Interferometer Design for Elevation Angle Estimation

Radars that are developed for the purpose of monitoring aircraft landings in the terminal air traffic control system can be designed to exploit the relatively high signal-to-noise ratio that characterizes the power budgets calculated for such a link. An interferometer using a pair of low gain antennas can be used to obtain passive coverage over a targe azimuth and elevation sector. A large baseline can be used to obtain the desired elevation angle estimation accuracy. In this paper an optimal tradeoff between the width of the subarray aperture and the width of the interferometer baseline is performed that achieves a specified elevation angle estimation error while minimizing the overall height of the interferometer configuration. The algorithm searches through the class of antenna patterns that can be synthesized from so-called finite impulse response, linear phase digital filters. For the specific problem of designing an elevation sensor for monitoring landing aircraft on final approach, the elevation angle can be estimated with no more than 1-mrad rms error when the aircraft is within ± 60° azimuth, 2.5° to 40° elevation, using two 7-wavelength subarray antennas spaced 8 wave-lengths apart. The design of a separate sensor for resolving the interferometer ambiguities is formulated as a hypothesis testing problem and solved using statistical decision theory. A bound on the probability of an ambiguity error is derived that accounts for the effects of ground reflection multipath and receiver noise.     

Noise factor and antenna gains in the signal/noise equation for over-the-horizon radar

A recommended form of the signal-to-noise equation that includes both internal and external system noise and signal/noise processing losses is discussed. The recommended form conforms to the internationally accepted definition of system operating noise factor but is extended to include signal/noise processing. The predetection signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a radar or communication system is proportional to the power gain of the transmit antenna and the directive gain of the receive antenna, and is inversely proportional to the operating noise factor of the receiving system. The operating noise factor is approximately equal to the product of the external noise factor and the signal/noise processing factor when the system is external noise limited, as is usually the case for over-the-horizon (OTH) radar.<>     

Performance analysis of radar antenna systems

If modern airborne radar systems are to function properly, the radar antenna radiation patterns must meet certain specifications. Until recently, most radar antennas were designed and tested in a clean antenna environment, i.e., there is no near field scattering from host structures or radome effects. However, these higher order effects are the matter of increasing concern with added performance demands in the ever-increasing jammer and clutter interference environments. We investigated the capabilities and limitations of currently available analysis techniques and computer codes for installed performance of airborne radar antenna systems. Then we developed an extended ray-optical technique that could predict total installed performance of airborne radar antenna systems, i.e., the near field scattering from aircraft structures and radome effects. The new analysis technique utilized a ray-tracing method in both airframe and radome simulation. Thus, it can efficiently predict the total installed performance of large radar antenna systems on an aircraft structure     

Analysis of a Signal Processor for an Antenna Array

A signal processor that provides ratio-squared predetection combining, has been investigated for application in an adaptive antenna array. The analysis and experimental data presented here pertain to the signal processing gain when the antenna array is illuminated by a coherent signal source and a partially coherent noise source. For a noise source which is coherent, the processing gain depends on relative strength of the signal and noise, relative directions of arrival, and the usual "array factor." The array exhibits capturing effects much as in an FM receiver. The effective antenna pattern is a superposition of two beams of different magnitudes, one directed to the signal source and the other to the noise source. When the noise is partially coherent, the behavior of the signal processor is quite complex. Analytical prediction and experimental simulation measurement on a four-channel system indicate that the partially coherent noise may be regarded as the source of an incoherent noise component plus a coherent noise component with the magnitude of the latter determined by the coherence coefficient for the noise source.     

Performance of an Electrically Small Antenna Amplifier Circuit

A technique is presented to calculate the noise figure and available power gain for electricially small antenna amplifier circuits over a wide bandwidth. The method permits reasonable predictions of circuit performance solely from the manufacturer's transistor data, i.e., without resorting to extensive measurements. Results for a system designed for 10 kHz to 500 MHz coverage are presented. The agreement between the calculated and measured noise figures and available power gain is within 3 dB over most of the frequency range.     

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。     

City Noise and Its Effect Upon Airborne Antenna Noise Temperatures at UHF

Results of an experimental program to determine the characteristics of city noise and its effect on airborne UHF antennas are presented. Coherent sources of energy from communications equipment, radar, navigational aids, etc. are not included in the analysis. Based upon the experimental data, a model of the industrial noise is presented in which an industrial area is considered as a uniformly distributed source of independent radiators. The magnitude of the power density distribution was computed to be 3×10-18 to 1×10-18 W/m2/Hz over the UHF band for all the East Coast cities measured, with the exception of New York City which was 5 to 6 dB higher. Relations have been derived and curves plotted to compute antenna noise temperature increase due to city noise, based upon the metropolitan area and its range from the aircraft.     

