Abstract. In this paper, we present results on the subject of data processing for LISA. We present, for the first time, time-domain algorithms for the elimination of clock jitter noise algorithms that avoid the singularities of the previous frequency-domain method. We also discuss how to generate the data averages that each spacecraft will eventually need to telemeter to the ground, thereby inferring what a realistic scientific data rate will be for LISA. Finally, we argue, based partly on these results, that a laser interferometer tracking system (LITS) that employs independent lasers in each spacecraft is preferable, for reasons of simplicity, to one in which the lasers in two of the spacecraft are locked to the incoming beam from the third.

PACS numbers: 9555Y, 0480N, 9575K

Print publication: Issue 19 (7 October 2001)
Received 5 July 2001
Published 17 September 2001