Recent Breakthroughs in RF Photonics for Radar Systems

Radar systems require transmission of very high purity signals. Photonics is now mature enough to achieve analog transmission with very low noise, strong immunity, and wide-bandwidth even in harsh environments. We present our recent developments of optimized optical links dedicated to radar and multifunction systems     

Two Methods of Spectral Estimation for SARSAT Signals

Search and rescue satellite aided tracking (SARSAT) depends on the processing of emergency locator transmitter (ELT) signals which are received by a satellite in low polar orbit. Since the signal from a distressed vehicle is normally immersed in a background of other ELT signals (false alarms), interference, and noise, different methods of spectral estimation can provide advantages in estimating carrier frequency. A comparison between average spectrum and minimum spectrum for several real signals is provided here.     

Airborne radar: its beginnings in World War II

Although not realized at the time, the defeat of the German Air Force in the summer of 1940 was one of the crucial battles of World War II. The narrow margin of victory can be ascribed to Britain's air-warning radar, Chain Home (CH), consisting of the 15-meter CH and the 1.5-meter CHL. The skillful use of this equipment by the Royal Air Force made daylight bombing unsustainable; the Luftwaffe then turned to night attacks, generally called "The Blitz." These were not effective in destroying military and industrial targets and depended on the hope of reducing the population's will to fight. Chain Home was of little use except to observe the attackers arrival, as it had almost no ability to follow the attackers as they proceeded inland. This eventuality was reckoned with before the outbreak of hostilities and had called for radars mounted in night fighters capable of guiding the pilot close enough to the target for him to open fire visually. The electronic techniques used at 1.5-meters were adapted to planes capable of carrying the radar and its operator. But there were three important design constraints: 1) the antennas had to be restricted to sizes that were practical for installation on aircraft, which for meter waves gave them low gain and large side lobes; 2) the set's maximum range was limited by the fighter's altitude as a result of the huge ground returns from the side lobes. British antiaircraft artillery, the stepchild of their arms, was too ineffective to drive the bombers to extreme altitudes; and 3) a minimum range had to be held until the flier could see his target, which strained the pulse techniques of the time.     

Subspace array processing for the suppression of FM jamming in GPS receivers

The mitigation of FM interference in GPS receivers is considered. In difference to commonly assumed wideband and narrowband interferers, the FM interferers are wideband, but instantaneously narrowband, and as such, have clear time-frequency (TF) signatures that are distinct from the GPS coarse acquisition (C/A) spread spectrum code. In the proposed technique, the estimate of the FM interference instantaneous frequency (IF) and the interference spatial signature are used to construct the spatiotemporal interference subspace. The IF estimates can be provided using existing effective linear or bilinear TF methods. The undesired signal arrival is suppressed by projecting the input data on the interference orthogonal subspace. With a multisensor receiver, the distinctions in both the spatial and TF signatures of signal arrivals allow effective interference suppressions. The deterministic nature of the signal model is considered and the known underlying structure of the GPS C/A code is utilized. We derive the receiver signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) under exact and perturbed IF values. The effect of IF estimation errors on both pseudorange measurements and navigation data recovery is analyzed. Simulation results comparing the receiver performances under IF errors in single and multiantenna GPS receivers are provided.     

Automotive-grade MEMS sensors used for general aviation

The attitude heading reference system (AHRS) provides data for primary flight instruments, head-up displays, autopilots, and moving map navigation systems. Advances in solid-state MEMS rate sensors, coupled with Kalman filter algorithms designed to mitigate high drift rates, provide the basis for low-cost, high-performance AHRS for general aviation. This paper describes the performance of a low cost, miniaturized AHRS using automotive-grade MEMS sensors. The performance of the system is detailed. The implications for certification of this class of system and fault tolerance are discussed.     

Microdosimetric measurements of heavy ion tracks.

The biological effectiveness of radiations depends on the spatial pattern of ionizations and excitations produced by the charged particle tracks involved. Ionizations produced by both the primary ion and by energetic delta rays may contribute to the production of biologically relevant damage and to the concentration of damage which may effect the probability of repair. Although average energy concentration (dose) can be calculated using homogeneous track models, the energy is actually concentrated in small volumes containing segments of the ion and delta ray tracks. These local concentrations are studied experimentally using low pressure proportional counters, and theoretically, using Monte Carlo methods. Small volumes near an ion track may be traversed by a delta ray. If they are, the energy deposited will be similar to that produced by a single electron track in a low-energy x-ray irradiation. The probability of a delta ray interaction occurring decreases with the square of the radial distance from the track. The average energy deposited is the product of this probability and the energy deposited in an interaction. Average energy deposited calculated from measured interaction probability is in good agreement with the results of homogeneous track models.     

Reduced-order multiple model adaptive controller for flexiblespacestructure

The robustness of a moving-bank multiple model adaptive estimator/controller to order reduction in the controller design model is examined. It is shown that the adaptive mechanism and bank-moving logic are not confounded by the effects of unmodeled higher order modes of a large flexible spacestructure. Control characteristics are achieved that are essentially equivalent to those of an artificially informed benchmark controller     

Design for validation

An approach is outlined for the development of ultrareliable avionics for civil air transports using a design-for-validation philosophy that includes rigorous application of formal methods. The basic concept of the methodology is introduced, and the role of formal methods is explored. The impact of the design-for-validation philosophy on the system design process is then demonstrated by two simple examples. More details about the design-for-validation methodology are then given     

SETI education programs in Australia

This paper discusses and evaluates two innovative SETI education programs conducted at the University of Western Sydney, viz: the SETI Pathways Program and the Life in the Universe Curriculum Project.