Development and performance evaluation of tropospheric scintillation model on Ku-band satellite link over Akure,Nigeria

Existing amplitude scintillation prediction models often perform less satisfactorily when deployed outside the regions where they were formulated. This necessitates the need to evaluate the performance of scintillation models developed in one region using data data from other regions while documenting their relative errors. Due to its variation with elevation angle, frequency, other link parameters and meteorological factors, we employed three years (January 2016 to December 2018) of concurrently measured satellite radio beacons and tropospheric weather parameters to develop a location-based amplitude scintillation prediction model over the Earth-space path of Akure (7.17^oN, 5.18^oE), South-western Nigeria. The satellite beacon measurement used Tektronix Y400 NetTek Analyzer at 1 s integration time while meteorological parameters, namely; temperature, pressure and relative humidity were measured using Davis Vantage Vue weather station at 1 min integration time. Comparative study of the model’s performance with nine (9) existing scintillation prediction models indicates that the best and worst performing models, in terms of root mean square error (RMSE), are the Statistical Temperature and Refractivity (STN) and direct physical and statistical prediction (DPSP) models with values 11.48 and 51.03 respectively. Also, worst month analysis indicates that April, with respective enhancement and fade values of 0.88 and 0.90 dB for 0.01% exceedance, is the overall worst calendar month for amplitude scintillation.     

Attenuation prediction for fade mitigation using neural network with in situ learning algorithm

Increasing demand of bandwidth in communication satellites has forced satellite links to be designed in Ku bands and above. But at these frequencies, rain and other tropospheric elements result in large attenuation. To mitigate the tropospheric attenuation of microwave satellite signals above 10 GHz using any standard Fade Mitigation Technique (FMT), it is essential to have a priori knowledge about the level of attenuation. Hence, short-term rain attenuation prediction models play a key role in maintaining the link in which necessary compensation can be applied depending on the early information of attenuation. This paper presents a method of attenuation prediction using Adaptive Artificial Neural Network. Here In situ Learning Algorithm (ILA) has been used to enable the system to track the non-stationary nature of the attenuation. To validate this, Ku Band data, collected at three different sites in India have been used for the purpose of prediction. The performance of the algorithm is determined through the estimation of prediction accuracy by comparing the predicted values with the measured data. Results obtained using the mentioned technique shows considerably good accuracy even up to 20 s of prediction interval with acceptable ratio between the under and over predictions. The prediction performance is evaluated for different prediction intervals. Furthermore the present model is also compared with the persistence model and the relative performance is quantified.     

Analysis of rain attenuation prediction models at Ku-band in Thailand

The performance of the existing rain attenuation models in tropical zones is still a debated issue due to the lack of measurements reported from these areas of the world to develop and validate prediction models. A three-year (2003–2005) campaign of rainfall rate and rain attenuation measurements was conducted on a satellite beacon link located in a tropical region of Thailand. The cumulative distributions of rain attenuation derived from the measured data are presented and compared with those obtained with existing prediction models.     

Energy dependence of the rigidity spectrum of Forbush decrease of galactic cosmic ray intensity

We show that rigidity spectrum of Forbush decrease (Fd) of galactic cosmic ray (GCR) intensity in September 9–23, 2005 clearly depends on energy. We calculated rigidity spectrum of the Fd based on the neutron monitors and Nagoya muon telescope channels’ data divided in three groups according to their cut off rigidities. We found that temporal changes of rigidity spectrum exponent γ are approximately similar for all cut off rigidity groups, but γ values are the larger the higher are cut off rigidities. We conclude that rigidity spectrum of Fd is hard for lower energy range and is soft for the higher energy range. We believe that an energy dependence of the power law rigidity spectrum of Fd is observed owing to the preferential convection–diffusion mechanism during Fd in September 9–23, 2005. It is a reflection of an influence of the temporal changes of the structure of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) turbulence in different range of frequency f during Fd. Particularly, a decisive role in formation of the character of the rigidity spectrum belongs to the changes of the exponent ν of the power spectral density (PSD) of the IMF turbulence (PSD ∝ f^−ν). The exponent ν is greater for high frequency region of the IMF turbulence (responsible for scattering of low rigidity particles of GCR), than for low frequency region of the IMF turbulence (being responsible for scattering of higher rigidity particles). Also, we challenge to estimate an existence of slab/2D structure of solar wind turbulence during the Fd in September 9–23, 2005 based on the distribution of average turbulence energy among the IMF’s components.     

