An evolutionary technique using genetic algorithm is employed to find the position of a data collecting platform (DCP) on the surface of the Earth, according to the Doppler shift of the DCP's transmission frequency, as measured by a satellite. The method uses the orbital attributes of the satellite (i.e., its position in regard to the center of the Earth, and its speed); the Doppler deviation measured by the satellite; and the expected Doppler deviation that should have been measured by the satellite for the candidate DCP under ideal conditions (perfect oscillators and no ionospheric interference). The thrust of this method is that the only model that has to be embedded into it is the calculation of the expected Doppler deviation measured by the satellite for the candidate positions of a DCP. While this calculation can be easily performed, traditional methods have relied on the inverse approach, which is computationally harder to work out. This research is work-in-progress. The results presented here are derived from noiseless synthetic data. Our final target is to apply the model on data obtained from an array of DCPs deployed over the Brazilian territory, and relayed to the ground by the first Brazilian data collecting satellite.

Date Published: 15 December 1995
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 2583, Advanced and Next-Generation Satellites, (15 December 1995); doi: 10.1117/12.228590

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2583:
Advanced and Next-Generation Satellites
Hiroyuki Fujisada; Martin N. Sweeting, Editor(s)