Horizon Line Stability

What is it about?

Satellite navigation systems have a fundamental defect: a vulnerability to hacking and spoofing. Thus, the problem of searching for new sources of navigational information arises. One of such sources is the classic navigation on the stars, the Moon, the Sun, and the planets of the solar system. The accuracy of such navigation is determined by the accuracy of the local vertical direction measuring. Local vertical direction is often determined from the image of the horizon line. Accordingly, the stability of the horizon line has the most direct effect on the navigation precision.

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Why is it important?

The horizon image is formed by the complicated processes of light propagation, absorption, scattering and refraction in the atmosphere. The result of this process heavily depends on the altitude of observation, aerosol concentration, Sun position as well as pressure and temperature variations in atmosphere. The existing approximate models of horizon image forming sometimes demonstrate results that are far from reality. Thus, it is mainly experimental studies that are needed.

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