The Electric Field Instrument (EFI) for THEMIS

The design, performance, and on-orbit operation of the three-axis electric field instrument (EFI) for the NASA THEMIS mission is described. The 20 radial wire boom and 10 axial stacer boom antenna systems making up the EFI sensors on the five THEMIS spacecraft, along with their supporting electronics have been deployed and are operating successfully on-orbit without any mechanical or electrical failures since early 2007. The EFI provides for waveform and spectral three-axis measurements of the ambient electric field from DC up to 8 kHz, with a single, integral broadband channel extending up to 400 kHz. Individual sensor potentials are also measured, providing for on-board and ground-based estimation of spacecraft floating potential and high-resolution plasma density measurements. Individual antenna baselines are 50- and 40-m in the spin plane, and 6.9-m along the spin axis. The EFI has provided for critical observations supporting a clear and definitive understanding of the electrodynamics of both the boundaries of the terrestrial magnetosphere, as well as internal processes, such as relativistic particle acceleration and substorm dynamics. Such multi-point electric field observations are key for pushing forward the understanding of electrodynamics in space, in that without high-quality estimates of the electric field, the underlying electromagnetic processes involved in current sheets, reconnection, and wave-particle interactions may only be inferred, rather than measured, quantified, and used to discriminate between competing hypotheses regarding those processes.     

基于噪声匹配的有源接收天线设计

为了提高接收天线的增益和灵敏度,采用将天线与低噪声放大器集成到一起设计的方案,将天线的输出阻抗作为放大器的源阻抗,省略了天线与放大器之间的阻抗匹配网络。通过调节天线馈电系统的尺寸调节天线阻抗,使其等于放大器的最佳源阻抗。利用HFSS仿真软件计算天线的辐射特性及阻抗,用ADS Designer软件对低噪声放大器进行优化设计。利用2SC5507晶体管设计了一个工作于2．0GHz的与低噪声放大器集成在一起的缝隙耦合微带天线,所设计的噪声系数为1．664dB,放大器增益为16．75dB。     

Aircraft Power System Harmonics Involving Single-Phase PFC Converters

AC-DC converters with active power factor correction (PFC) are replacing uncontrolled diode rectification circuits on commercial jet airplanes in order to meet harmonic distortion limits imposed by new airborne electrical system power quality standards. The high line frequency of airborne AC power systems presents a major challenge for the design of PFC converters capable of meeting these standards. This paper investigates a new source of harmonic current distortion and the resulting system power quality problems related to dynamic interactions between PFC converters and the AC source. Experimental results are first presented to demonstrate the existence of such interactions and their effects on system power quality. Analytical and numerical simulation results are then presented to explain why such dynamic interactions can lead to significantly increased harmonic current distortion in steady state operation. Elimination of undesirable system interactions through proper damping of the PFC converter input filter is also presented and its effectiveness experimentally validated.     

Atmospheric Distortion of Signals Originating from Space Sources

The phasefront distortion imposed on space signals by fine-grained refractivity variations of the atmosphere is an important consideration in the design of large-aperture antennas, antenna arrays, antenna systems for measuring spacecraft position and position-rate, and radioastronomy systems. The distortion caused by ionospheric and tropospheric refractivity variations imposes fundamental limitations on the capabilities of these antennas and antenna systems, particularly on systems which must operate at low elevation angles. The purpose of this paper is to present numerical estimates of distortion imposed on signals passing through the atmosphere. Atmospheric models based on available literature are selected for this purpose.     

Anechoic chamber wideband antenna measurements

The method is considered which consists of measurements of output antenna signals on a number of frequencies and Fourier transformation of data into time domain for separation of own antenna field and interference fields. The results of testing at serial facility for antenna measurements in an anechoic chamber are presented as for diagnosis of scattered fields, as for improvement of accuracy of antenna characteristics evaluation.     

