Recent (1973) Improvements in the Navy Navigation Satellite System

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Abstract
Removal of the pole wander (Chandler wobble) as a source of bias in the Transit Navigation System has improved the precision available to a stationary user (surveyor). The precision associated with the mean of several (say 20) combined passes should be less than 5 meters. The dominant items in the error budget will remain (for a land-based user) uncertainty in the satellite position and instrumentation errors. For an at-sea, non-stationary user; the errors are much larger and (still) dominated by uncertainties in the user's motion; typically 400 meters/knot of navigator's velocity error. The changes discussed here will not alter this situation in any way. We discuss, herein, just how the polar motion is accounted for in the system. No changes are required of any user's hardware or computer programs. The benefits accrue to him (or her) automatically via an improved precision ephemeris in the satellite which now contains the polar motion implicitly. The improvement will be implemented on Dec. 15, 1973. The Transit Coordinate System is reviewed and the recent performance (accuracy) of the system described.

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