PASSIVE GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE POSITION DETERMINATION

摘要

Systems and methods for accurately determining the position of a satellite such as, for example, a geostationary satellite. In one embodiment, a satellite position determination system ( 10 ) includes an uplink station ( 20 ), a transceiver ( 50 ) onboard the satellite ( 12 ), a plurality of receiver stations ( 30 A- 30 D), and a master station ( 40 ). A time stamped message included in an uplink signal ( 80 ) is transmitted from the uplink station ( 20 ), received by the transceiver ( 50 ), and rebroadcast without modification in a ubiquitous regional broadcast signal ( 90 ) from the transceiver ( 50 ). The message is received by the receiver stations ( 30 A- 30 D) from the signal ( 90 ) and is retransmitted from each receiver station ( 30 A- 30 D) via dedicated communication links ( 70 A- 70 D) to the master station ( 40 ). The master station ( 40 ) determines the three-dimensional position of the satellite based on time differentials of arrival in the retransmitted rebroadcast messages.