Development of one-minute rain-rate and rain-attenuation contour maps for satellite propagation system planning in a subtropical country: South Africa

Millimeter and microwave system design at higher frequencies require as input a 1-min rain-rate cumulative distribution function for estimating the level of degradation that can be encountered at such frequency bands. Owing to the lack of 1-min rain-rate data in South Africa and the availability of 5-min and hourly rainfall data, we have used rain-rate conversion models and the refined Moupfouma model to convert the available data into 1-min rain-rate statistics. The attenuation caused by these rain rates was predicted using the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recommendations model. The Kriging interpolation method was used to draw contour maps over different percentages of time for spatial interpolation of rain-rate values into a regular grid in order to obtain a highly consistent and predictable inter-gauge rain-rate variation over South Africa. The present results will be useful for system designers of modern broadband wireless access (BWA) and high-density cell-based Ku/Ka, Q/V band satellite systems, over the desired area of coverage in order to determine the appropriate effective isotropically radiated power (EIRP) and receiver characteristics of this region.     

Fade duration statistics for Ku-band satellite links

Fade duration database was built to enhance the study of propagation characterises in the Equatorial region. The data was measured via a beacon receiver Ku-band whereby the antenna was directed to a SUPERBIRD-C2 satellite at 12.255 GHz. The performance of the measured data has been compared with ITU-R model, Kormanyos et al. and Paulson–Gibbins. The results show that the Paulson–Gibbins fits well with measured data with a low RMS error of 0.2 dB. The number of statistics available for the equatorial is small and the periods of measurement are short compared to those for temperate regions.     

霍尔推力器羽流对S波段电磁波的衰减研究

霍尔推力器羽流对S波段电磁波信号有衰减作用,这对星上推力器与天线的布置策略有重要影响。为研究S波段电磁波的衰减程度,建立几何光路算法,对电磁波在等离子体羽流媒质中的传输衰减进行数值描述,并以试验所测的信噪比数据来验证算法精度。验证试验采用空间透射波法,在相同工况的试验与计算结果对比中,最大计算误差为26.1%,平均误差为7.3%;在趋势上,试验结果与计算结果保持一致。在此基础上,针对84个在轨典型工况进行S波段电磁波信噪比衰减计算,结果显示：羽流对电磁波的吸收作用是影响衰减的主要因素,衰减最大区域出现在天线位置0.3～0.6m、方向角15°～30°的区域,衰减值在-7~-4dB之间。该结果可为霍尔推力器与天线在卫星的布置提供参考依据。     

Soil moisture mapping over the Chinese Loess Plateau using ENVISAT/ASAR data

In this paper, we used the available algorithm for soil moisture estimation over LOPEX05 (the Loess Plateau land surface process Experiment (2005)) area. The available algorithm used ENVISAT/ASAR AP mode VV polarization observational data at a low incidence angle and ground measured soil moistures. The ground measurements were performed in the summer of the 2005 during the LOPEX05 field campaign. The validated results indicate that an average difference between the soil moistures estimated from the microwave remote sensing and ground measurements is less than 0.02 cm³/cm³, with a RMS error of 2.0%, and a maximum less than 0.04 cm³/cm³. The algorithm was applied to the surface soil moisture mapping later. The results show that this algorithm is suitable for monitoring soil moisture information of the agricultural fields over the Chinese Loess Plateau, when ground land cover situation and the resolution of imagery data are taken into account. However, we also find that there are large differences over the steep slope region, the edge of mesa. The results are not acceptable for surface soil moisture estimation in these regions. Thus, the surface soil moisture retrieval in the steep slope region of the Loess Plateau need to be further investigated in the future.     

Self-similar stochastic processes in solar wind turbulence

Solar wind data is used to estimate the autocorrelation function for the stochastic process x(τ) = y(t + τ) − y(t), considered as a function of τ, where y(t) is any one of the quantities B²(t), n_p(t)V²(t), or n_p(t). This process has stationary increments and a variance that increases like a power law τ^2γ where γ is the scaling exponent. For the kinetic energy density and the proton density the scaling exponent is close to the Kolmogorov value γ = 1/3, for the magnetic energy density it is slightly larger. In all three cases, it is shown that the autocorrelation function estimated from the data agrees with the theoretical autocorrelation function for a self-similar stochastic process with stationary increments and finite variance. This is far from proof, but it suggests that these stochastic processes may be self-similar for time scales in the small scale inertial range of the turbulence, that is, from approximately 10 to 10³ s.     

Search for antihelium: Progress with BESS

In this paper, we report searches for antihelium in cosmic rays using two recently flown magnetic rigidity spectrometers. BESS-TeV had extended rigidity with an MDR of 1.4 TV and had a flight duration of one day. BESS-Polar was optimized for collecting power. It was flown for 8.5 days and had an MDR of 240 GV. The former flight allows us to explore a previously unexplored rigidity band and the latter flight yields a factor of three improvement in the overall BESS limit. No antihelium candidate was found in the rigidity ranges of 1–500 GV, and 0.6–20 GV, among 7 × 10⁴ events taken with BESS-TeV, and 8 × 10⁶ events taken with BESS-Polar, respectively.     

