Compensation of tropospheric and ionospheric effects in gravitational sessions of the spacecraft RadioAstron

Abstract

The possibility of compensating atmospheric influence in an experiment on precision measurement of gravitational redshift using the "RadioAstron" spacecraft (SC) is discussed. When a signal propagates from a ground-based tracking station to a spacecraft and back, interaction with the ionosphere and troposphere makes considerable contribution to the frequency shift. A brief overview of the physical effects determining this contribution is given, and the principles of calculation and compensation of the corresponding frequency distortions of radio signals are described. Then these approaches are used to reduce the atmospheric frequency shift of the "RadioAstron" spacecraft signal. The spacecraft hardware allows working in two communication modes: "one-way" and "two-way", in addition, two communication channels at different frequencies work simultaneously. "One-way" (SC - ground-based tracking station) communication mode, a signal is synchronized by the on board hydrogen frequency standard. The "two-way" (SC - ground-based tracking station - SC ) mode is synchronized by the ground hydrogen standard. The calculations performed allow us to compare the quality of compensation of atmospheric fluctuations performed by various methods and choose the optimal one.