Limitations of Series-Fed Arrays in Broadband Communications

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the signal distortion which results when long, series-fed arrays are used for communication. It is shown that under certain conditions the antenna array can be considered a linear filter, the response of which is a function of frequency as well as spatial coordinates. The distortion accompanying the transmission as measured by the least mean-square difference between the transmitted and the received signals is derived. This expression is evaluated for the case of a uniformly excited array and a rectangular band-pass signal spectrum. In the absence of noise the transmitted signal can be completely recovered in the receiver by employing the proper linear filter. In the presence of noise the signal cannot, of course, be completely recovered. However, a technique for minimizing the distortion, in this case using a pre-filter and a post-filter, is investigated.     

压气机进气畸变数值模拟技术研究

发展了一种针对进气畸变条件下的风扇/压气机进行性能预估和稳定性分析的计算方法。首先研究了将叶片作用力简化为体积力源项的建模方法,在此基础上开发出一套基于体积力的三维进气畸变数值模拟程序,使用该程序对NASA Rotor 35在均匀进气、进口存在稳态总压畸变及同时存在总压和总温畸变的流场进行了模拟分析。结果表明,该程序获得的压气机特性及参数分布与雷诺平均Navier-Stokes(RANS)计算吻合得很好,同时正确地模拟出了压气机转子与上游畸变来流的耦合作用及其对压气机性能和稳定工作裕度的影响。     

The Steady-State Antenna Patterns of Adaptive Arrays

The antenna pattern of a receiving adaptive array of arbitrary three-dimensional geometry operating in an environment of K sources, one desired signal and (K - 1) jammers, is considered. It is shown that the adapted (voltage) antenna pattern of the array is a linear combination of K (or less) basis patterns, each of which is a function of one source only. We find that these basis patterns have a simple physical meaning, namely, the kth basis pattern is the pattern realized by the array when the transmission of source k is considered a desired signal and all other sources are turned off. When the array elements are isotropic, these basis patterns are retrodirective (that is, the mainlobe of the kth basis pattern points at source k). It had been shown that this property is also exhibited by a different decomposition of the adapted pattern in the special case of a single jammer (K = 2). In contrast, our decomposition which is simpler than the earlier one, yields retrodirective beams for all K. The simple, physically meaningful, pattern decomposition developed here is quite significant in the insight it provides regarding the basic underlying principles of adaptive arrays. It is also instrumental in elucidating their capabilities and limitations.     

Angle measurement in the presence of mainbeam interference

The problem of reducing interference impinging on an antenna array when the sources lie in the main beam is addressed. Adaptive antenna arrays are incorporated to form adapted sum and difference beams in which the interference signals are suppressed. Monopulse error curves are then obtained, providing the necessary distortion correction curves across the entire mainbeam tracking angle region. New Cramer-Rao (C-R) bounds on the angle estimation error are derived with generalized assumptions on the signal amplitude and phase. The bounds previously derived by others are valid under different conditions. With these generalized assumptions on the signal characteristics, a Monte Carlo simulation is performed, based on the estimation procedure presented, to determine the angle estimation error. These errors are compared with the C-R bounds. Good performance is shown for sufficient S/N₀ and angular separation between the target and the interference sources     

The untold Pearl Harbor radar story

Ever wonder what happened to the radar set that detected the Japanese aircraft before the raid on Pearl Harbor? This article reveals the fate of that SCR-270 radar set; describes some of the radar development background; and includes typical results of a World War II command, control and communications system that used the SCR-270 as its backbone radar. The SCR-270 was a radio-echo detection and direction finding set for locating aircraft. It operated by transmitting a short-duration pulse of high frequency radio waves, which would be reflected or re-radiated by any metallic or conducting surface within the field of the directive transmitting antenna; therefore, one or more aircraft within the antenna field appeared as a source of reflected radio waves. Rotating the antenna which also served as the receiving antenna, provided a means for determining the azimuth or direction of aircraft. The system measured the time it took a blip or reflected return from the target to appear on a cathode ray tube indicator, to give the distance or range to the detected aircraft. The maximum range of the radar was about 250 miles up to 50,000 feet under all atmospheric conditions including rain, mist, smoke or fog, and during daylight or darkness. The azimuth and range data supplied by the set permitted the plotting of the location of detected aircraft on maps. Major performance characteristics of the radar are provided in the included table     