Communicating across the solar system

The next chapter in our ongoing quest for discovery began in the last half of the 20th century, with the initiation of robotic exploration of our solar system. In less than fifty years, we have broken free of Earth's gravity and flown spacecraft to every planet in the solar system except Pluto. The ultimate goal of this exploration is to establish a virtual (and, perhaps, someday, an actual) human presence throughout the solar system. Clearly, communications is one of the central elements of creating such a virtual presence, and also one of the biggest technical challenges in planetary exploration. Transmit performance is characterized by the product of antenna gain and transmitter power, while receive performance scales with the ratio of aperture effective area to system noise temperature. A number of key communications technology advances have enabled our planetary exploration to date, and future technology will open the door to new vistas in space exploration     

涵道比对大型客机经济性和环保性的影响

为了综合评估配装发动机的涵道比对客机的经济性和环保性的影响,建立了一套包括动力、几何、气动、质量、性能、经济性、噪声、排放分析模型的多学科分析流程.以典型宽体客机为应用算例,分析了不同涵道比（8~14）发动机对宽体客机经济性和环保指标的影响.综合分析结果表明:增大发动机涵道比有利于降低客机噪声和起降循环氮氧化合物污染物的排放;而发动机涵道比为11左右时,客机的现金使用成本最低,航线氮氧化合物污染物排放量最少.      

Error Analysis of the Optimal Antenna Array Processors

The optimal weights of an antenna array processor, which maximizes the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the absence of errors, are computed using the noise-alone matrix inverse (NAMI) and the steering vector in the look direction or the signal-plus-noise matrix inverse (SPNMI) and the steering vector. In practice the estimated steering vector as well as the estimated optimal weights are corrupted by random errors. This paper has analyzed the effects of these errors on the performance of the NAMI processor and the SPNMI processor by deriving analytic expressions for the output signal power, output noise power, output SNR, and the array gain as a function of the error variance. The treatment is for a general array configuration and no assumption about a particular array geometry is made.     

Adaptive array transient sidelobe levels and remedies

The transient sidelobe level of a sidelobe canceler (SLC) is a function of the external noise environment, the number of adaptive auxiliary antennas, the adaptive algorithm used, auxiliary antenna gain margins, and the number of samples used to calculate the adaptive weights. An analytical result for the adaptive sidelobe level is formulated for the case when the adaptive algorithm is the open-loop, sampled matrix inversion (SMI) algorithm. The result is independent of whether concurrent or nonconcurrent data processing is used in the SMI algorithm's implementation. It is shown that the transient sidelobe level is eigenvalue dependent and increases proportionally to the gain margin of the auxiliary antenna elements with respect to the quiescent main antenna sidelobe level. Techniques that reduce this transient sidelobe level are discussed, and it is theoretically shown that injection independent noise into the auxiliary channels significantly reduces the transient sidelobe level. It is demonstrated that using this same technique reduces the SMI noise power residue settling time     

Joint STARS phased array radar antenna

The Joint STARS phased array radar system is capable of performing long range airborne surveillance and was used during the Persian Gulf war on two E8-A aircraft to fly many around-the-clock missions to monitor the Kuwait and Iraq battlefield from a safe distance behind the front lines. This paper is a follow-on to previous publications on the subject of the Joint STARS antenna and deals mainly with mission performance and technical aspects not previously covered. Radar data of troop movements and armament installations are presented, a brief review of the antenna design is given, followed by technical discussions concerning the three-port interferometry, gain and sidelobe design approach, cost control, range test implementation and future improvements     

A Method for Selection of an Optimum Communication Link

A method is presented for the selection of a communication system based upon optimization of both frequency-dependent and frequency independent parameters. The indicator of quality used is the effective radiated power per cycle per second of information bandwidth. The method involves consideration of the frequency-dependent qualities such as system temperature and propagation losses independently from the frequency-independent quantities such as modulation loss, signal-to-noise ratio, performance margin, etc. Except for temperature and propagation loss effects, the method is made frequency-independent by considering the spacecraft antenna in terms of area while the ground terminal antenna is treated in terms of gain, thus removing wavelength from the transmission equation. An example is presented of the application of the method to the selection of a system for transmission of wide-band video signals over a satellite to earth link. The example illustrates the exchanges that can be made between the frequency-dependent and -independent quantities in order to arrive at an optimum system.     

