Low threshold particle arrays

While atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes have a small field of view and a small duty fraction, arrays of particle detectors on ground have a 1 sr field of view and a 100% duty fraction. On the other hand, particle detector arrays have a much higher energy threshold and an inferior hadron rejection as compared to Cherenkov telescopes. Low threshold particle detector arrays would have potential advantages over Cherenkov telescopes in the search for episodic or unexpected sources of gamma rays in the multi-TeV energy range. Ways to improve the threshold and hadron rejection of arrays are shown, based on existing technology for the timing method (with scintillator or water Cherenkov counters) and the tracking method (with tracking detectors). The performance that could be achieved is shown by examples for both methods. At mountain altitude (about 4000 m or above) an energy threshold close to 1 TeV could be achieved. For any significant reduction of the hadronic background by selecting muon-poor showers a muon detection area of at least 1000 m² is required, even for a compact array.     

Two low-cost phased arrays

In a phased array antenna, the phase shifters (or T/R modules in an active aperture phased array) with their beam-steering control circuitry along with the feed network account for the major hardware cost. This paper presents two antenna array configurations that use simpler feed, simpler phase-shifting and simpler beam-steering control circuitry for realizing low-cost phased arrays. Both are lens configurations. The first one uses a Radant lens, which provides a medium that is loaded with diodes and provides the needed phase shift by switching the diodes on and off. The other configuration employs a ferroelectric dielectric material whose dielectric constant can be varied with an applied DC bias voltage. It is shown that the ferroelectric lens may have further advantages of smaller thickness, simpler beam-steering controls and lower cost     

Active transmitting phased antenna arrays

The benefits of using transmitting phased array antennas for radar systems are examined. Accurate performance prediction for the transmitting phased array antennas requires theories describing both the antenna system and the power generation devices. These theories were created and applied to the design and performance evaluation of the Russian 3-D mobile solid-state surveillance radar 67N6E (GAMMA-DE), a PAA designed for long-range air defense.     

Costas arrays with small number of cross-coincidences

A simple method is described for obtaining two or more Costas arrays with a maximum of one mutual bit or cross-coincidence, assuming that the vertical components of their relative shifts are appropriately bounded. The result can be useful for designing multiple Costas waveforms with small cross-ambiguities, if the potential Doppler shifts are restricted to a small portion of the waveform bandwidth     

Regenerative hybrid arrays for interference suppression

The authors propose two regenerative hybrid adaptive arrays in which a self-generated reference signal is obtained through a detection-modulation procedure from the array output. The proposed arrays do not depend on spectrum spreading and are therefore applicable when this feature is not available. It is shown that at steady state the performance of these regenerative hybrid arrays is approximately the same as that of a hybrid array with a perfect reference signal. As to transient behavior, these arrays are shown to converge if the available imperfect steering vector can result in a few dB output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio with the self-generated reference disabled     

Frequency stability in adaptive retrodirective arrays

The frequency stability of communications or remote sensing systems using phase conjugation as a means of retrodirective signaling is developed under the influence of constant rectilinear motion. The results indicate that for dynamic mobile platforms such as aircraft, helicopters, and ground vehicles the retrodirective properties of phase conjugating arrays are not guaranteed due to a possible instability of the frequency. It is shown that the frequency transmitted by each platform has a dependence on the open loop gains of the transceivers on each platform in the link. Fast and accurate reconstruction of the phase of the signal requires a high open loop gain, however, too high a gain will cause instability and eventual loss of lock. Design tradeoffs are discussed.     

Application of Gram-Schmidt algorithm to fully adaptive arrays

The Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization (GSO) algorithm has excellent numerical performance and is readily applicable to systolic implementations such as in a field of adaptive cancellation systems. A modified GSO algorithm for a fully adaptive array is proposed and computer simulations show that the proposed algorithm gives superior performance. A systolic implementation of the proposed GSO algorithm for fully adaptive array is presented. A feedback mode GSO algorithm for use with analog weights is also presented and has been shown to have excellent performance in the presence of weight errors     

Localization performance of arrays subject to phase errors

The passive localisation of radiating sources using an array subject to random perturbations in sensor phases is presented. All source signals as well as additive noises observed at the sensors are assumed to be independent identically distributed zero-mean Gaussian random processes. Cramer-Rao bounds are derived for source bearings and ranges for the phase errors at each sensor. It is shown that accurate phase calibration can be achieved when the number of sources exceeds a certain minimum. The locations of the calibrating sources need not be known a priori and need only satisfy mild regularity conditions. A calibration procedure is proposed which uses maximum-likelihood techniques     

Spaceflight testing of solar cells and concentrating arrays

The following topics are dealt with: new solar cell performance developments; calibration related developments; solar array concentrator; solar cell efficiency; nighttime power generation     

