Gravitation and celestial mechanics investigations with Galileo

The gravitation and celestial mechanics investigations during the cruise phase and Orbiter phase of the Galileo mission depend on Doppler and ranging measurements generated by the Deep Space Network (DSN) at its three spacecraft tracking sites in California, Australia, and Spain. Other investigations which also rely on DSN data, and which like ours fall under the general discipline of spacecraft radio science, are described in a companion paper by Howard et al. (1992). We group our investigations into four broad categories as follows: (1) the determination of the gravity fields of Jupiter and its four major satellites during the orbital tour, (2) a search for gravitational radiation as evidenced by perturbations to the coherent Doppler link between the spacecraft and Earth, (3) the mathematical modeling, and by implication tests, of general relativistic effects on the Doppler and ranging data during both cruise and orbiter phases, and (4) an improvement in the ephemeris of Jupiter by means of spacecraft ranging during the Orbiter phase. The gravity fields are accessible because of their effects on the spacecraft motion, determined primarily from the Doppler data. For the Galilean satellites we will determine second degree and order gravity harmonics that will yield new information on the central condensation and likely composition of material within these giant satellites (Hubbard and Anderson, 1978). The search for gravitational radiation is being conducted in cruise for periods of 40 days centered around solar opposition. During these times the radio link is least affected by scintillations introduced by solar plasma. Our sensitivity to the amplitude of sinusoidal signals approaches 10^-15 in a band of gravitational frequencies between 10^-4 and 10^-3 Hz, by far the best sensitivity obtained in this band to date. In addition to the primary objectives of our investigations, we discuss two secondary objectives: the determination of a range fix on Venus during the flyby on 10 February, 1990, and the determination of the Earth's mass (GM) from the two Earth gravity assists, EGA1 in December 1990 and EGA2 in December 1992.     

Detection in correlated Gaussian plus impulsive noise

A detector which is designed to operate in a correlated Gaussian-plus-impulsive-noise environment is presented. The detector whitens the data robustly and then uses a two-sided threshold test to determine the presence of impulsive samples. The impulsive samples are discarded, and the remaining samples are used to detect the presence or absence of a signal using a matched filter. An approximate analysis is presented, and simulations are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach     

Single-phase power distribution system power flow and faultanalysis

Alternative methods for power flow and fault analysis of single-phase distribution systems are presented. The algorithms for both power flow and fault analysis utilize a generalized approach to network modeling. The generalized admittance matrix, formed using elements of linear graph theory, is an accurate network model for all possible single-phase network configurations. Unlike the standard nodal admittance matrix formulation algorithms, the generalized approach uses generalized component models for the transmission line and transformer. The standard assumption of a common node voltage reference point is not required to construct the generalized admittance matrix. Therefore, truly accurate simulation results can be obtained for networks that cannot be modeled using traditional techniques     

Polish radar technology

Polish radar research and development since 1953 is reviewed, covering the development and production of surveillance radars, height finders, tracking radars, air traffic control (ATC) radars and systems, and marine and Doppler radars. Some current work, including an L-band ATC radar for enroute control, a weather channel for primary surveillance radar, signal detection in non-Gaussian clutter, adaptive MTI filters and postdetection filtering, and a basic approach to radar polarimetry, is examined.<>     

An Adaptive Array Signal Processing Algorithm for Communications

An algorithm is described for initial synchronization in a communication system with a digital adaptive array. This algorithm can also be used for message extraction. A set of consecutive complex video samples of the array output is processed to obtain optimum adaptive array weights, based on a least mean square (LMS) error criterion. This computation is performed for each of the possible alternative signals which may be present during an observation interval. The correct synchronization time or message symbol is selected as the one which yields the minimum LMS error. Assuming orthogonality of the alternative codes, a probability distribution for the output of this processor has been derived.     

Optical identification of X-ray sources in the Einstein observatory medium and deep surveys

Methods are discussed for establishing the optical identification of X ray sources in the medium and deep X-ray surveys of the Einstein Observatory. Of the 63 X-ray sources with a statistical significance of 5 in the medium survey (Maccacaro et al. 1981), optical identification work is summarized for 51, of which identifications have been made with 30 active galactic nuclei. The optical properties of some of these X-ray selected objects are briefly discussed.The Einstein deep survey of Pavo (Griffiths et al. 1981) is used to illustrate the problems and methods used for securing optical identifications for X-ray sources in the deep survey fields. Identifications have been made with 4 QSOs at the bright end of the optical candidate distribution (together with 3 G stars) and it is shown that a further 7 fainter objects are also likely to be QSOs.     

Some crucial X-ray observations — One or two SNR(s) in Crux?

A new EXOSAT (LE/CMA) observation of the region in Crux (R.A. 11h 45m, Dec. -62°) where Markert et al. (1981) reported the existence of two x-ray SNR's is presented. After cleaning the CMA field from the point source component, due to the UV emission of the numerous stars in the field, the smoothed x-ray contours are compared to the 408 MHz radio map of Caswell et al. (1983). The existence of two, well-separate x-ray emission regions is confirmed by EXOSAT, and the current x-ray/radio picture is not sufficent to distinguish clearly between the assumption of one or two (possibly interacting) SNR's in the region.     

An Upper Bound on Detection Probability for Fluctuating Signals

In the theory of signal detectability, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), defined as the quotient of the average received signal energy and the spectral density of the white Gaussian noise, is a fundamental parameter. For a signal which is exactly known, or known except for a random phase, this ratio uniquely defines the detection performance which can be achieved with a matched filter receiver. However, when the signal amplitude is a random parameter, the detection performance is changed and must be determined from the probability density function (pdf) of the amplitude. Relative to the case of a constant signal amplitude, such signal amplitude fluctuation usually degrades performance when a high probability of detection (Pd) is required, but improves performance at low values of Pd; the corresponding change in the required SNR is the so-called signal fluctuation loss Lf. Thus, since Lf in some cases represents an improvement in performance for low values of Pd, a question of at least theoretical interest is: how large might this improvement be, when the class of all signal amplitude pdf's is considered. The solution, presented here, results in a lower bound on the signal fluctuation loss Lf as a function of Pd, or equivalently an upper bound on Pd as a function of SNR. The corresponding most favorable pdf was determined using the Lagrange multiplier technique and results of a numerical maximization are included to provide insight into the general properties of the solution.     

Wide-Aperture Digital VOR

The very high frequency (VHF) omnirange has undergone a number of evolutionary changes in the past 30 years. Early measurements of large errors led to the development of the Doppler VHF omnidirectional irectioal range (VOR) and its use. Further developments have been the precision multilobe VOR and the precision Doppler VOR. Interest in area navigation has led to the desire for a VOR greatly superior to any so far developed. Specifically, the objectives of the improved VOR would be a system that would significantly reduce magnitude of siting errors, provide greater accuracy and use digital techniques to simplify processing. ssing. The wide-aperture digital VOR described herein has been developed to meet these objectives. Its design is based on the crossed-pair interferometer principle where eight such pairs are energized successively by a set of pulses and phase shifts. The time multiplexed signal, detected by the aircraft receiver, is processed and simple digital computations are performedto determine the angular coordinates. The performance improvements have been achieved by the combination of using a 275-ft antenna aperture, and the use of digital techniques to generate the ground-radiated navigational signals and to process them in the airborne processor. Field tests of the feasibility model indicate it is a high performance ance system, capable of achieving an order of magnitude improvement in both site error reduction and in accuracy compared to present VOR systems. The measured accuracies were 0.11-degree standard deviation.