Security Systems Research and Testing Laboratory at Edith Cowan University

The testing and evaluation of sophisticated security systems has remained in the domain of governments in national facilities and the commercial security industry through manufacturers and engineering consultants. As well, the production of testing protocols and industry standards has been developed by national organisations, professional security, and engineering bodies in the appropriate security fields. The Security Systems Research and Testing Laboratory in the School of Engineering and Mathematics at Edith Cowan University (ECU), Perth, Western Australia has commenced operations in research, testing, and evaluation of security systems. This paper wir describe the first year of operation of the Security Systems Research and Testing Laboratory, and will describe the role that testing and evaluation of security systems plays in the education and training of Security Science graduates, as well as the benefits that the Laboratory brings to the security industry through its testing programme.     

Ambiguity Functions for Quadratic Phase-Coded Pulse Trains

The matched filter ambiguity function is presented for a burst waveform composed of repeated subbursts, each one of which consists of N pulses in which the phase is varied quadratically from pulse to pulse. The resulting ambiguity function exhibits small residual ambiguities along the delay axis separated by the reciprocal of the pulse repetition frequency (PRF). A cross-ambiguity function is derived which reduces these ambiguities to zero amplitude. A third cross-ambiguity function is presented for a receiver matched to a generalized Hamming weighted repeated quadratic burst. The location in the delay/Doppler plane of the waveform ambiguities for these waveforms is compared with that of an uncoded pulse burst.     

Discrete-time state estimation of analog double integrators

The problem of minimum variance discrete-time state estimation of a continuous-time double integrator via noisy continuous-time measurements is considered. The error covariance matrices of this estimation are calculated and analyzed. The relations between these covariance matrices and the error covariance matrix of the optimal continuous-time filter are obtained, and a way for determining the required sampling period is proposed. A commonly used approximated model is investigated; it is shown to be inappropriate unless a specific improvement is introduced in the model     

Measurements of the earth radiation budget from satellites during the first garp global experiment

Two special measurements of the energy exchange between earth and space were made in connection with the FGGE. A global monitoring program using wide-field-of-view and scanner detectors from NASA's NIMBUS-7 satellite successfully returned measurements during the entire FGGE. This experiment system also used a black cavity detector to measure the total energy output of the sun to very high precision. A second set of high frequency time and space estimates of the radiation budget were determined from selected geostationary satellite data. Preliminary results from both radiation budget data sets and the solar “constant” measurements will be presented.     

On kinematics of gas clouds in the broad-line region of active galactic nuclei and quasars

The kinematics of gas clouds in broad-line region of active galactic nuclei and quasars is considered. The motion of the clouds is governed by three forces — gravitational influence from the central supermassive body, radiational pressure from the continuum radiation, and resistance of the intercloud medium. Clouds moves radial but only outward motion gives a velocity field, which is in accordance with the observational data. The profiles of the permited lines are obtained in some simplify assumptions for the emissive capacity of the gas in clouds, and are in good agreement with the observational data. In the framework of the model under consideration there is a possibility to estimate some physical parameters of the nuclei such as mass of the central body and density of the intercloud medium.     

Rocket measurements of mesospheric ionization irregularities

The Langmuir-probe technique for measurement of electron concentration in the mesosphere is capable of excellent altitude resolution, of order 1 m. Measurements from nine rocket flights frequently show small-scale ionization structures in the altitude region 60–90 km. These are believed to be identical with regions of strong coherent backscatter seem by VHF radars at Jicamarca, Peru and Urbana, Illinois. They are believed to represent intermittent turbulence attributable to nonlinear interaction of waves in the mesosphere. Parameters of the turbulent regions are estimated.