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.     

Ultraviolet spectrometer experiment for the Voyager mission

The Voyager Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS) is an objective grating spectrometer covering the wavelength range of 500–1700 Å with 10 Å resolution. Its primary goal is the determination of the composition and structure of the atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and several of their satellites. The capability for two very different observational modes have been combined in a single instrument. Observations in the airglow mode measure radiation from the atmosphere due to resonant scattering of the solar flux or energetic particle bombardment, and the occultation mode provides measurements of the atmospheric extinction of solar or stellar radiation as the spacecraft enters the shadow zone behind the target. In addition to the primary goal of the solar system atmospheric measurements, the UVS is expected to make valuable contributions to stellar astronomy at wavelengths below 1000 Å.     

ATS-6 Energetic Particle Radiation Measurement at Synchronous Altitude

The Aerospace Corporation energetic electron-proton spectrometer operating on Applications Technology Satellite-6 (ATS-6) detects energetic electrons in four channels between 140 keV and greater than 32 MeV, and measures energetic protons in five energy channels between 2.3 and 80 MeV and energetic alpha particles in three channels between 9.4 and 94 MeV. After more than a year of operation in orbit, the experiment continues to return excellent data on the behavior of energetic magnetospheric electrons as well as information regarding the fluxes of solar protons and alpha particles.     

Calculation of Probability of Detection with Target Scintillation

This paper presents a computational method for the calculation of probability of detection using measured radar target cross-section data. The described method can also be used for probability of detection calculations when the radar target cross section follows a specified probability density function. Using the computational procedure of the paper, a number of curves are generated which can be used for probability of detection calculations with exponential and Gaussian radar target cross-section distributions. The results obtained using theoretical distributions are compared with the corresponding results using actual target cross-section measurements. The results of computer runs are compared to the corresponding values in the literature where available.     

Remote data sensing using SAR and harmonic reradiators

In sensor networks distributed over large areas, communication by means of active transmitters on sensor nodes is inherently energy expensive and poses a significant bottleneck to achieve a long battery life. We propose modulated reradiation of radar illumination as a means to transmit information from a group of sensors to an airborne radar. This puts the communications energy burden on the radar transmitter rather than on the sensor nodes, thus increasing their battery lifetimes. To distinguish the sensor return from the clutter return, the modulation on the sensors is done by switching a nonlinear load on the sensor antenna and processing the harmonic reradiation. We present techniques to transmit information from the sensors, which use stripmap mode synthetic aperture radar (SAR) ideas to decode the information and to simultaneously obtain a geographic map of the sensor locations.     

The Solar Chemical Composition

We present our current knowledge of the solar chemical composition based on the recent significant downward revision of the solar photospheric abundances of the most abundant metals. These new solar abundances result from the use of a 3D hydrodynamic model of the solar atmosphere instead of the classical 1D hydrostatic models, accounting for departures from LTE, and improved atomic and molecular data. With these abundances, the new solar metallicity, Z, decreases to Z=0.012, almost a factor of two lower than earlier widely used values. We compare our values with data from other sources and analyse a number of impacts of these new photospheric abundances. While resolving a number of longstanding problems, the new 3D-based solar photospheric composition also poses serious challenges for the standard solar model as judged by helioseismology.     

Coronal heating by dissipation of magnetic structure

Coronal loops are heated by the release of stored magnetic energy and by the dissipation of MHD waves. Both of these processes rely on the presence of internal structure in the loop. Tangled or sheared fields dissipate wave energy more efficiently than smooth fields. Also, a highly structured field contains a large reservoir of free magnetic energy which can be released in small reconnection events (microflares and nanoflares). The typical amount of internal structure in a loop depends on the balance between input at the photosphere and dissipation. This paper describes measures of magnetic structure, how these measures relate to the magnetic energy, and how photospheric motions affect the structure of a loop.The magnetic energy released during a reconnection event. can be estimated if one knows the equilibrium energy before and after the event. For a loop with highly tangled field lines, a direct solution of the equilibrium equations may be difficult. However, lower bounds can be placed on the energy of the equilibrium field, given a measure of the tangling known as the crossing number. These bounds lead to an estimate of the buildup of energy in a coronal loop caused by random photospheric motions. Parker's topological dissipation model can plausibly supply the 10⁷ erg cm^–2 s^–1 needed to heat the active region corona. The heating rate can be greatly enhanced by fragmentation of flux tubes, for example by the breakup of photospheric footpoints and the formation of new footpoints.     

Steady-state analysis of the constant-frequency clamped seriesresonant converter

A constant-frequency diode-clamped series resonant converter (CFCSRC) is proposed as a solution to problems associated with frequency-controlled resonant converters. This converter has two resonant frequencies, and control is achieved by varying the relative time spent at each switching frequency. Two zero-current-switching (ZCS) modes are examined and plotted in the output plane. An equation is given for the boundary between the two ZCS modes, as well as an expression for the boundary between ZCS and non-ZCS operation; both are plotted in the output plane. The output equation for the main mode is shown to be hyperbolic. Converter peak voltages limited to the input voltages, and peak currents are less than those of the frequency-controlled clamped series resonant converter over a large operating range. Data from a prototype converter are compared with theoretical data and are shown to be in good agreement with the theoretical model     

Speech Data Rate Reduction Part II: Applicability of Sensitivity and Error Analysis

This paper deals with the application of modern estimation techniques to the problem of speech data rate reduction. It is desirable to adaptively identify and quantitize the parameters of the speech model. These paramaters cannot be identified and quantized exactly; the performance of the predictor is thereby degraded and this could prevent data reduction. In many cases it is desirable to emply a suboptimal predictor in order to simplify the algorithms, and predictor performance is again degraded. This paper develops sensitivity and error analysis as a potential method for determining quantitatively how speech data reduction system performance is degraded by imprecise parameter knowledge or suboptimal filtering. An intended use of the sensitivity and error analysis algorithms is to determine parameter identification and model structure requirements of configuration concepts for adaptive speech digitizers. First, sensitivity and error analysis algorithms are presented that form the basis for the remainder of the work. The algorithms are then used to determine how imprecise knowledge of vocal tract parameters degrades predictor performance in speech. Transversal filters have previously been proposed for this application. The sensitivity analysis algorithms are then used to determine when and by how much the transverse filter is suboptimal to the Kalman filter. In particular, the question of how effectively a higher order of all-pole model approximates a system with zeros is answered, as this question is of considerable importance in speech. Finally, the physical significance of the innovations process in speech data rate reduction is studied.     

A Systematic Approach to Blind-Speed Elimination

In radars that achieve a high subclutter visibility by coherent processing over several pulses, a serious problem appears in the form of blind Dopplers, or ?speeds,? at which target detection is impossible. Of the possible methods of eliminating these blind speeds, the most basic one that is employed when the performance requirements are high involves the use of several PRF's. These PRF's are chosen so that coverage is obtained at any Doppler with at least one PRF. The problem faced by the radar designer is to select the set of PRF's and the pulse numbers for each PRF so that the search frame time is minimized. This paper evolves a systematic method for the design of the blind-speed elimination scheme. A formalized approach is offered that shows the possible combinations of wavelength, PRF, and pulse number and the tradeoffs involved, without introducing the confusion ordinarily associated with multiparameter choices.