Radically new design of SAR satellite: short vertical antennaapproach

The idea of this work is the use of a vertical antenna (antenna placed in the orbit plane) for a spaceborne radar. This surprising geometry is proven to work properly and to simplify the design of the instrument, particularly when it is associated with a short antenna length (<5 m, along speed vector). The number of antenna control points is greatly reduced, which saves cost and mass of an active antenna. A single pencil beam allows all the incidences and modes to be achieved. Viewing on both sides of the satellite track is enabled. Spotlight mode is no longer needed and therefore most of the operational constraints attached to high resolution are removed. Merits of the geometry are not limited to the instrument, a cascade of other innovations converges into a radically new design of the whole satellite for an ultimate goal of simplification and cost reduction, this is radar SAIL concept. The merits and cost savings of short vertical antenna are illustrated with a 1 m resolution X band mission, and the extra merits of the integrated SAIL architecture with respect to the standard satellite architecture are discussed     

Nontracking antenna performance for inertially controlled spacecraft using TDRSS

A series of tests to validate an antenna pointing concept for spin-stabilized satellites using a data relay satellite is described. These tests show that proper antenna pointing on an inertially stabilized spacecraft can lead to significant access time through the relay satellite even without active antenna pointing. We summarize the test results, the simulations to model the effects of antenna pattern and space loss, and the expected contact times. We also show how antenna beam width affects the results.     

Radar beamwidth reduction techniques

It is essential and desirable to get a high resolution echo in a radar image without using a large antenna. On scanning a radar antenna, the target's distribution is smoothed by the antenna beam and a smeared echo appears on the radar display. This paper describes three different types of beam compression radars: subsurface SAR; correlation array radar; and inversion processed radar. The experimental results show that the beamwidth on display was effectively compressed by the signal processing     

An Adaptive Multiple-Beam Transmitter for Satellite Communications

A multiple-beam satellite communications system that can adaptbeam power to varying beam traffic is proposed. A new type active-array fed, single reflector antenna design and an S band, 5-beamsystem concept including interbeam exchange are described. Basedon these concepts, a high EIRP multiple-beam system with trafficadaptability similar to a single-beam system is realized.     

Experiments on aeronautical satellite communications using ETS-Vsatellite

The world's first aeronautical satellite communication experiments, conducted at L-band frequencies using a commercial aircraft, are described. An airborne antenna with electronically steerable beam and communication equipment was installed in a B-747F freighter flying over transoceanic flight routes. The satellite used in these experiments is the Engineering Test Satellite-Five (ETS-V). During the test period, various experiments, such as antenna pattern measurements, transmission performances, and voice quality evaluation were conducted. As the airborne antenna is the key component for the aeronautical satellite communication system, emphasis has been placed on antenna characteristics. Its performance is found to be closely related to the fading characteristics in low-elevation areas and to transmission error performance     

Performance evaluation of digital beamforming strategies for satellite communications

Smart antennas are becoming one of the promising technologies to meet the rapidly increasing demands for more capacity of satellite communication systems. A main component in a smart antenna system is beamforming. Because of the limitations of analog beamforming, digital beamforming will be employed in future satellite communication systems. We evaluate the performance of various digital beamforming strategies proposed in the literature for satellite communications: 1) single fixed beam/single user, 2) single fixed beam/multiple users, 3) single adaptive beam/single user, and 4) single Chebyshev dynamic beam/multiple users. Multiple criteria including coverage, system capacity, signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), and computation complexity are used to evaluate these satellite communication beamforming strategies. In particular, a Ka-band satellite communication system is used to address the various issues of these beamforming strategies. For the adaptive beamforming approach, subarray structure is used to obtain the weights of a large 2D antenna array, and a globally convergent recurrent neural network (RNN) is proposed to realize the adaptive beamforming algorithm in parallel. The new subarray-based neural beamforming algorithm can reduce the computation complexity greatly, and is more effective than the conventional least mean square (LMS) beamforming approach. It is shown that the single adaptive beam/single user approach has the highest system capacity.     