VHF/UHF波段发射机互调抑制比测试方法研究

建立了发射机射频电路简化模型,并利用该模型和非线性多项式模型,研究了发射机互调(IM)发射电平与射频前端滤波器插入损耗、干扰信号功率和频率偏差之间的关系,对当前发射机互调抑制比的定义进行了修正;分析了传统发射机互调抑制比测试方法的局限性,设计了一种新型的发射机互调测试链路配置,分析了测试链路关键物理参数间的关联关系,建立了测试数据处理模型,该方法扩宽了测试带宽和功率范围,降低了对测试器件的要求。对实际电台的测试结果表明,本文提出的理论分析结论和发射机互调抑制比测试方法正确有效。     

Modeling and data analysis of a Forbush decrease

We study the Forbush decrease of the galactic cosmic ray intensity observed in 9–25 September 2005 using the experimental data and a newly developed time-dependent three dimensional modeling. We analyze neutron monitors and muon telescopes, and the interplanetary magnetic field data. We demonstrate a clear relationship between the rigidity (R) spectrum exponent (γ) of the Forbush decrease and the exponent (ν) of the power spectral density of the components of the interplanetary magnetic field in the frequency range of ∼ 10⁻⁶–10 ⁻⁵ Hz. We confirm that an inclusion of the time-dependent changes of the exponent ν makes the newly developed nonstationary three dimensional model of the Forbush decrease compatible with the experimental data. Also, we show that the changes of the rigidity spectrum exponent γ does not depend on the level of convection of the galactic cosmic rays stream by solar wind; depending on the changes of the exponent ν, i.e. on the state of the turbulence of the interplanetary magnetic field.     

Hard X-ray observation of galactic X-ray sources

A large (1455 cm²) hard X-ray telescope was successfully launched aboard a stratospheric balloon on October 4, 1980. During this flight four galactic X-ray sources were observed, namely the transient recurrent X-ray pulsar A0535+26, the Crab Nebula, Cygnus X-1 and X Persei. Here we report the results on the latter two sources. From Cygnus X-1 we measured a photon flux in the band 30 to 200 keV, of 3.5 × 10^?2 photons cm^?2 which is 6.5 times lower than that recieved from the source in a “low” intensity state in the same energy band. In addition, the photon spectrum in the same energy band was very soft and consistent with a power law with photon index α = 2.71 ± 0.14. Even if a simultaneous observation of the source at lower energies was not available, our data strongly suggest that we observed the source during a “high” intensity state. We report also positive detection in the band 30 to 200 keV of the low luminosity X-ray pulsar X Persei. In its spectrum we confirm the presence of a hard X-ray tail consistent with a power law (photon index α = 2.17 ± 0.42).     

Hard X-ray spectral properties and discovery of narrow annihilation line in the spectrum of Nova Muscae

The observations of X-ray Nova in Musca (GRS1124-684) by two coded mask telescopes on board GRANAT observatory provided spectral data in broad 3 – 1300 keV band. During these observations, spanned over a year, the Nova was detected in a three apparently different spectral states, corresponding to different epochs of the soft X-ray light curve: (1) A spectrum with two distinct components (soft, below 8 keV and hard power law tail with slope 2.5, detected up to 300 keV). The soft emission changed gradually with characteristic decay time around 30 days, while power law component exhibited strong variability on the time scales of several hours and decreased much more slowly. (2) A soft spectrum (without hard power law tail), observed during the “kick” of the soft X-ray light curve. (3) A hard power law spectrum with slope 2.2. Thus, while the 3 – 300 keV luminosity decreased by more than order of magnitude, the source passed through all spectral states known for galactic black hole candidates (Cyg X-1, GX339-4, 1E1740.7-2942, GRS1758-258 etc.).

On January 20–21 1991, the SIGMA telescope aboard GRANAT detected a relatively narrow variable emission line near 500 keV (Fig.1,2) with net flux ≈ 6 · 10⁻³ phot/s/cm², most probably related with electron-positron annihilation processes, occurring in the source /1–4/. Additional excess above power law continuum, centered around 200 keV, was found during this observation.     

