Quaternion-based Kalman Filtering on PUEO

The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO), the successor to ANITA, is a long-duration balloon experiment designed to detect ultra-high energy (UHE) neutrinos in Antarctica. It aims to detect UHE neutrinos through the Askaryan radio emission produced by their interaction with the ice. It is necessary to know the position and attitude of PUEO for it to trace the origin of the neutrinos detected. PUEO will use a suite of navigation hardware, including an inertial navigation system, to determine absolute orientation and position. To reduce the noise, it is useful to Kalman filter the raw inertial measurements. The attitude of the balloon can be represented using a quaternion, a 4-D imaginary number system. This poster discusses the techniques for using a quaternion-based Kalman filter on PUEO.