[time-nuts] GPS usable for weather forecasting?

Stewart Cobb stewart.cobb at gmail.com
Fri Mar 29 23:42:09 EDT 2013


> I wonder if you cannot do this same work from the ground.  Has anyone
tried
> tracking single GPS satellites from the ground using very high gain
> tracking antenna.

Many times. USAF does this each time they launch a new GPS satellite, to
check out all the kit in a "high-res" view before they switch it on for
general use. They used to use an antenna at Camp Parks in the California
central valley. When that one was being overhauled a few years ago, they
used Stanford's "big dish" for a while. It gives about 60 dB gain at L1,
IIRC.

Hardcore GPS researchers have used that dish and a bunch of others over the
years. If you're interested, contact SRI. They used to charge a couple of
hundred bucks an hour for the Stanford dish.

Hard to use for weather forecasting, though, because you can only see one
tiny chunk of atmosphere at a time.

Cheers!
--Stu


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