Attitude and antenna pointing design of bistatic radar formations

Spaceborne bistatic radar observations allow original scientific applications to be carried out. Furthermore, assuming transmitting and receiving antennas operating on separated platforms, key design issues relevant to formation flying must be solved. Mathematical models are presented for computation of attitude and pointing angles. Main design constraint is the capability of maintaining swath overlap, but selected strategy also depends on the cost of spacecraft attitude maneuvering or antenna beam electronic steering. The model has been applied considering a large transmitting/receiving primary mission and a receiving-only small satellite. In this case antenna steering was preferred. Finally, if the passive antenna is smaller than the active one, overlap maintenance is simplified, obviating the need for yaw rotations.     

进气畸变对压气机性能影响的三维彻体力模型

基于三维彻体力模型理论初步发展了一个能有效预测进气畸变下压气机性能的压气机三维稳定性分析模型(CSAC).该模型通过求解带有源项的可压三维Euler方程组,对压气机内部全环三维流场进行模拟.叶片对气流的作用力和做功源项根据压气机三维稳态Navier-Stokes(N-S)解的相关气动参数计算得到,并给出了源项与叶片进口气动参数之间的数据库关联方法.利用该模型计算和分析了NASA Rotor 37在均匀进气下的气动性能,并与三维稳态N-S计算结果对比,验证了该模型的准确性.最后利用该模型模拟了Rotor 37在稳态周向总压畸变下的性能.结果表明:总压畸变不但降低了压气机的气动性能和稳定裕度,而且在压气机转子出口诱发总温畸变,研究表明该模型在消耗较少的计算资源下正确地反映了进气畸变对压气机性能的影响,是目前分析进气畸变对压气机性能影响的有力工具.      

The Segmented Aperture Synthetic Aperture Radar (SASAR)

A new concept in synthetic aperture radar, called SASAR, which uses a segmented aperture, is described. Use of the segmented aperture allows appreciable extra receiving antenna gain to be realized. Each subarray of the receive antenna is equal in length to the transmit antenna; the system performance is increased approximately by a factor equal to the number of subarrays. To allow array combination of the subarray signal outputs requires a phase-shift factor (varying with azimuth) to be applied to each subarray signal. A digital implementation of this preprocessor is sketched out; it uses a push-down storage stack to store the range histories for a synthetic aperture from each subarray. Appropriate phase shifts are added to the stacks and a sum of stack values then provides the combined output range history sequence. Possibilities of using analog delay lines for preprocessing are also discussed. Pattern errors due to subarray size and receive array near field are examined and constraints are given.     

Measurements of Phase-Front Distortion on an Elevated Line-of-Sight Path

An experimental study has been made of phase-front distortion in microwave signals sent over a slanted path. This distortion is important in systems involving phase measurements between a ground station and a moving upper terminal. To insure path stability, the upper terminal was simulated by a series of mountaintop antenna arrays. Phasefront distortion is analyzed in terms of time variations in radio range on a single path and in terms of first and second range differences between pairs of paths. The cross correslations of pairs of range and range difference records are discussed, and the strong dependence of correlation on fluctuation frequency is emphasized. Mountaintop terrain effects on the spatial homogeneity of the phase front are found to be insignificant. Some of the phase-front statistics are found to be weakly dependent on time of day and on wind velocity at the lower terminal.     

背腔式缝隙天线阵列的分析与设计

采用等效磁流分析方法,将波导激励的单背腔缝隙单元阵场求解问题离散,得到缝隙表面的边界积分方程。应用矩量法求解该边界积分方程,得到单背腔缝隙单元阵的场结构。再应用阵列天线理论仿真计算了一种易于共形的缝隙天线阵的方向图,与实际测量结果进行了对比,取得了较好的效果。     

