William M. Brown [Obituary]

Recounts the life and career of William M. Brown, former Radar Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, who passed away earlier this year.     

Radar Handbook, 3rd Edition (M.I. Skolnik, Ed; 2008) [Book Review]

Thirty eight radar experts contribute to this edition, which includes six completely new chapters on the following topics: ground penetrating radar; remote sensing with radar on satellites; multifunctional radar systems for fighter aircraft (MFAR); digital signal processing for radar; civil marine radar; and propagation. Each chapter contains references, ranging from 10 to 197, with a median of 71. The index runs 18 pages printed in double columns, but is not necessarily complete. Some topics, such as MIMO radar and long range radars to track satellites and ballistic missiles, will have to wait for a 4th edition. This text is the most authoritative, broadest, and deepest single volume on radar. The emphasis is on real world performance and real hardware that has been tested and works successfully in the real world, and the physics relevant to radar systems, as well as radar system engineering cost tradeoffs.     

2005 M. Barry Carlton Award [Society News]

The winners of the 2005 M. Barry Carlton Award are Yanwei Wang, Xi Li, Yijun Sun, Jian Li, and Petre Stoica, for their paper, Adaptive Imaging for Forward-Looking Ground Penetrating Radar. The paper appeared in the July 2005 issue.     

A. M. Hubert and C. Jaschek (eds.), B[e] Stars

The B[e] stars are early type stars with hydrogen emission lines, forbidden [FeII] and [OI] emission lines, and with an IR excess due to circumstellar dust. These properties may occur in stars of quite different evolutionary stages. In fact, the group of B[e] stars is very inhomogeneous, and contains pre-main sequence stars, supergiants with disks, compact planetary nebulae, symbiotic stars, and a group of stars with unclear evolutionary phase. The book gives the proceedings of a workshop in Paris in 1997 in which the properties and evolutionary phases of the B[e] stars are discussed. It contains chapters on: (1) the definition of B[e] stars, (2) distances, kinematics and the distribution in our Galaxy, (3) spectroscopy, (4) infrared properties, (5) photometry, polarimetry and variability, (6) models for winds and disks, (7) evolutionary stages, (8) revised classification of B[e] stars. The book ends with an object list of all B[e] stars. The book is very useful for students and researchers of hot star winds and gives nice overviews of the observations and theories and remaining puzzles of these strange objects with winds and outflowing dust-forming disks. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Airborne radar. [A century of powered flight: 1903-2003]

Radar is one of the major AESS disciplines and has been a major focus of papers and articles. This issue focuses on aviation and emphasizes the evolution of airborne radar systems through WW II.     

Electronic warfare. [A century of powered flight: 1903-2003]

Electronic warfare (EW) is a term that includes a number of different electronic technologies for intelligence gathering and/or interfering with enemy operations. Electronic intelligence (ELINT), or eavesdropping, has been going on since the invention of the telephone and telegraph. Electronic countermeasures (ECM) deprive an enemy of the electronic spectrum by creating interference (jamming) that obscures their information or generates false information (spoofing). Electronic counter countermeasures (ECCM) is an effort designed to mitigate and overcome enemy ECM operations. ECM objectives include: search for signals in frequency, azimuth, and elevation; detect and identify radar signals via characteristics; and establish signal importance; commence appropriate countermeasures. It is only recently that these technologies have traditionally been categorized as EW, and are also referred to as electronic combat (EC). This section will focus on EW as it relates only to aviation.     

Electric power. [A century of powered flight: 1903-2003]

The following topics are dealt with: magnetos; batteries; starting and powering electric loads; WW II aircraft; distributed power; and tomorrow's airplanes.     

UAVs: the future. [A century of powered flight: 1903-2003]

Unmanned air vehicles (UAV) are assuming a prominent role in aviation and the future may have already arrived. Most of us have heard of the Global Hawk and Predator UAVs, which have been collecting real-time battlefield data without risking loss of life. However, the most amazing performance and avionics can be found in airplane-model-size MiniUAVs and insect-like MicroUAVs still on the drawing board. Meanwhile the all-electric NASA Helios "tower in the sky" is moving ever closer to reality.     

M. Ostrowski,M. Sikora,G. Madejski and M. Begelman (eds.), Relativistic Jets in AGN's; M. Ostrowski and R. Schlickeiser (eds.), Plasma Turbulence and Energetic Particles in Astrophysics

Space Science Reviews -     

S. W. Bougher,D. M. Hunten,and R. J. Phillips (eds.) Venus II - Geology,Geophysics, Atmosphere,and Solar Wind Environment

Space Science Reviews -     

Keith M. Ashman and Stephen E. Zepf,Globular Cluster Systems,Cambridge Astrophysics Series Vol. 30

Space Science Reviews -