering a wide range of atmospheric conditions, particle sizes and particle concentrations for ice, volcanic ash and sulfate aerosol. From the simulations we derived the upper detectable effective radius of 3.5 μm and the detectable extinction coefficient range of 5 × 10−3 to 1 × 10−1 km−1. We also showed that this method is only sensitive to volcanic ash particles, but not to volcanic sulfate aerosol. This volcanic ash detection method for infrared limb measurements is a fast and reliable method and provides complementary information to existing satellite aerosol products.

Horizontal velocity estimation via downward looking descent images for lunar landing

In lunar landing missions, it is very important to closely estimate the horizontal velocity of a descending spacecraft for achieving a successful and safe lunar landing. The purpose of this paper is to present a novel, vision-aided approach for the accurate, efficient, and robust estimation of such horizontal velocity. Our algorithm processes images from a downward-looking camera, as well as attitude and altitude information from other sensors, to estimate horizontal velocities. During descent, images vary greatly in scale, orientation, and viewpoint. To begin, the scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm copes with such shifts, so one is able to use extracted keypoints to establish correspondences between consecutive descent images. Then, matched SIFT keypoints are projected to the level ground plane according to the measurement of the camera state and the central projection imaging collinear equation. A 1-point random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithm is adopted to remove mismatched keypoints. From each correctly matched keypoint pair, the algorithm derives a hypothesis for the spacecraft displacement relative to lunar ground, since those keypoints represent measurements of the same position on the lunar surface. From the bundle of displacement hypotheses, our algorithm robustly recovers the mode of the sample distribution. This final horizontal displacement estimate of the spacecraft is obtained by using the mean shift method to search for an appropriate answer among these hypotheses. In combination with the time interval between shots, the horizontal velocity is estimated. Additionally, a digital signal processor with field-programmable gate array architecture is also presented to implement velocity estimation in real time. We evaluate the performance of our algorithm based on numerous simulated image sequences and real flight images compared with the descent image motion estimation system approach and an extended Kalman filter monocular simultaneous localization and mapping method.

항공 시뮬레이터를 위한 OpenSceneGraph기반의 고도 정보 구현 방안

항공 시뮬레이터를 위한 OpenSceneGraph기반의 고도 정보 구현 방안

Bernoulli particle filter with observer altitude for maritime radiation source tracking in the presence of measurement uncertainty

For maritime radiation source target tracking in particular electronic counter measures (ECM) environment, there exists two main problems which can deteriorate the tracking performance of traditional approaches. The first problem is the poor observability of the radiation source. The second one is the measurement uncertainty which includes the uncertainty of the target appearing/disappearing and the detection uncertainty (false and missed detections). A novel approach is proposed in this paper for tracking maritime radiation source in the presence of measurement uncertainty. To solve the poor observability of maritime radiation source target, using the radiation source motion restriction, the observer altitude information is incorporated into the bearings-only tracking (BOT) method to obtain the unique target localization. Then the two uncertainties in the ECM environment are modeled by the random finite set (RFS) theory and the Bernoulli filtering method with the observer altitude is adopted to solve the tracking problem of maritime radiation source in such context. Simulation experiments verify the validity of the proposed approach for tracking maritime radiation source, and also demonstrate the superiority of the method compared with the traditional integrated probabilistic data association (IPDA) method. The tracking performance under different conditions, particularly those involving different duration of radiation source opening and switching-off, indicates that the method to solve our problem is robust and effective.

Auto-registration and orthorecification algorithm for the time series HJ-1A/B CCD images

How to deal with geometric distortion is an open problem when using the massive amount of satellite images at a national or global scale, especially for multi-temporal image analysis. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed to automatically rectify the geometric distortion of time-series CCD multispectral data of small constellation for environmental and disaster mitigation (HJ-1A/B) which was launched by China in 2008. In this algorithm, the area-based matching method was used to automatically search tie points firstly, and then the polynomial function was introduced to correct the systematic errors caused by the satellite motion along the roll, pitch and yaw direction. The improved orthorectification method was finally used to correct pixel displacement caused by off-nadir viewing of topography, which are random errors in the images and cannot be corrected by the polynomial equation. Nine scenes of level 2 HJ CCD images from one path/row were taken as the warp images to test the algorithm. The test result showed that the overall accuracy of the proposed algorithm was within 2 pixels (the average residuals were 37.8 m, and standard deviations were 19.8 m). The accuracies of 45.96% validation points (VPs) were within 1 pixel and 90.33% VPs were within 2 pixels. The discussion showed that three main factors including the distortion patterns of HJ CCD images, percent of cloud cover and the varying altitude of the satellite orbit may affect the search of tie points and the accuracy of results. Although the influence of varying altitude of the satellite orbits is less than the other factors, it is noted that detailed satellite altitude information should be given in the future to get a more precise result. The proposed algorithm should be an efficient tool for the geo-correction of HJ CCD multi-spectral images.

