Experimental Research of the Diffraction Pattern of Radiation Reflected from the Retroreflector Spherical Glass Satellite

Abstract

The paper presents experimental research of the diffraction patterns of radiation reflected from the retroreflector spherical system of glass geodesic passive satellites of the Blitz-type created at the JSC "SPC "PSI". The Blitz-type satellites are used in the interests of the GLONASS for high-precision laser ranging and are a set of concentric layers with different refractive indices. The purpose of the study was to determine based on the experiment data the effective beam diameter forming the reflected radiation diffraction pattern in the far zone, which value was required to calculate the satellite energy parameter, i.e., the effective scattering surface. The effective beam diameter dimension for the indicated retroreflector spherical system was determined experimentally by installing various diaphragms that limited the radiation beam size. It is shown that alterations in the diffraction pattern in the far field started, when the diaphragm opening was smaller than the effective diameter. Experimental and calculated values of the satellite’s equivalent scattering surface were comparatively analyzed. According to the experimental results, the diffraction pattern is determined by the central zone of the retroreflector spherical system, where wave aberrations are less than a certain limit corresponding to the Fresnel diffraction with several active first zones