Separation of SSR Signals by Array Processing in Multilateration Systems

Location and identification of cooperating aircraft in the airport area (and beyond) may be implemented by multilateration (MLAT) systems using the secondary surveillance radar (SSR) mode S signals. Most of these signals, spontaneously emitted from on-board mode S transponders at a fixed carrier frequency, arrive randomly at the receiving station, as well as many mode A/C replies from legacy transponders still in use. Several SSR signals are, then, overlapped in multiple aircraft situations. Therefore, the aim of this work is the separation of overlapped SSR signals, i.e., signals superimposed in time at receiving stations. We improve the MLAT receiving station by replacing the single antenna by an array of m elements and using array signal processing techniques. In the literature, several algorithms address the general source separation problem, but a very few of them are specifically designed for a mixture of overlapping SSR replies. Unfortunately, all of them have either some shortcomings, or an expensive computational cost, or no simple practical implementation. In this paper, we use the time sparsity property of the sources to propose more reliable, simpler, and more effective algorithms based on projection techniques to separate multiple SSR signals. Real recorded signals in a live environment are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.     

某发动机风扇进气畸变数值模拟

采用周向平均体积力的方法将叶片对气流的作用简化为体积力源项研究进气畸变对某航空发动机风扇的影响.分别对该风扇在均匀进气条件下和进口存在稳态总压畸变条件下的流场进行了模拟计算,得到了和雷诺平均Navier-Stockes(RANS)计算几乎完全一致的特性线以及流场主要结构特征,在进行进气畸变条件下流场模拟计算时成功地捕捉到了进口畸变扰动在流场中的传播情况,并能够正确反映进气畸变对压气机的影响.结果表明:压气机进气畸变流场有着大尺度、强耦合、信息传播三维性明显等特征,采用周向平均体积力研究方法可以利用非常少的计算资源加深对进气畸变流动的认识.      

Effect of assisted transverse magnetic field on distortion behavior of thin-walled components in WEDM process

Machining performance of thin-walled components made by aeronautical difficult-toprocess materials is a significant issue in the aviation manufacturing industry. Although wire electric discharge machining-low speed(WEDM-LS) is one of typical non-contact machining processes without macro cutting force, which does well in removing hardness and brittleness materials via pulsed discharge at high temperature, but few researchers have studied the thermal distortion behavior leading to a considerable g...     

High-precision RCS measurement of aircraft’s weak scattering source

The radar cross section(RCS) of weak scattering source on the surface of an aircraft is usually less than 40 d Bsm.How to accurately measure the RCS characteristics of weak scattering source is a technical challenge for the aircraft's RCS measurement.This paper proposes separating and extracting the two-dimensional(2D) reflectivity distribution of the weak scattering source with the microwave imaging algorithm and spectral transform so as to enhance its measurement precision.Firstly,we performed the 2D microwave imaging of the target and then used the 2D gating function to separate and extract the reflectivity distribution of the weak scattering source.Secondly,we carried out the spectral transform of the reflectivity distribution and eventually obtained the RCS of the weak scattering source through calibration.The prototype experimental results and their analysis show that the measurement method is effective.The experiments on an aircraft's low-scattering conformal antenna verify that the measurement method can eliminate the clutter on the surface of aircraft.The precision of measuring a 40 d Bsm target is 3–5 d B better than the existing RCS measurement methods.The measurement method can more accurately obtain the weak scattering source's RCS characteristics.     

A closed-form solution for moving source localization using LBI changing rate of phase difference only

Due to the deficiencies in the conventional multiple-receiver localization systems based on direction of arrival(DOA) such as system complexity of interferometer or array and amplitude/phase unbalance between multiple receiving channels and constraint on antenna configuration,a new radiated source localization method using the changing rate of phase difference(CRPD)measured by a long baseline interferometer(LBI) only is studied. To solve the strictly nonlinear problem, a two-stage closed-form solution is proposed. In the first stage, the DOA and its changing rate are estimated from the CRPD of each observer by the pseudolinear least square(PLS) method,and then in the second stage, the source position and velocity are found by another PLS minimization. The bias of the algorithm caused by the correlation between the measurement matrix and the noise in the second stage is analyzed. To reduce this bias, an instrumental variable(IV) method is derived. A weighted IV estimator is given in order to reduce the estimation variance. The proposed method does not need any initial guess and the computation is small. The Cramer–Rao lower bound(CRLB) and mean square error(MSE) are also analyzed. Simulation results show that the proposed method can be close to the CRLB with moderate Gaussian measurement noise.