Performance analysis of PNG laws for randomly maneuvering targets

The performance of the conventional proportional navigation guidance (PNG) law for a randomly maneuvering target is considered. By means of the Lyapunov method, it is proved that an ideal missile guided by the conventional PNG law can always intercept a target which maneuvers with time-varying normal acceleration provided that the navigation constant is sufficiently large. The authors also propose a modified PNG (MPNG) law which seems to improve the performance of the conventional PNG law at the final phase of pursuit. Simulation results demonstrate that the MPNG law demands less missile acceleration at the final phase of pursuit than the conventional PNG law     

VLSI architecture for SAR data compression

As a step towards a real-time signal aperture radar (SAR) correlator, custom very large scale integration (VLSI) architectures are developed. Considering the extremely short word length of the data, we derive three architectures with massive parallelism in bit space. Unlike frequency methods, no. degradation is introduced during convolution. Optimized for time and space, they are highly suited to VLSI implementation, and a small architecture with 80 taps operating at 10 MHz has been built using an FPGA     

Prescreening during image formation for ultrawideband radar

Standard radar image formation techniques waste computational resources by full resolving all areas of the scene, even regions of benign clutter. We introduce a multiscale prescreener algorithm that runs as part of the image formation processing step for ultrawideband (UWB) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems. The prescreener processes intermediate radar data generated by a quadtree backprojection image former. As the quadtree algorithm iterates, it is resolving increasingly finer subpatches of the scene. After each quadtree stage, the prescreener makes an estimate of the signal-to-background ratio of each subpatch and applies a constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detector to decide which ones might contain a target of interest. Whenever the prescreener determines that a subpatch is not near a detection, it cues the image former to terminate further processing of that subpatch. Using a small database of UWB radar field data, we demonstrate that the prescreener is able to decrease the overall computational load of the image formation process. We also show that the new multiscale prescreener method produces fewer false alarms than the conventional two-parameter CFAR prescreener applied to the completely formed image     

Time variations of the total electron content in the Southeast Asian equatorial ionization anomaly for the period 2006–2011

This study presents the time variations of the total electron content in the South East Asian equatorial ionization anomaly. The time variation of the TEC is analyzed through the period 2006–2011 by using a latitudinal chain of GPS stations extending in the northern and southern hemisphere. The data shows that the shape of the diurnal variation of the TEC depends on the latitude: a plateau is observed at the stations near the equator and a Gaussian at the station distant from the equator. We observe a semiannual pattern in all the stations with maxima at equinox. In both hemispheres, the amplitude of the crest is larger in spring than autumn from 2006 to 2008 and smaller in spring than in autumn from 2009 to 2011. We also observe an asymmetry between the amplitude and the position of the two crests of ionization. There is a very high level of correlation between the amplitude of the TEC at the two crests and the sunspot number: ∼0.88. During the deep solar minimum 2008–2009, the amplitude of crests of ionization becomes small during several months in summer and winter. The results show that both crests move significantly equatorward in winter than other seasons and there is a tendency for both crests to appear earlier in winter and later in summer.     

Deployable space structure control using adaptive predictive controller with notch filter

The present study addresses the adaptive predictive controller with adaptive notch filter for the tip position control of a deployable space structure model. An adaptive notch filter is designed to estimate multiple bending mode frequencies of the deployable manipulator and to minimize the effect of bending vibration. The results show that the adaptive predictive controller with adaptive notch filter is quite effective controlling the tip position of a deployable space structure under poor modeling information.     

Capturability of the 3-dimensional pure PNG law

Although a lot of effort has been recently devoted to the capturability analysis of the pure proportional navigation guidance (PPNG) law, there are still significant discrepancies between the analysis results and the actual capturability of the PPNG law. In this paper, a Lyapunov-like approach along with a vector analysis method based on the so-called LOS (line of sight) plane is introduced to analyze the capturability of the 3-dimensional PPNG law against a target maneuvering arbitrarily with time-varying normal acceleration. Thereby, our analysis result can explain the high capturability of the PPNG law theoretically much better than those presented in the prior literature. In our capturability analysis, the nonlinear dynamics of 3-dimensional pursuit situations have been taken into full account. Our approach is also expected to be useful for the design and analysis of other PPNG-like missile guidance laws     

Missile autopilot design via functional inversion and time-scaled transformation

This paper presents a new approach to acceleration control of STT (Skid-To-Turn) missiles. In the design and stability analysis of our autopilot, we assume perfect roll-stabilization but consider fully all other nonlinearities of the missile dynamics including the coupling effect due to bank angle. Our autopilot controller consists of a partial-linearizing controller and a dynamic compensator. The partial-linearizing controller along with a time scaled transformation can convert the nonlinear missile dynamics to the so-called normalized system which is completely independent of Mach number and almost independent of air density. The dynamic compensator is designed based on this normalized system. This normalized system greatly simplifies the design process of an autopilot controller regardless of flight conditions. Our autopilot controller can provide fast and exact set-point tracking performance but without the slow-varying conditions on angle of attack and side-slip angle required often in the prior works.     

Spread-Spectrum Multiple Access Using Wideband Noncoherent MFSK

Two spread-spectrum multiple access systems which usewideband M-ary frequency shift keying (FSK) (MFSK) as theprimary modulation are presented. A bit error rate performanceanalysis is presented and system throughput is calculated for sample C band and Ku band satellite systems. Sample link analyses areincluded to illustrate power and adjacent satellite interferenceconsiderations in practical multiple access systems.     

Solar polar magnetic field dependency of geomagnetic activity semiannual variation indicated in the Aa index

Three major hypotheses have been proposed to explain the well-known semiannual variation of geomagnetic activity, maxima at equinoxes and minima at solstices. This study examined whether the seasonal variation of equinoctial geomagnetic activity is different in periods of opposite solar magnetic polarity in order to understand the contribution of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) in the Sun-Earth connection. Solar magnetic polarity is parallel to the Earth’s polarity in solar minimum years of odd/even cycles but antiparallel in solar minimum years of even/odd cycles. The daily mean of the aa, Aa indices during each solar minimum was compared for periods when the solar magnetic polarity remained in opposite dipole conditions. The Aa index values were used for each of the three years surrounding the solar minimum years of the 14 solar cycles recorded since 1856. The Aa index reflects seasonal variation in geomagnetic activity, which is greater at the equinoxes than at the solstices. The Aa index reveals solar magnetic polarity dependency in which the geomagnetic activity is stronger in the antiparallel solar magnetic polarity condition than in the parallel one. The periodicity in semiannual variation of the Aa index is stronger in the antiparallel solar polar magnetic field period than in the parallel period. Additionally, we suggest the favorable IMF condition of the semiannual variation in geomagnetic activity. The orientation of IMF toward the Sun in spring and away from the Sun in fall mainly contributes to the semiannual variation of geomagnetic activity in both antiparallel and parallel solar minimum years.