Time Discriminator for Satellite Radar Altimeter Tracker System

Abstract

The article considers the design of optimum time discriminator for onboard delay-lock loop of a spacebased radar altimeter. The basic signal model is simplified remaining however adequate enough to the task of keeping echo-signal within the tracking receiver window. Along with the optimal one the quasi-optimal maximum-point and maximal-steepness-point discriminators are proposed. The discriminator curves of all considered structures are calculated. It is shown that the quasi-optimal discrimination yield about 2.5 times to the optimal one in the equivalent time fluctuations. Such a loss can be considered a tolerable cost of achieved hardware simplicity.

Keywords

• satellite altimeter
• time discriminator
• delay-lock loop
• discriminator curve