Aspects of the disclosure are directed to acquiring aligned geographic coordinates of a vertical position. In one aspect, a vertical navigation system includes a light source to generate a source beam; a beam splitter to generate a first and a second source references derived from the source beam; a hollow retroreflector to produce a first and a second vertical references derived from the first and the second source references; an attitude sensor to capture a plurality of reference stars and to measure a first set of angles for the first vertical reference and a second set of angles for the second vertical reference, the first set of angles and the second set of angles are relative to the plurality of reference stars; and a processor to produce the aligned geographical coordinates using the first set of angles, the second set of angles, a gravity vector measurement and a time signal.

Aspects of the disclosure are directed to acquiring aligned geographic coordinates of a vertical position. In one aspect, a vertical navigation system includes a light source to generate a source beam; a beam splitter to generate a first and a second source references derived from the source beam; a hollow retroreflector to produce a first and a second vertical references derived from the first and the second source references; an attitude sensor to capture a plurality of reference stars and to measure a first set of angles for the first vertical reference and a second set of angles for the second vertical reference, the first set of angles and the second set of angles are relative to the plurality of reference stars; and a processor to produce the aligned geographical coordinates using the first set of angles, the second set of angles, a gravity vector measurement and a time signal.

A satellite includes a fast tracking mirror (“mirror”) placed at or near center of mass (CoM) of the satellite along a line of sight between the CoMs of two satellites. The satellite also includes a detector at a distance away from the mirror. The mirror is adjusted to maintain the distance between the mirror and the detector, when a location of the detector changes due to pitch and yaw of the satellite.

A satellite includes a fast tracking mirror (“mirror”) placed at or near center of mass (CoM) of the satellite along a line of sight between the CoMs of two satellites. The satellite also includes a detector at a distance away from the mirror. The mirror is adjusted to maintain the distance between the mirror and the detector, when a location of the detector changes due to pitch and yaw of the satellite.

A geoid calculation data is collected easily. A geoid calculation data collection device of the present invention comprises an inertial measurement data acquisition part, a comparison data acquisition part, and a recording part. In the inertial measurement data acquisition part, data related to velocity, position, and attitude angle is acquired as inertially-derived data based on an output of an inertial measurement part having a three-axis gyro and a three-axis accelerometer attached to a moving body. In the comparison data acquisition part, data related to velocity is acquired as comparison data from a source other than the inertial measurement part. In the recording part, inertially-derived data and comparison data are recorded in association with each other. In the inertial measurement part, a bias stability is acquired that allows error arising from plumb line deviation to be distinguished to a predetermined degree.

An aerial-and-ground data combined gravity conversion method includes the following steps: calculate the first estimated ground gravity by the Runge-Kutta format 1, and calculate the first error between the first estimated ground gravity and the measured ground gravity; calculate the second estimated ground gravity by the Runge-Kutta format 2, and calculate the second error between the second estimated ground gravity and the measured ground gravity; and select the smaller one from the first and second errors, use the corresponding Runge-Kutta format as the Runge-Kutta format for gravity conversion, and finish the gravity data conversion using the mentioned Runge-Kutta format.

Aspects of the disclosure are directed to acquiring aligned geographic coordinates of a vertical position. In one aspect, a vertical navigation system includes a light source to generate a source beam; a beam splitter to generate a first and a second source references derived from the source beam; a hollow retroreflector to produce a first and a second vertical references derived from the first and the second source references; an attitude sensor to capture a plurality of reference stars and to measure a first set of angles for the first vertical reference and a second set of angles for the second vertical reference, the first set of angles and the second set of angles are relative to the plurality of reference stars; and a processor to produce the aligned geographical coordinates using the first set of angles, the second set of angles, a gravity vector measurement and a time signal.

Aspects of the disclosure are directed to acquiring aligned geographic coordinates of a vertical position. In one aspect, a vertical navigation system includes a light source to generate a source beam; a beam splitter to generate a first and a second source references derived from the source beam; a hollow retroreflector to produce a first and a second vertical references derived from the first and the second source references; an attitude sensor to capture a plurality of reference stars and to measure a first set of angles for the first vertical reference and a second set of angles for the second vertical reference, the first set of angles and the second set of angles are relative to the plurality of reference stars; and a processor to produce the aligned geographical coordinates using the first set of angles, the second set of angles, a gravity vector measurement and a time signal.

The present disclosure discloses a submarine position detection method based on extreme points of gravity gradients. A space rectangular coordinate system is established by taking a centroid of the middle cylindrical portion as a coordinate origin, a direction pointing to a bow is taken as a forward direction of the X axis, a direction pointing to a port is taken as a forward direction of the Y direction, and a vertical upward direction is taken as a forward direction of the Z axis. The detection method includes steps of: determining a horizontal position of a submarine, i.e., coordinates (X, Y), according to a position of a central extreme point and a central position between extreme points of non-diagonal components of a gradient tensor; and determining a functional relation between a depth and the extreme points of gravity gradients by using the submarine model.

The present disclosure discloses a submarine position detection method based on extreme points of gravity gradients. A space rectangular coordinate system is established by taking a centroid of the middle cylindrical portion as a coordinate origin, a direction pointing to a bow is taken as a forward direction of the X axis, a direction pointing to a port is taken as a forward direction of the Y direction, and a vertical upward direction is taken as a forward direction of the Z axis. The detection method includes steps of: determining a horizontal position of a submarine, i.e., coordinates (X, Y), according to a position of a central extreme point and a central position between extreme points of non-diagonal components of a gradient tensor; and determining a functional relation between a depth and the extreme points of gravity gradients by using the submarine model.