Geometric Model for Tracker-Target Look Angles and Line of Sight Distance

Abstract

To determine the tracking abilities of a Telemetry (TM) antenna control unit (ACU) requires 'truth data' to analyze the accuracy of measured, or observed tracking angles. This requires we know the actual angle, i.e., that we know where the target is above the earth. The positional truth is generated from target time-space position information (TSPI), which implicitly places the target's global positioning system (GPS) as the source of observational accuracy. In this paper we present a model to generate local look-angles (LA) and line-of-sight (LoS) distance with respect to (w.r.t.) target global GPS. We ignore inertial navigation system (INS) data in generating relative position at time T; thus we model the target as a global point in time relative to the local tracker's global fixed position in time. This is the first of three companion papers on tracking This is the first of three companion papers on tracking analyses employing Statistically Defensible Test & Evaluation (SDT&E) methods.