Technique of integral diagnostics for a radio-frequency inductively coupled plasma discharge unit of an RF ion thruster

A technique of integral diagnostics for an RF inductively coupled plasma gas discharge unit of an ion thruster is proposed. This technique includes a priori measurements of antenna coil electrical parameters in free space and in assembled state as well as experimental determination of the antenna coil currents with and without discharge.     

Detection of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays and neutrinos by radio method using artificial lunar satellites

An estimate of the feasibility of the ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray and neutrino detection using a lunar satellite-borne radio receiver is presented. The data obtained in the proposed experiment will make resolving the current contradictions in the ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray spectra measured with the major ground-based instruments possible. Moreover, they will enable us to considerably extend the accessible energy range and to check predictions of various models of the origin of the highest-energy particles in the Universe. At the same time the lunar radio detector provides a means of searching for ultrahigh-energy neutrinos with a high sensitivity combined with a very large target effective mass.     

The Seed Population for Energetic Particles Accelerated by CME-Driven Shocks

Understanding properties of solar energetic particle (SEP) events associated with coronal mass ejections has been identified as a key problem in solar-terrestrial physics. Although recent CME shock acceleration models are highly promising, detailed agreement between theoretical predictions and observations has remained elusive. Recent observations from ACE have shown substantial enrichments in the abundances of ³He and He⁺ ions which are extremely rare in the thermal solar wind plasma. Consequently, these ions act as tracers of their source material, i.e., ³He ions are flare suprathermals and He⁺ ions are interstellar pickup ions. The average heavy ion composition also exhibits unsystematic differences when compared with the solar wind values, but correlates significantly with the ambient suprathermal material abundances. Taken together these results provide compelling evidence that CME-driven shocks draw their source material from the ubiquitous but largely unexplored suprathermal tail rather than from the more abundant solar wind peak. However, the suprathermal energy regime has many more contributors and exhibits much larger variability than the solar wind, and as such needs to be investigated more thoroughly. Answers to fundamental new questions regarding the preferred injection of the suprathermal ions, the spatial and temporal dependence of the various sources, and the causes of their variability and their effects on the SEP properties are needed to improve agreement between the simulations and observations.     

Advances in non-linear apodization

Selected new methods and applications of non-linear apodization for irregularly-shaped and parse coherent apertures and arrays are presented. The benefits include unproved impulse response performance, i.e., reduced peak sidelobes and integrated sidelobe power, along with improved mainlobe resolution, compared to classic windowing techniques. Nonlinear apodization (NLA) techniques can also serve as powerful engines for effective superresolution and bandwidth extrapolation of coherent data for filling sparse apertures. The sparse aperture filling property of superresolution algorithms for radar data forms the basis for a new concept which is introduced here: synthetic multiple aperture radar technology (SMART). Increased swath and/or reduced antenna size are some of the benefits postulated for SMART applied to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems. The benefits of these new methods and applications for nonlinear apodization are then demonstrated for two specific applications: 1) sidelobe control for Y-type synthetic aperture radiometers, such as the European Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) system (Kerr et al.) and JPL's proposed GeoSTAR (Lambrigsten) concept; and, 2) filling of sparse synthetic aperture radar data by exploiting the bandwidth extrapolation properties of nonlinear apodization based superresolution techniques. The methods that have been developed and demonstrated herein have potential application to a wide range of passive and active microwave remote sensing and radar systems.     

Effect of variable thermal properties of the solid phase on composite solid propellant combustion

Effects of variable thermal properties (specific heat and thermal conductivity) of the solid phase on the combustion of composite solid propellants are studied analytically. Both steady and unsteady burning are considered. It is shown that the effects of variable thermal properties are small and can be accounted for by choosing proper average values of specific heat and thermal conductivity.     

Effect of earth?s rotation and range foldover on space-based radar performance

Space-based radar (SBR) by virtue of its motion generates a Doppler frequency component to the clutter return from any point on the Earth as a function of the SBR-Earth geometry. The effect of the rotation of the Earth around its own axis also adds an additional component to this Doppler frequency. The overall effect of the rotation of the Earth on the Doppler turns out to be two correction factors in terms of a crab angle affecting the azimuth angle, and a crab magnitude scaling the Doppler magnitude of the clutter patch. Interestingly, both these quantities depend only on the SBR orbit inclination and its latitude and not on the location of the clutter patch of interest. Further, the crab angle has maximum effect for an SBR on a polar orbit that is above the equator. The crab magnitude, on the other hand, peaks for an SBR on an equatorial orbit. Together with the range foldover phenomenon, their overall effect is to generate Doppler spread/splitting resulting in wider clutter notches that degrade the clutter nulling performance of adaptive processing techniques. A detailed performance analysis and methods to minimize these effects are discussed here     

Energetic Hydrogen and Oxygen Atoms Observed on the Nightside of Mars

We present measurements of energetic hydrogen and oxygen atoms (ENAs) on the nightside of Mars detected by the neutral particle detector (NPD) of ASPERA-3 on Mars Express. We focus on the observations for which the field-of-view of NPD was directed at the nightside of Mars or at the region around the limb, thus monitoring the flow of ENAs towards the nightside of the planet. We derive energy spectra and total fluxes, and have compiled maps of hydrogen ENA outflow. The hydrogen ENA intensities reach 10⁵ cm⁻² sr⁻¹ s⁻¹, but no oxygen ENA signals above the detection threshold of 10⁴ cm⁻² sr⁻¹ s⁻¹ are observed. These intensities are considerably lower than most theoretical predictions. We explain the discrepancy as due to an overestimation of the charge-exchange processes in the models for which too high an exospheric density was assumed. Recent UV limb emission measurements (Galli et al., this issue) point to a hydrogen exobase density of 10¹⁰ m⁻³ and a very hot hydrogen component, whereas the models were based on a hydrogen exobase density of 10¹² m⁻³ and a temperature of 200 K predicted by Krasnopolsky and Gladstone (1996). Finally, we estimate the global atmospheric loss rate of hydrogen and oxygen due to the production of ENAs.     

Reconfigurable multiport amplifiers for in-orbit use

A highly reliable and economical system design is presented for a multiport amplifier (MPA) system, which has attracted considerable attention for its potential use in multibeam mobile satellite communications. An MPA is composed of multiple input/output ports and an array of multiple high-power amplifier (HPAs). Since the HPAs are shared among multiple beams, this design solves the problems of traffic imbalance among beams, traffic changes due to terminal movement, and changes in propagation conditions, and can efficiently utilize the total transmitting power with maximum flexibility and minimum hardware. The problem is that HPA failures degrade the MPA beam isolation, causing multipath interference in the surrounding area due to leakage through adjacent beams. To address this problem, we investigated the MPA performance and survival probability when HPAs fail, by taking the specific properties of the MPA configuration into account. Based on our analysis, we found that there is an optimum operational HPA on/off mode in the event of HPA failure, and we were able to obtain optimal performance and reliability by reconfiguring the HPA on/off states in orbit upon the occurrence of HPA failures. Our proposed self-redundant, reconfigurable MPA can achieve high reliability without any need for additional redundant units or switches.