机载卫星通信天线引导概率分析

针对某机载Ka频段卫星通信天线的使用环境,论述其天线角跟踪系统在捷联航姿设备引导下,天线主波束指向卫星目标位置的概率,分析影响天线角跟踪系统引导概率的主要因素,通过消减系统中大误差源保证了天线引导概率,通过扩展主波束指向空域提高了目标落入概率。计算数据和试验验证表明,给出的分析方法可行,设计策略有效。     

Vivaldi天线模式项散射特性仿真分析

为了求解 Vivaldi天线的模式项散射特性,采用了 CST-MATLAB联合仿真的方法。首先,通过 CST求得天线的电场强度分布;然后,通过后处理导入到 MATLAB中进行求解,得到天线的模式项散射特性。仿真结果表明,模式项散射与天线方向图形状一致,符合模式项散射的物理意义。     

Radar: The Cassini Titan Radar Mapper

The Cassini RADAR instrument is a multimode 13.8 GHz multiple-beam sensor that can operate as a synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) imager, altimeter, scatterometer, and radiometer. The principal objective of the RADAR is to map the surface of Titan. This will be done in the imaging, scatterometer, and radiometer modes. The RADAR altimeter data will provide information on relative elevations in selected areas. Surfaces of the Saturn’s icy satellites will be explored utilizing the RADAR radiometer and scatterometer modes. Saturn’s atmosphere and rings will be probed in the radiometer mode only. The instrument is a joint development by JPL/NASA and ASI. The RADAR design features significant autonomy and data compression capabilities. It is expected that the instrument will detect surfaces with backscatter coefficient as low as −40 dB.RADAR Team LeaderThis revised version was published online in July 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Global communication using a constellation of low Earth meridianorbits

The concept of meridian orbits is briefly reviewed. It is shown that, if a satellite in the meridian orbit makes an odd number (>1) of revolutions per day, then the satellite passes over the same set of meridians twice a day. Satellites in such orbits pass over the same portion of the sky twice a day and every day. This enables a user to adopt a programmed mode of tracking, thereby avoiding a computational facility for orbit prediction, look angle generation, and auto tracking. A constellation of 38 or more satellites placed in a 1200-km altitude circular orbit is favorable for global communications due to various factors. It is shown that appropriate phasing in right ascension of the ascending node and mean anomaly results in a constellation wherein each satellite appears over the user's horizon one satellite after another. Visibility and coverage plots are provided to verify the continuous coverage     

Propagation results of aeronautical satellite communicationexperiments using INMARSAT satellite

Aeronautical satellite communication experiments were conducted using a top-mounted high-gain antenna of the phased-array type. Slow fading of 3 to 4 dB in the L-band channel was observed when the wing direction coincides with the satellite direction, in contrast with the small fading observed in the cases where the aircraft wing is out of the beam pointing to the satellite     

Radio plasma imager simulations and measurements

The Radio Plasma Imager (RPI) will be the first-of-its kind instrument designed to use radio wave sounding techniques to perform repetitive remote sensing measurements of electron number density (N _e) structures and the dynamics of the magnetosphere and plasmasphere. RPI will fly on the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) mission to be launched early in the year 2000. The design of the RPI is based on recent advances in radio transmitter and receiver design and modern digital processing techniques perfected for ground-based ionospheric sounding over the last two decades. Free-space electromagnetic waves transmitted by the RPI located in the low-density magnetospheric cavity will be reflected at distant plasma cutoffs. The location and characteristics of the plasma at those remote reflection points can then be derived from measurements of the echo amplitude, phase, delay time, frequency, polarization, Doppler shift, and echo direction. The 500 m tip-to-tip X and Y (spin plane) antennas and 20 m Z axis antenna on RPI will be used to measures echoes coming from distances of several R _E. RPI will operate at frequencies between 3 kHz to 3 MHz and will provide quantitative N _e values from 10^–1 to 10⁵ cm^–3. Ray tracing calculations, combined with specific radio imager instrument characteristics, enables simulations of RPI measurements. These simulations have been performed throughout an IMAGE orbit and under different model magnetospheric conditions. They dramatically show that radio sounding can be used quite successfully to measure a wealth of magnetospheric phenomena such as magnetopause boundary motions and plasmapause dynamics. The radio imaging technique will provide a truly exciting opportunity to study global magnetospheric dynamics in a way that was never before possible.     