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Vector Tracking System

In the environment of harsh weather or obstacles, the corresponding monitoring department can't achieve remote control and acquire the accurate location of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). According to the existing problem this paper designs a logical control module based on single chip microcomputer (SCM) C8051F040 and UAV real-time tracking system which is positioned by GPS. In this design, through the analysis and extraction of the GPS data, then transmit these data to the host computer through the USB interface with high speed, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight vector position such as longitude and altitude information will be displayed by the host computer. After tested for several times, this vector pursuit system can acquire the accurate position of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and the corresponding flight path within 20 km. To some extent, it provides an effective guarantee for the remote control and monitoring department.

Simultaneous Altitude and RCS Estimation with Propagation Attenuation in Bistatic HFSWR

High frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR) is traditionally unable to detect target altitude information. To simultaneously estimate the target altitude and radar cross-sections (RCS) with bistatic <svg style="vertical-align:-2.22495pt;width:46.400002px;" id="M1" height="14.85" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 46.400002 14.85" width="46.400002" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,.062,12.012)"><path id="x1D447" d="M649 676l-22 -187l-33 -2q3 56 -12 94q-8 20 -31.5 26.5t-86.5 6.5h-74l-90 -491q-4 -23 -6 -36.5t1 -25t7 -16.5t18 -9t27 -5t41 -3l-6 -28h-286l4 28q68 5 84 18.5t28 76.5l94 491h-55q-74 0 -100.5 -6t-41.5 -23q-24 -29 -54 -98l-32 1q32 98 53 188h22q7 -18 15 -22&#xA;t37 -4h417q23 0 33.5 5t25.5 21h23z" /></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,11.384,12.012)"><path id="x2F" d="M368 703l-264 -866h-60l265 866h59z" /></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,18.387,12.012)"><path id="x1D445" d="M627 18l-10 -26q-79 6 -116 27t-69 76q-41 71 -71 138q-13 29 -27.5 39t-42.5 10h-46l-27 -145q-13 -74 -2.5 -88.5t78.5 -20.5l-6 -28h-271l5 28q66 6 82.5 21.5t30.5 87.5l71 387q12 66 2 78.5t-77 19.5l8 28h233q102 0 147 -29q65 -43 65 -129q0 -69 -45.5 -117&#xA;t-115.5 -72q40 -86 66 -133q39 -68 65 -101q28 -37 73 -51zM491 483q0 67 -33.5 101t-91.5 34q-35 0 -51 -10q-13 -8 -20 -48l-45 -245h49q71 0 113 28q79 52 79 140z" /></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,29.334,12.012)"><path id="x2D" d="M300 253l-14 -55h-229l14 55h229z" /></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,35.386,12.012)"><use xlink:href="#x1D445"/></g> </svg> HFSWR, a novel estimation model is proposed with the variation of the propagation attenuation, and the target echoes are utilized to construct the measurement equation. The presented model is completely observable to the target state, which can contribute to preferable estimation results. In order to improve the estimation accuracy, a centralized fusion model is adopted to fuse four measurement vectors. Simulations and practical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed estimation model.

고도를 고정한 GNSS 위치 결정 기법에서 고도 오차의 영향

This paper analyzed the precision and accuracy of the altitude-aided GNSS using the altitude information from digital map. The precision of altitude-aided GNSS is analysed using the theoretically derived DOP. It is confirmed that the precision of altitude-aided GNSS is superior to the general 3D positioning method. It is also shown that the DOP of altitude-aided GNSS is independent of altitude bias error while the accuracy was influenced by the altitude bias error. Furthermore, it is shown that, since the altitude bias error influenced differently to each pseudorange measurement, the effect of the altitude bias error is more serious than clock bias error which does not influence position error at all. The results are evaluated by the simulation using the commercial RF simulator and GPS receiver. It confirmed that altitude-aided GNSS could improve not only precision but also accuracy if the altitude bias error are small. These results are expected to be easily applied for the performance improvement to the land and maritime applications.

