For some space radio telescopes,the orbit determination accuracy is not high enough,the time synchronization accuracy provided by the satellite platforms is low,and GNSS devices are not available.As a result,a traditi...For some space radio telescopes,the orbit determination accuracy is not high enough,the time synchronization accuracy provided by the satellite platforms is low,and GNSS devices are not available.As a result,a traditional method that relies on GNSS devices to obtain an initial clock offset followed by performing correlation with the calibration source may fail to obtain fringes.Moreover,a brutal force search across the 2D clock offset and fringe rate search plane is computationally expensive.In light of these challenges,we propose a novel time synchronization method that utilizes the spacecraft’s telemetry tone signal.This method employs frequency polynomials derived from Doppler tracking for fringe rotation during the correlation process.By aligning the frequency of the target station precisely with that of the reference station,it is only necessary to split the clock offset search range into multiple time windows,perform correlation for each window,and identify the window with the highest signal-to-noise ratio(SNR).The precise clock offset is determined by combining the residual delay with the initial offset.To validate the method,we observe the Tianwen-1 telemetry signal with the 4.5 m small telescope in the Tianma campus of Shanghai Astronomical Observatory and 40 m telescope in Kunming.The results demonstrate that our method can accurately determine clock offset for a time range as wide as±10 ms,with an SNR slightly higher than that achieved with the delay model.This method is suitable for wide-range time synchronization for space Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations,especially in scenarios involving small antennas with low sensitivity and poor orbit determination accuracy.展开更多
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(grant No.2022YFC2205203)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(grant No.42241118)+1 种基金the Strategic Pilot Study Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(grant No.XDB0800103)the Key Incubation Project of Shanghai Astronomical Observatory,CAS.
文摘For some space radio telescopes,the orbit determination accuracy is not high enough,the time synchronization accuracy provided by the satellite platforms is low,and GNSS devices are not available.As a result,a traditional method that relies on GNSS devices to obtain an initial clock offset followed by performing correlation with the calibration source may fail to obtain fringes.Moreover,a brutal force search across the 2D clock offset and fringe rate search plane is computationally expensive.In light of these challenges,we propose a novel time synchronization method that utilizes the spacecraft’s telemetry tone signal.This method employs frequency polynomials derived from Doppler tracking for fringe rotation during the correlation process.By aligning the frequency of the target station precisely with that of the reference station,it is only necessary to split the clock offset search range into multiple time windows,perform correlation for each window,and identify the window with the highest signal-to-noise ratio(SNR).The precise clock offset is determined by combining the residual delay with the initial offset.To validate the method,we observe the Tianwen-1 telemetry signal with the 4.5 m small telescope in the Tianma campus of Shanghai Astronomical Observatory and 40 m telescope in Kunming.The results demonstrate that our method can accurately determine clock offset for a time range as wide as±10 ms,with an SNR slightly higher than that achieved with the delay model.This method is suitable for wide-range time synchronization for space Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations,especially in scenarios involving small antennas with low sensitivity and poor orbit determination accuracy.