A Domestic Satellite Design

This paper deals with the design parameters of a communications satellite which would be capable of providing domestic telephony, data, and television distribution services. Certain important aspects of the design are discussed, including satellite antenna beam coverage, transponder bandwidth, and transponder radiated power for a given weight range. A baseline satellite design is then presented which has 24 transponders (with 4000 watts radiated power on-axis and 34-MHz radio-frequency bandwidth) fully accessible from the 48 contiguous United States. The design uses crossed linear polarization to reuse the satellite transmit and receive frequency spectrum.     

石墨／环氧卫星天线支撑结构研制与质量控制

介绍了通信卫星天线系统石墨／环氧支撑结构包括石墨／环氧薄壁梁，接头和玻璃纤维／环氧耳片等的研制技术，构件的胶接组装技术与结构的质量控制。该研制成果已多次应用于实际产品中，取得令人满意的结果。     

利用旋转双天线载波相位双差的欺骗干扰检测技术

有效的欺骗干扰检测是防止卫星导航接收机被欺骗干扰攻击的前提。提出了一种基于旋转双天线载波相位双差的卫星导航接收机欺骗干扰检测技术,在对接收机双天线匀速旋转时输出载波相位测量值进行载波相位双差处理后,利用广义似然比检验实现了对单一发射天线输出欺骗干扰信号的检测。进一步分析了旋转半径和数据长度对检测性能的影响,并与旋转单天线和天线阵载波相位双差欺骗干扰检测方法的性能进行了对比。最后,通过蒙特卡罗方法进行了仿真验证,结果表明了该检测方法和检测性能分析的正确性。     

偏焦偏置抛物面多波束天线的分析与设计

以口径场法为基础对偏置抛物面天线进行建模分析,可方便有效地计算馈源数目任意、馈源放置位置任意的偏置抛物面天线的方向图。通过优化对馈源位置进行调整,使得各波束的性能达到设计的要求,最终实现多波束天线。绕特定的轴旋转馈源阵列,可以实现更大空间的扫描。     

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.     

A Practical PRSD System for Multiple Target Detection

A block diagram of a practical system using the sequential detection technique for radar detection of multiple targets is given. The system is designed to obtain better detection probability with a lower value of signal-to-noise ratio for a given false-alarm probability and average transmitted power. The total pulse duration is divided into a number of range elements which are tested for the presence or absence of a target before switching the antenna beam to the next position.     

An approach to radiated testing of installed airborne Doppler radarwith weather/windshear detection capability

Numerous documents were reviewed to verify radar parameters needed to analyze and present the tester concept described herein. The weather and windshear models defined use the identical criteria established for the Doppler radar in terms of F-factor. The basic concept of the tester is to transmit coherent simulated radar returns in response to the airborne radar's transmission while mounted on a tripod in the far field of the radar when parked on the ramp. The varying amplitude of the received radar pulses are analyzed and put into memory as the tester antenna is illuminated by the scanning main beam and side lobes of the radar's antenna patterns. The tester controls the power of its outputted simulated radar returns in inverse relation to the power of the received radar pulses. These simulated radar returns, outputted into the main beam and/or side lobes of the scanning radar antenna, are interpreted by the radar system as received in the main lobe. The tester transmissions, incorporating microburst, storm and gust front models, previously defined, can thereby test the aircraft radar system performance in various hazard environments. The tester is designed to: verify operational performance of the radar; demonstrate installed radar performance; verify crew reports and minimize radar or LRU's removal for maintenance; test before and after a repair; and verify radome effects on radar performance     

柔性天线面对漂浮基星载天线扰动分析及抑制

 为了研究柔性天线面弹性变形对漂浮基星载天线的扰动,采用固定界面模态综合法和Lagrange方法,通过轴末端与天线面交界面的协调关系,推导了大范围运动的星载天线刚柔耦合动力学模型,其所建立的动力学模型计算效率高并具有足够的精度。分析了柔性天线面弹性变形对星载天线的扰动,利用PD+振动力反馈控制抑制系统振动,并基于Lyapunov方法证明了控制系统的渐近稳定性。仿真结果表明：天线工作过程激起了柔性天线面弹性振动,进而引起星载天线的抖动,严重影响了星载天线的指向精度;利用其控制策略能快速抑制系统振动。结论对天线指向精度的分析与控制具有重要的理论价值及工程实际意义。