阵列旋转对功率倒置算法性能的影响分析

针对卫星导航抗干扰中,功率倒置算法下导航信号载噪比受干扰来波方向的影响,通过理论推导和数值计算的方法研究了天线阵列旋转与功率倒置算法抗干扰性能的关系。分析结果表明:天线阵列旋转会使功率倒置算法下的阵列增益在最大值和最小值之间呈现连续的、周期性的变化。相比固定天线阵不变的载噪比,阵列旋转能够使信号在一段时间内获得更大的载噪比,对于四阵元Y型阵列,阵列旋转理论上对载噪比的最大提升程度可以达到14dB左右。仿真结果验证了理论推导的正确性。     

定向耦合器在天线隔离度测试中的应用

飞机机载天线之间可能会因电磁能量互相耦合而产生电磁干扰,天线隔离度测试是验证机载天线布局设计的重要手段之一。根据定向耦合器性能参数定义,通过测量定向耦合器耦合端口和隔离端口的功率值计算出发射天线的净输入功率和接收天线的净输出功率,从而得到天线隔离度。通过机上测试,这种隔离度测试方法简便快捷、稳定可靠,试验结果准确有效。     

飞行器热天线热电联合计算方法

为了研究高温环境对热天线电性能的影响,提出了一种热电联合计算方法,通过三维热、电信息传递程序实现不同温度区域介电性能的空间加载,以此关联温度场与电磁场网格节点信息,实现温度场-电磁场耦合问题的联合计算。介绍了热电联合计算方法的原理与思路,并以某型热天线为研究对象,考查天线温度分布对电性能的影响程度,为飞行器热天线的精细化设计提供了途径。该方法可应用于热透波结构的高温电性能分析,尤其对于恶劣热环境下的热天线/天线罩设计具有较高的应用价值。     

The effect of the clutter-to-noise ratio on Doppler filterperformance

The effect of the clutter-to-noise ratio on the performance of a Doppler filter is considered. Clutter is assumed to have a power level which is unknown and varies in range. The assessment of the performance of a Doppler filter is based on the gain of the filter, which is the normalized output signal-to-interference ratio improvement at a given Doppler. The gain is generally a complex function of the statistics of the clutter. New upper and lower bounds on the gain differential between the expected design point clutter-to-noise ratio and the actual clutter-to-noise ratio are found. These bounds are independent of the clutter covariance matrix and are only a function of the unknown clutter-to-noise ratio. The bounds are valid for both Gaussian and non-Gaussian noise and for arbitrary linear filters. The upper and lower bounds differ by the theoretical coherent integration gain, 10 logN dB, where N is the number of pulses. A tighter lower bound is found for the case when the filters are matched filters. A simple exact expression is found for matched filters assuming a Gaussian Markov clutter model as the clutter spectral width approaches zero. An easily implementable adaptive procedure is given which improves performance due to the unknown clutter-to-noise ratio. This work extends a previous result, valid for the Emerson filter, that shows the effect of clutter-to-noise ratio on performance in terms of an average quantity, the improvement factor     

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     

Instrumental variable adaptive array processing

An instrumental variable (IV) approach is presented for estimating the weights of an adaptive antenna array. Theoretical analysis of the IV method shows that the antenna gain weights are independent of finitely correlated noise, so that unbiased estimation of signal arrival angles is possible. Only matrix inversions are required to compute the weight estimates. In this sense, the IV method provides performance comparable with eigenvector techniques but with lower computational burden. Both minimal and overdetermined IV estimators are derived. The overdetermined estimators give the same theoretical array weights as minimal estimators, but yield more accurate weight estimates in real data situations. Simulation results are presented to compare these IV methods with one another and with conventional matrix inversion weight estimators. In these examples it is seen that IV methods are able to resolve closely spaced interference sources when conventional matrix inversion techniques cannot. It is also shown that overdetermined methods are capable of providing weight estimates with lower variances than those of minimal methods     

分布式波浪前缘静子叶片对单级轴流风扇单音噪声影响的数值研究

为了适应逐年严苛的适航噪声标准，改善飞机噪声环境，突破航空发动机降噪技术的瓶颈，有必要开发新的降噪手段以指导叶轮机械降噪设计。本文采用URANS与FW-H方程混合方法，通过将波浪前缘构型运用在叶片流动损失较大、声源强度较强的部分后，进一步观察其气动性能和降噪效果。研究表明：与基准叶片相比，分布式波浪前缘静子叶片可以在1BPF（Blade Passing Frequency）时降低风扇入口声功率级0.67~1.9dB，2BPF时降低风扇入口声功率级1.87~4.18dB，3BPF时降低风扇入口声功率级2.4~6.8dB，同时，总压比最高提升0.027%，等熵效率最高提升0.28%。因此，分布式波浪前缘静子叶片在叶轮机械降噪方面有很好的运用前景。