A coarse/fine search PN code acquisition scheme

A parallel two-stage acquisition technique is described for direct sequence spread spectrum (DS/SS) range finding applications. The technique offers hardware complexity that scales better with code length than matched filter correlators while providing better performance than sequential detection using comparable hardware     

Shumann resonances and electromagnetic transparence in the atmosphere of Titan

Among the multiple questions that the CASSINI/HUYGENS mission tries to answer is the likelihood of electric discharges in Titan's atmosphere. The instruments “Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument” and “Radio and Plasma Wave Science” will probe the electromagnetic emissions during the Huygens descent and Cassini flybys, respectively. Although no lightning was observed during Voyager's encounters with Titan in 1980 and 1981, this does not exclude the existence of lightning phenomena. Recent investigations show that lightning discharges could occur in the lower atmosphere, such as the detection of methane condensation clouds in the troposphere and the theoretical prediction of an electric field that would be sufficient enough to cause lightning. We present a numerical model of Titan's atmosphere with the aim of calculating the resonance frequencies and the atmospheric transparency to electromagnetic waves. The detection and measurement of these resonances, Schumann frequencies, by the Huygens probe, would show the existence of electric activity connected with lightning discharges in the atmosphere. As it happens with the Schumann frequencies of Earth, losses associated with the electric conductivity will make these frequencies to be lower than the theoretically predicted, the fundamental one being located between 11 and 15 Hz. An analytical study shows that the strong losses associated with the high conductivity make it impossible that an electromagnetic wave generated near the surface with a frequency of 10 MHz or lower reaches the outer part of Titan's atmosphere. Therefore the detection of electromagnetic waves coming from Titan's lower atmosphere by the RPWS instrument is very unlikely.     

MIRO: Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter

The European Space Agency Rosetta Spacecraft, launched on March 2, 2004 toward Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, carries a relatively small and lightweight millimeter-submillimeter spectrometer instrument, the first of its kind launched into deep space. The instrument will be used to study the evolution of outgassing water and other molecules from the target comet as a function of heliocentric distance. During flybys of the asteroids (2867) Steins and (21) Lutetia in 2008 and 2010 respectively, the instrument will measure thermal emission and search for water vapor in the vicinity of these asteroids. The instrument, named MIRO (Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter), consists of a 30-cm diameter, offset parabolic reflector telescope followed by two heterodyne receivers. Center-band operating frequencies of the receivers are near 190 GHz (1.6 mm) and 562 GHz (0.5 mm). Broadband continuum channels are implemented in both frequency bands for the measurement of near surface temperatures and temperature gradients in Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and the asteroids (2867) Steins and (21) Lutetia. A 4096 channel CTS (Chirp Transform Spectrometer) spectrometer having 180 MHz total bandwidth and 44 kHz resolution is, in addition to the continuum channel, connected to the submillimeter receiver. The submillimeter radiometer/spectrometer is fixed tuned to measure four volatile species – CO, CH₃OH, NH₃ and three, oxygen-related isotopologues of water, H₂ ¹⁶O, H₂ ¹⁷O and H₂ ¹⁸O. The basic quantities measured with the MIRO instrument are surface temperature, gas production rates and relative abundances, and velocity and excitation temperature of each species, along with their spatial and temporal variability. This paper provides a short discussion of the scientific objectives of the investigation, and a detailed discussion of the MIRO instrument system.