Geodetic location of acoustic ocean‐bottom transponders from surface positions

Abstract

In late 1969, Battelle Memorial Institute‐Columbus Laboratories (Battelle‐Columbus) was involved in a NASA experiment in the Bahamas, the over‐all objective of which was to determine the feasibility of using C‐band radar for ship positioning and for establishing marine geodetic control points. The use of C‐band radar for marine measurements is desirable for several reasons: (1) C‐band radar can be operated in a ranging mode by measuring distances from ship to satellites and provides a particular advantage in that errors in ship velocity are not as critical as they are with the Doppler satellite technique; (2) several ships already have C‐band radar systems on board; and (3) it provides an additional satellite system for geodetic measurements at sea.