JP2000312375A - Scientific observation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically track a balloon with no operation of an operator required right after the balloon is let loose by transmitting the GPS signal received from a satellite via a GPS receiver of a mobile object to a ground facility. SOLUTION: A GPS receiver 21 receives a GPS signal from a satellite, acquires the position data including the altitude, latitude and longitude of a mobile object 1 and sends this position data and the observation data acquired via a scientific observation device to a ground facility 3 via a modulator 23, a transmitter 24 and a communication antenna 25. A receiver 32 receives a modulated carrier via a communication antenna 31 and a demodulator 33 acquires the position data and the scientific observation data to transmit them to a signal processor 34. The processor 34 separates the position data from the scientific observation data, calculates an angle of elevation and an azimuth equivalent to the position of the object 1 that is viewed from the facility 3 by using position data including the altitude, latitude and longitude of the object 1 and the position data on the facility 3 and outputs the control data based on the angle of elevation and azimuth to a controller 37. The controller 37 controls an antenna rack 38 by the control data and turns the antenna 31 to the object 1 to track this object.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a scientific observation system for performing various observations by tracking balloons used for various scientific observations and balloon engineering experiments.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a balloon tracking method in a scientific observation system for tracking and observing a balloon used in various scientific observations and balloon engineering experiments is performed by transmitting a balloon suspended from a transmitter via a communication antenna. The radio wave received by the receiver via the antenna of the ground equipment is received, the operator of the ground equipment operates the antenna mount, and the communication antenna is initially set to point in the direction of the balloon. A radio wave from a balloon is received by an automatic tracking device of the equipment, and the data of the received radio wave is used to control an antenna mount to automatically track the balloon.

[0003]

According to the above prior art, after the balloon is released, the automatic tracking device operates normally without the radio waves from the balloon being affected by the reflection from nearby mountains or the sea surface. There is a problem that the operator needs to manually perform tracking until the balloon reaches a certain altitude.

[0004] Further, there is a case where the balloon travels far away and undergoes mountain diffraction or sea surface reflection depending on the state of the propagation path of radio waves from the balloon. In this case, the state of automatic tracking is disturbed, and correction by an operator is required. There is.

Further, in order to measure the direct distance from the ground equipment to the balloon, a radio wave modulated with a ranging signal from the ground equipment is transmitted to the balloon, and the radio wave is received and demodulated by the balloon to obtain a distance measurement. A signal is obtained, a radio wave from a balloon is modulated with the obtained signal for distance measurement, the signal is transmitted from the balloon to ground equipment, and a series of operations for receiving the radio wave on the ground equipment is performed, thereby converting the distance measurement signal to the ground. Transmit from the equipment, detect the time delay until receiving by the ground equipment again, determine the direct distance between the ground equipment and the balloon, the obtained data of the direct distance, the azimuth of the communication antenna of the ground equipment and Balloon tracking is performed by obtaining the position of the balloon on the map from the elevation data, but this method depends on the quality of the radio waves transmitted from the balloon to ground equipment. Tracking must be performed depending on the operation of the operator There is a problem that.

[0006] In order to solve the problems of the balloon tracking method according to the above-mentioned prior art, the present invention provides a scientific observation system having a function of performing automatic tracking immediately after a launch without requiring an operator's operation. This is the first object.

According to the present invention, there is provided a scientific observation system having a function of performing automatic tracking without any trouble even when a balloon travels to a distant place and undergoes mountain diffraction or sea surface reflection depending on the propagation path of radio waves from the balloon. This is the purpose of 2.

[0008]

In order to achieve the first and second objects, in the first aspect, a balloon floating in the atmosphere is provided with a GPS receiver, a modulator, a transmitter, and a communication antenna. A scientific observation system is composed of a mobile object suspended from a mounted gondola and ground equipment having a communication antenna, a receiver, a demodulator, a signal processor, a controller and an antenna mount, and the GPS of the mobile object is configured. A GPS signal from a satellite received by a receiver is transmitted to ground equipment, and a communication antenna of the ground equipment tracks the mobile using the GPS signal received by the ground equipment. I have.

In order to achieve the first and second objects, a second aspect of the present invention is to provide a balloon floating in the atmosphere with a GPS.
A moving object suspended from a gondola equipped with a receiver, a scientific observator, a modulator, a transmitter and a communication antenna, and a communication antenna, a receiver, a demodulator, a signal processor, a display, a recorder, A scientific observation system is configured by a controller and ground equipment having an antenna mount, the GPS receiver receives a GPS signal from a satellite, and outputs position data of the moving object from the GPS receiver to a modulator. Along with outputting the observation data obtained from the scientific observing device to the modulator, the modulator modulates the carrier with the position data and the observation data of the moving object, and outputs the modulated carrier to the transmitter. Transmitting from the transmitter to the ground via a communication antenna, receiving the modulated carrier at the receiver via the communication antenna of the terrestrial equipment, and demodulating the output of the receiver with a demodulator. Moving body position Data and observation data are obtained, and the respective data obtained by the demodulator are output to a signal processor. The signal processor separates the position data and the observation data of the moving object from each other, and displays a display and / or Or, output to a recorder, calculate control data for controlling the antenna mount from the position data of the moving object and the position of the above ground equipment, calculate and output the control data to the controller, and the control data from the signal processor is used by the controller. The antenna mount is controlled by using the communication device, so that the communication antenna of the ground equipment tracks the position of the moving body.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a moving body, 10 is a balloon,
20 is a gondola, 21 is a GPS receiver, 22 is a scientific observer, 23 is a modulator, 24 is a transmitter, 25 is a communication antenna, 3 is ground equipment, 31 is a communication antenna, 32 is a receiver, and 33 is a receiver. Demodulator, 34 is a signal processor, 35 is a display,
36 is a recorder, 37 is a controller, and 38 is an antenna mount.

