An Emulation Research on the Radio Occultation Exploration of Martian Ionosphere

The technical system of the Sino-Russian joint satellite-to-satellite Mars ionosphere occultation is analyzed and introduced. The analogue computation of the observed values of the radio waves of the ionosphere occultation event is carried out by adopting the three-dimensional ray tracking method and the electron density profile inversion is conducted by means of the simulated occultation observational data, with the result showing that the emulation algorithm is reliable. By taking advantage of the emulation method the case computation and analysis of the inversion errors caused by the observational error of the occultation radio wave phase and the satellite orbital error are respectively carried out, and it is obtained from the result that the effect of the phase measuring error of the 5% circle on the result of the daytime ionosphere occultation exploration may be neglected, while the absolute error of the night electron density measurement is less than 4 × 108 m−3, and the main effect of the satellite orbital error on the occultation leads to the lifting or falling of the ionospheric height. The result shows that the technical system of the Sino-Russian joint Mars ionosphere occultation exploration is advanced. It can be expected that the high accuracy electron density profile is obtained and the technical system can be applied to the exploration of the lunar ionospheric environment.