Eigenstructure-based algorithms for direction finding withtime-varying arrays

This paper considers the problem of finding the directions of narrowband signals using a time-varying array whose elements move during the observation interval in an arbitrary but known way. We derive two eigenstructure-based algorithms for this problem, which are modifications of techniques developed originally for time-invariant arrays. The first uses array interpolation, and the second uses focusing matrices. Like other eigenstructure-based methods, these algorithms require a modest amount of computations in comparison with the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator. The performance of the algorithms is evaluated by Monte-Carlo simulations, and is compared with the Cramer Rao Bound (CRB). Although both techniques were successful for wideband array processing with time-invariant arrays, we found that only the interpolated array algorithm is useful for direction finding (DF) with time-varying arrays     

Distributed weather radar using X-band active arrays

Dense networks of short-range radars capable of mapping storms and detecting atmospheric and airborne hazards are described. Comprised of physically small, low-power antennas, these networks defeat the Earth curvature blockage that limits today's long-range radar networks and enable high resolution views that extend from the lower-troposphere to the tops of storms. The networks are comprised of 1-meter antennas that transmit 10's of W peak power and are capable of high-speed electronic beam-steering. A system architecture is described that maximizes the value accrued to users of radar data through utility functions that specify dynamic, optimal allocation of resources in response to the needs of multiple end-users and associated information retrieval algorithms.     

Sequences and arrays with perfect periodic correlation

Properties and methods for synthesizing sequences with perfect periodic autocorrelation functions and good energy efficiency are discussed. The construction is extended to two-dimensional perfect arrays. The construction methods used are based mainly on a search in the frequency domain and on a multiplication theorem for periodic sequences and arrays     

Simplified covariance matrix measurement in adaptive arrays

A procedure to measure the covariance matrix of an antenna array directly from the array sum port is described. The procedure involves specifically chosen sets of antenna weights that will allow the matrix components to appear at the array output. A parallel method of measuring the covariance matrix is also described. The accuracy requirements of the power measurements are examined analytically and through simulation     

Linear filtering approaches for phase calibration of airborne arrays

Phase calibration of a large fluctuating millimeter-wave airborne antenna array is considered. The technique exploits properties of the correlation of the measured voltages arising from clutter returns at adjacent or nearby element pairs. The proposed calibration algorithm trades smoothing of the observations to reduce random errors with the ability to track the time-varying calibration phase. Algorithm performance is considered for an arbitrary linear filter, which generalizes previous work on analogous pulse-pair problems, and the results are used to choose optimal filter parameters. Numerical results are provided for a field experiment employing a 32-element Ku-band antenna array     

Resolution and synthetic aperture characterization of sparse radar arrays

The concept of radar satellite constellations, or clusters, for synthetic aperture radar (SAR), moving target indicator (MTI), and other radar modes has been proposed and is currently under research. These constellations form an array that is sparsely populated and irregularly spaced; therefore, traditional matched filtering is inadequate for dealing with the constellation's radiation pattern. To aid in the design, analysis, and signal processing of radar satellite constellations and sparse arrays in general, the characterization of the resolution and ambiguity functions of such systems is investigated. We project the radar's received phase history versus five sensor parameters: time, frequency, and three-dimensional position, into a phase history in terms of two eigensensors that can be interpreted as the dimensions of a two-dimensional synthetic aperture. Then, the synthetic aperture expression is used to derive resolution and the ambiguity function. Simulations are presented to verify the theory.     

Space-time adaptive processing and adaptive arrays: specialcollection of papers

Space-time adaptive processing (STAP) and related adaptive array techniques hold tremendous potential for improving sensor performance by exploiting signal diversity. Such methods have important application in radar, sonar, and communication systems. Recent advances in digital signal processing technology now provide the computational means to field STAP-based systems. The objective of this special collection of papers is to examine the current state-of-the art in STAP technology and explore the remaining obstacles, practical issues and novel techniques required to implement STAP-based radar, sonar or communication systems     

Family of multicarrier bi-phase radar signals represented by ternary arrays

A K times L ternary array, comprised of the elements {0, 1, - 1}, with some unique features, represents a multicarrier radar signal with favorable autocorrelation and ambiguity functions. Constructing such an array using Galois fields is described. As in a Costas binary array, only one frequency is transmitted at any time slot, but in our array the same frequency is repeated in several time slots, yielding a signal with considerably larger pulse compression than a Costas signal that uses the same number of frequencies     

Covariance matrix estimation errors and diagonal loading inadaptive arrays

Simulations were used to investigate the effect of covariance matrix sample size on the system performance of adaptive arrays using the sample matrix inversion (SMI) algorithm. Inadequate estimation of the covariance matrix results in adapted antenna patterns with high sidelobes and distorted mainbeams. A technique to reduce these effects by modifying the covariance matrix estimate is described from the point of view of eigenvector decomposition. This diagonal loading technique reduces the system nulling capability against low-level interference, but parametric studies show that it is an effective approach in many situations