A gondola 20 suspended from the balloon 10 of the moving body 1 has a GPS receiver 21, a scientific observation device 22, and a modulator 2
3. A transmitter 24 and a communication antenna 25 are mounted. The GPS receiver 21 receives a GPS signal from a satellite, obtains position data including the altitude, latitude, and longitude of the mobile unit 1 from the received GPS signal, and obtains the position data and observation data obtained by a scientific observation device. To the modulator 23.
The modulator 23 modulates the carrier with the position data and the scientific observation data and sends the modulated carrier to the transmitter 24. The transmitter 24 transmits the modulated carrier via the communication antenna 25 to the ground equipment 3.
Send to

The receiver 32 of the terrestrial equipment 3 receives the carrier modulated with the position data and the scientific observation data via the communication antenna 31 and outputs the carrier to the demodulator 33. The demodulator 33 demodulates the received carrier wave to obtain position data and scientific observation data, and sends them to the signal processor 34.

The signal processor 34 separates the position data and the scientific observation data, and corresponds to the position of the mobile unit 1 as viewed from the ground equipment 3 based on the position data including altitude, latitude and longitude, and the position data of the ground equipment. The calculated elevation angle and azimuth angle are calculated, the control data based on the obtained elevation angle and azimuth angle are output to the controller 37, and the position data including altitude, latitude and longitude and the scientific observation data are displayed on the display 35 and / or
Alternatively, the controller 37 receives the control data based on the elevation angle and the azimuth angle, controls the antenna mount 38 based on the control data, and tracks the communication antenna 31 in the direction of the moving object 1. This is the scientific observation system.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention, a GPS signal from a satellite is received by a GPS receiver mounted on a gondola suspended from a balloon of a moving body, and position data of the moving body is obtained.
Since the position data of the moving object is transmitted to the ground and the balloon is tracked, the operation is not affected by the reflection from the sea surface or the mountain diffraction, and the operation of the operator is required immediately after the ball is released. Automatic tracking of moving objects is possible without
Also, there is an effect that the automatic tracking can be performed without any trouble even when the moving body goes far and receives mountain diffraction or sea surface reflection depending on the state of the propagation path from the moving body.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a scientific observation system showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Moving object 10 Balloon 20 Gondola 21 GPS receiver 22 Scientific observation device 23 Modulator 24 Transmitter 25 Communication antenna 3 Ground equipment 31 Communication antenna 32 Receiver 33 Demodulator 34 Signal processor 35 Display 36 Recorder 37 Control Vessel 38 antenna mount

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Nobuhiko Oya 249-1, Moriya-ko, Moriya-cho, Kitasoma-gun, Ibaraki F-term in the Moriya Plant of Meisei Electric Co., Ltd. (Reference) 5J062 AA01 AA05 AA09 BB00 BB03 CC07 GG01 GG02 HH04 5K067 AA21 BB21 BB41 EE02 EE10 FF03 JJ52 JJ56 KK02 LL01

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A mobile body in which a gondola equipped with a GPS receiver, a modulator, a transmitter and a communication antenna is suspended from a balloon floating in the atmosphere, a communication antenna, a receiver, a demodulator, The signal processing device, the controller, and the ground equipment having the antenna mount constitute a scientific observation system, and the GPS signal from the satellite received by the mobile GPS receiver is transmitted to the ground equipment and received by the ground equipment. A scientific observation system, wherein a communication antenna of ground equipment tracks the moving object using the GPS signal. 2. A mobile body in which a gondola equipped with a GPS receiver, a scientific observation device, a modulator, a transmitter and a communication antenna is suspended on a balloon floating in the atmosphere, a communication antenna, and a receiver. , Demodulator, signal processor, display, recorder,
A scientific observation system is composed of a controller and ground equipment having an antenna mount.
S signal is received and the position data of the moving
The output from the S receiver to the modulator, the observation data obtained from the scientific observing instrument is output to the modulator, and the carrier modulates the carrier with the position data and the observation data of the moving object. Output the carrier to a transmitter, transmit the carrier to the ground via a communication antenna from the transmitter, receive the modulated carrier at the receiver via the communication antenna of the ground equipment, the receiver Is demodulated by a demodulator to obtain position data and observation data of the moving body, and each data obtained by the demodulator is output to a signal processor, and the position data of the moving body and Separates the observation data from each other and outputs them to the display and / or recorder, and calculates the control data for controlling the antenna mount from the position data of the moving object and the position of the above ground equipment, and outputs it to the controller. And said Scientific observation system that controls the antenna mount using the control data from the signal processor in your vessels, communication antenna above ground facility is characterized in that track the position of the moving object.