Originally Posted by
auraflyer
Interesting, hamster3null. One question - how does it look at lower or higher speeds? Do you get the same profile but just at a different heading? Or does the plot actually differ?
(As I understand it, and I may be wrong or missing something, they don't know the actual speed of the aircraft, or even that that speed was constant over the 7 hrs. Rather, they only know the difference in relative velocities at points in time. As a result, while the velocity and position for the satellite are known, one has to posit assumed heading/assumed speed pairs for the aircraft, each of which give the same difference in relative velocity, but correspond to a different track in real life.)
The plot differs somewhat depending on the speed. An agreement is good at 450 kts and heading 185, it could have gone a bit faster, but on a slightly more westerly heading, or, conversely, slower but further east. In either case the difference in course can't be large. I only get semi-decent fits for headings between ~182 and 188.