Beacon microstrip patch antenna for DOA demonstration from prototype stratospheric aircraft

Localisation by direction of arrival (DOA) array is one of the possible future applications for stratospheric platform systems. Such localisation systems are envisioned to be applicable to post-disaster search and rescue, wildlife tracking, traffic control, and identification of illegal broadcasters by law enforcement. A novel DOA architecture (Miura et al., 2006) was installed across the wings of a prototype stratospheric aircraft and flown in November 2006. A novel, higher order mode microstrip patch antenna suitable for use as a ground station reference for the DOA demonstration is introduced.