Effect of spacecraft attitude on radio wave polarization measurements for the radio Receiver instrument on Swarm-E

The characteristics of a polarized radio wave detected by an antenna onboard a spacecraft depend on the relative positions of the transmitting source and the spacecraft, the orientation of the satellite antenna with respect to the wave propagation direction, the electric field of the incident wave, and the properties of the medium traversed by the wave. Precise knowledge of the radio wave propagation direction and the receiver antenna orientation is needed for resolving the received signal properties. In this work, the focus is on the coordinated experiments between the Radio Receiver Instrument (RRI) on Swarm-E and the Natural Resources Canada Ottawa trans-mitter (45.4 degrees N, 75.6 degrees W). Three experiments, in which the RRI boresight was along the ram (13 December 2017), nadir (20 December 2017) and slew-to-target (21 December 2017) directions were selected for detailed investigations and comparisons. The deviation of the RRI boresight direction from the propagation direction of the wave vector was up to 10 degrees in the slewed pass and varied between 0 degrees and 180 degrees in the two other passes. The effects of the antenna pointing direction were pronounced in the observed powers on each dipole and affected the observed (apparent) polarization characteristics. The observations were not sufficient for describing the polarization state of the original signal during one third of the RRI-ram experiment when only one dipole was receiving the signal with optimal geom-etry. The methods developed lay the foundation for mitigating the attitude effects to determine the true polarization characteristics of the radio wave. (c) 2023 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The characteristics of a polarized radio wave detected by a spacecraft antenna depend on various factors such as the positions of the transmitting source and the spacecraft, the orientation of the antenna, the electric field of the incident wave, and the properties of the medium. Precise knowledge of the propagation direction and antenna orientation is essential for understanding the received signal. The study focuses on coordinated experiments between the Radio Receiver Instrument (RRI) on Swarm-E and a transmitter in Canada, and the methods developed are important for determining the true polarization characteristics of radio waves.