X-ray study of accretion flow in narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies

We present the results of a systematic study of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) observed with XMM-Newton. The 2–12 keV X-ray spectra of NLS1s are well represented by a single power law with a photon index Γ ∼ 2. When this hard power law continuum is extrapolated into the low energy band, we found that all objects in our sample show prominent soft excess emission. This excess emission is well parameterized by the thermal emission expected from an optically thick accretion disk, and we found the following three peculiar features: (1) The derived disk temperatures are significantly higher than the expectation from a standard Shakura-Sunyaev accretion disk, if we assume a central mass of a black hole to be 10^6–8M_⊙. (2) The temperatures are distributed within narrow range (ΔkT ∼ 0.08 keV) with an average temperature of 0.18 keV in spite of the range of four orders of magnitude in luminosity (10^41–45 erg s⁻¹). (3) We found a peculiar temperature–luminosity relation, where the luminosity seems to be almost saturated in spite of the significant change in temperature, during the observations of the most luminous NLS1 PKS 0558-504. These results strongly suggest that the standard accretion disk picture is no longer appropriate in the nuclei of NLS1s. We discuss a possible origin for the soft excess component, and suggest that a slim disk may be able to explain the observational results, if the photon trapping effect is properly taken into account.     

大气湍流对深空天线组阵相位影响分析

深空测控网采用大规模天线组阵系统比单个大天线具有一定优势,构建一个Ka频段的天线组阵系统无论对于星际测控通信还是天文观测都是一种经济、可持续扩展的技术方案。然而天线组阵系统工作于Ka频段时,由于天线间相位的快速起伏漂移将使得合成信噪比迅速恶化,尤其对于深空测控上行链路信号的相位监测和闭环控制带来巨大挑战,所以对天线间大气相位扰动测量和数值模拟非常必要。参考国外相关的干涉测量数据,首先分析了天线组阵大气相位扰动测量和统计分析方法;然后利用微波大气湍流模型,建立了天线组阵相位漂移抖动模型;对大气湍流引起的相位延迟扰动过程进行了仿真实现。利用模型产生的天线组阵相位抖动数值,可以测试和评估天线组阵信号合成处理系统的适用性。     

Study of long path VLF signal propagation characteristics as observed from Indian Antarctic station,Maitri

To examine the quality and propagation characteristics of the Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio waves in a very long propagation path, Indian Centre for Space Physics, Kolkata, participated in the 27th Indian scientific expedition to Antarctica during 2007–2008. One Stanford University made AWESOME VLF receiving system was installed at the Indian Antarctic station Maitri and about five weeks of data were recorded successfully from the Indian transmitter VTX and several other transmitting stations worldwide. The quality of the signal from the VTX transmitter was found to be very good, consistent and highly stable in day and night. The signal shows the evidences of the presence of the 24 h solar radiation in the Antarctic region during local summer. Here we report the both narrow band and broadband VLF observations from this site. The diurnal variations of VTX signal (18.2 kHz) are presented systematically for Antarctica path and also compared the same with the variations for a short propagation path (VTX-Kolkata). We compute the spatial distribution of the VTX signal along the VTX-Antarctica path using the most well-known LWPC model for an all-day and all-night propagation conditions. The calculated signal amplitudes corresponding to those conditions relatively corroborate the observations. We also present the attenuation rate of the dominant waveguide modes corresponding to those propagation conditions where the effects of the Antarctic polar ice on the attenuation of different propagating waveguide modes are visible.     

An X-ray survey of a complete sample of 3CR radio galaxies

Imaging X-ray observations of normal spiral galaxies show extended and complex x-ray emission, easily explainable with a complex of unresolved X-ray sources. A variety of nuclear sources, including starburst nuclei and miniature active nuclei are seen. The total (0.5–3.0 keV) luminosities are in the range of Lx 10³⁸ - 10⁴⁰ erg s⁻¹. The X-ray luminosity is linearly correlated with the optical luminosity. It is also correlated with the radio continuum luminosity at 21cm, but following a power law relationship with an exponent α = 0.6. This latter relationship might have implications on the Population I X-ray binary formation models and/or on the origin of the radio continuum emission in spiral galaxies     

电离层Es对HF和VHF传播信号的影响

Es层是存在于电离层中的电子密度非常高的偶发E层（Sporadic E）,其电子密度可达常规E层的100倍.电离层Es能够反射原本穿透F层的VHF低频段（30~150MHz）无线电波,而且对HF高频段（10~30MHz）无线电波传播具有显著影响.运用垂测和斜测观测数据,研究HF频段Es层电波传播特征,得到了不同类型及不同高度Es层的衰减系数.根据f₀E_s的日变化规律,可得HF频段衰减系数的日变化规律,进而分析并得到Es层对短波传播的影响.不存在电离层Es时,通常无法通过电离层实现VHF超远距离通信.为了对VHF链路通过电离层Es的传播衰减进行定量分析,根据EBU多条链路的观测结果,拟合并建立了电离层Es衰减模型.将该模型、ITU模型和观测数据进行对比,发现本文建立的模型准确度更高.利用建立的模型,对电离层Es不同临频f₀E_s条件下接收信号场强和电压随传播距离的变化进行了计算,结果可为VHF链路设计及建立提供参考.