The measurement of the phase center of the airborne array antenna can directly affect the accuracy of the Earth observation system. However, the relationship between the relative motion of each sub-antenna cannot be accurately measured because of the adverse environment of the airborne platform. Therefore, it is necessary to find a suitable method to measure the motion parameters of distributed antennas and the phase center of each element antenna accurately in order to improve the imaging resolution of the Earth observation system. Distributed position and orientation system (POS) technology has high precision, but its measurement error will accumulate with time. So it needs to transfer and align continuously to achieve high-precision measurement. The paper introduces the distributed measurement method of measuring the array antenna position based on the combination of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensing technology and POS technology on the aircraft wing. The paper first introduces the technical scheme and principle, then carries out the structural design and method analysis. Next, the structural strength of the experimental model is checked and summarized.
Network performance measurements for NASA’s Earth Observation System
