Microwave Photonics for Modern Radar Systems

The emerging new concepts and technologies based on microwave photonics have led to an ever-increasing interest in developing innovative radar systems with a net gain in functionality, bandwidth/resolution, size, mass, complexity and cost when compared with the traditional implementations. This paper describes the techniques de- veloped in the last few years in microwave photonics that might revolutionize the way to design multifunction radar systems, with an emphasis on the recent advances in optoelectronic oscillators （OEOs）, arbitrary waveform gener- ation, photonic mixing, phase coding, filtering, beamforming, analog-to-digital conversion, and stable radio-fre- quency signal transfer. Challenges in implementation of these components and subsystems for meeting the technique requirements of the multifunction radar applications are discussed.     

An Improved Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion Method for Altitude and Attitude Control of Nano Quad-Rotors under Persistent Uncertainties

Nonlinear dynamic inversion(NDI)has been applied to the control law design of quad-rotors mainly thanks to its good robustness and simplicity of parameter tuning.However,the weakness of relying on accurate model greatly restrains its application on quad-rotors,especially nano quad-rotors(NQRs).NQRs are easy to be influenced by uncertainties such as model uncertainties(mainly from complicated aerodynamic interferences,strong coupling in roll-pitch-yaw channels and inaccurate aerodynamic prediction of rotors)and external uncertainties(mainly from winds or gusts),particularly persistent ones.Therefore,developing accurate model for altitude and attitude control of NQRs is difficult.To solve this problem,in this paper,an improved nonlinear dynamic inversion(INDI)method is developed,which can reject the above-mentioned uncertainties by estimating them and then counteracting in real time using linear extended state observer(LESO).Comparison with the traditional NDI(TNDI)method was carried out numerically,and the results show that,in coping with persistent uncertainties,the INDI-based method presents significant superiority.     

一种卫星信道的反馈优化接入机制

提高卫星信道资源利用率，探索高效可行的端站接入机制是卫星通信发展亟待解决的问题之一。当前卫星通信DVB-RCS标准基于带宽预先规划的接入机制与端站随遇接入的需求矛盾凸显，因此提出一套信道反馈优化接入机制，综合考虑各端站数据业务需求，在不改变原有协议信令特征的基础上，探索性地引入谦虚度激励方法，创造性地构造动态协商反馈模型并加以求解，达到提高端站接入数量、满足随遇接入需求、提升信道利用效率、最大化整体带宽通信业务效益的目的。通过试验验证，带宽分配反馈优化机制比传统模式提高近1倍接入率，最大端站数接入时算法耗时约只有0.67s，可为卫星信道使用提供技术参考。     

非线性刚度对微机械陀螺动态性能的影响*

为了提高微机械陀螺的稳定性,研究自由振动状态下活动基座上L-L型双质量微机械陀螺的动态性能,建立微机械陀螺的数学模型,得到以幅值-相位为变量的运动微分方程的解,并给出这种解与轨道元素的联系。研究框架质量和弹性件非线性刚度对陀螺漂移量的影响,并给出数值例子。对所得到的解析关系式与曲线进行分析,作出关于系统性能的相应结论。     

Ionospheric F2-Layer critical frequency retrieved from COSMIC radio occultation: A statistical comparison with measurements from a meridional ionosonde chain over Southeast Asia

In this paper, we compared the F2-Layer critical frequency (foF2) derived from FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC radio occultation (RO) and ionosondes at Chiang Mai, Chumphon and Kototabang during the years 2008–2015 to evaluate the performance of COSMIC RO over Southeast Asia region. The results show that the time development of foF2 values derived from COSMIC RO generally agrees well with those from ionosonde measurements. However, the differences between the foF2 derived from COSMIC RO and that derived from ionosonde observations display latitudinal dependence. COSMIC RO tends to underestimate foF2 at Chiang Mai and Kototabang, which is near to the north EIA crest and the south one, respectively, while a little overestimate foF2 at Chumphon, which is close to the geomagnetic equator. COSMIC RO agrees best with ionosonde at Chumphon and worst at Chiang Mai. At each ionosonde station, the quality of COSMIC RO data degrades with the increase of solar activity. In addition, at the station Chiang Mai and Kototabang, COSMIC RO performs better in summer than in equinox and winter. Furthermore, the differences in foF2 derived from COSMIC RO and that from ionosonde measurements vary with local time, i.e., the differences in foF2 are generally smaller at night and larger in noontime when equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) is well developed.     

Alfvén gravity waves in viscous solar plasma: Effect of the background flow

We study the Propagation and damping properties of Alfvén gravity waves in the presence of the vertical magnetic field in the viscous solar plasma under influence of the background flow by deriving a fourth order dispersion relation in terms of the Doppler shifted frequency. We derive the dispersion relation under WKB and Boussinesq approximation. We study the damping of Alfvén gravity waves for the wave frequencies less than and greater than the Brunt-Väisälä frequency. We find that the Brunt-Väisälä frequency divides the frequency ranges where the weakly or strongly damped oscillations occur. The background flow exhibits a strong effect on weakly damped oscillations and a weak effect on the strongly damped oscillations. We also notice that the damping of both the strong and weakly damped oscillations depend on the Brunt-Väisälä frequency and wave number. The effect of the background flow is also being governed by the Brunt-Väisälä frequency and wave number. We also study the properties of gravity wave mode after filtering the Alfvén wave mode by minimizing the magnetic field and noticed that the background flow shows a very strong effect on the gravity wave mode.     

RTK model and positioning performance analysis using Galileo four-frequency observations

This paper proposes a real-time kinematic (RTK) model that uses one common reference satellite for the Galileo system with four frequency observations. In the proposed model, the double-differenced (DD) pseudorange and carrier phase biases among the different frequencies are estimated as unknown parameters to recover the integer features of the DD ambiguities among the different frequencies for ambiguity resolution and precise positioning. Analysis results show that the E5a, E5b, and E5 frequencies have virtually the same performance in terms of the positioning accuracy, observation residuals, and ratio values of ambiguity resolution. However, the E1 frequency performs worse than the E5a, E5b, and E5 frequencies. The RTK results for the combination of multiple frequencies are much better than those for a single-frequency observation, the coordinates’ standard deviation is improved about 20–30%, and the ambiguity fix time is improved about 10%.     

Generalised variational assimilation of cloud-affected brightness temperature using simulated hyper-spectral atmospheric infrared sounder data

Assimilated channel brightness temperature data from infrared sounders accounting for cloud effects have a positive effect on weather forecasting, especially in weather-sensitive areas. When cloud effects are included, the channel brightness temperature deviations follow a non-Gaussian distribution. However, classical variational data assimilation follows a Gaussian distribution. When processing the cloud-affected brightness temperature, useful data are lost through the cloud detection process, thus assimilating some channel brightness temperatures with weight function peaks above the cloud top. Furthermore, strict quality control of brightness temperature removes outliers. By adopting the generalised variational assimilation method, which assumes that errors follow a non-Gaussian distribution, this paper assimilates the cloud-affected brightness temperature using simulated data for the hyper-spectral atmospheric infrared sounder (AIRS). A channel set is formed by dynamically selecting AIRS channels. The experiments for retrieving temperature and humidity data demonstrate that the generalised variational assimilated cloud-affected brightness temperature method performs better than the classical method.