Improving TTFF by Two-Satellite GNSS Positioning

A way is proposed of improving the time to first fix (TTFF) in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning by combining pseudo-range and Doppler positioning with external altitude information. This way the position of a stationary receiver can be resolved using two satellites only. Test results obtained using authentic satellite data demonstrate that the method is sensitive to Doppler measurement errors but can improve the TTFF significantly if the sky view is constrained as, e.g., in urban canyons.

An Adaptive Altitude Information Fusion Method for Autonomous Landing Processes of Small Unmanned Aerial Rotorcraft

This paper presents an adaptive information fusion method to improve the accuracy and reliability of the altitude measurement information for small unmanned aerial rotorcraft during the landing process. Focusing on the low measurement performance of sensors mounted on small unmanned aerial rotorcraft, a wavelet filter is applied as a pre-filter to attenuate the high frequency noises in the sensor output. Furthermore, to improve altitude information, an adaptive extended Kalman filter based on a maximum a posteriori criterion is proposed to estimate measurement noise covariance matrix in real time. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is proved by static tests, hovering flight and autonomous landing flight tests.

항공교통정보가 제공되는 CDTI 효과 연구

국제민간항공기구(ICAO)는 급증하는 항공교통 수요에 대비하고자 위성항법과 데이터 통신 기술이 접목된 차세대 항행시스템 CNS/ATM의 도입을 권고하고 있다. 차세대 항행시스템은 통신, 항법, 감시 및 교통관리로 구성되어 있다. 이중 감시 분야에 대해서는 ADS-B 정보를 바탕으로 한 CDTI가 구축이 되어 지고 있으며, 항공기 조종사, 항공교통관제사, 지상 이동체의 운용자 등에게 항공교통정보를 공유할 수 있는 장치이다. 본 논문에서는 CDTI를 통해 조종사와 관제사 사이에 어떠한 효과가 있는지 알아보기 위한 연구이다. 실제 조종사와 관제사 사이에 주고받은 ATC통신 내역을 바탕으로 시뮬레이션 환경을 구축하여 비교분석을 하였으며, 분석 결과 CDTI를 사용할 경우 ATC 환경과 기존레이더 체계보다 항공기 식별부호, 위치, 고도 정보 인식률이 향상 되는 것을 확인하였고, 조종사와 관제사의 항공교통정보 인식이 개선되어짐을 확인을 하였다. ICAO has recommended the introduction of New CNS/ATM based on GNSS technologies and Data link communication to purpose increasing air traffic demand. The CNS/ATM is composed of communication, Navigation, Surveillance and Air Traffic Management. Cockpit Display Traffic Information(CDTI) that is equipment to share air traffic information to Pilot, Traffic Controller and ground vehicles has been built based on Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast(ADS-B) information in Surveillance field. This paper is research that what is the effect between pilot and controller through CDTI. Based on ATC communication between Pilot and Controller, We construct simulation environment and did a comparative analysis of it. according to result, We can verify that CDTI makes aircraft Call sign, Position, Altitude information read rate, and notice of air traffic information between Pilot and Controller more improve than ATC environment and Existing Radar System.

SGA-WZ: A New Strapdown Airborne Gravimeter

Inertial navigation systems and gravimeters are now routinely used to map the regional gravitational quantities from an aircraft with mGal accuracy and a spatial resolution of a few kilometers. However, airborne gravimeter of this kind is limited by the inaccuracy of the inertial sensor performance, the integrated navigation technique and the kinematic acceleration determination. As the GPS technique developed, the vehicle acceleration determination is no longer the limiting factor in airborne gravity due to the cancellation of the common mode acceleration in differential mode. A new airborne gravimeter taking full advantage of the inertial navigation system is described with improved mechanical design, high precision time synchronization, better thermal control and optimized sensor modeling. Apart from the general usage, the Global Positioning System (GPS) after differentiation is integrated to the inertial navigation system which provides not only more precise altitude information along with the navigation aiding, but also an effective way to calculate the vehicle acceleration. Design description and test results on the performance of the gyroscopes and accelerations will be emphasized. Analysis and discussion of the airborne field test results are also given.