Phase-Shift-Keyed Signal Detection with Noisy Reference Signals

This paper derives and graphically illustrates the performance characteristics of Phase-Shift-Keyed communication systems where the receiver's phase reference is noisy and derived from the observed waveform by means of a narrow-band tracking filter (a phase-locked loop). In particular, two phase measurement methods are considered. One method requires the transmission of an auxiliary carrier (in practice, this signal is usually referred to as the sync subcarrier). This carrier is tracked at the receiver by means of a phase-locked loop, and the output of this loop is used as a reference signal for performing a coherent detection. The second method is self-synchronizing in that the reference signal is derived from the modulated data signal by means of a squaring-loop. The statistics (and their properties) of the differenced-correlator outputs are derived and graphically illustrated as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio existing in the tracking filter's loop bandwidth and the signal-to-noise ratio in the data channel. Conclusions of these results as well as design trends are presented.     

Bacillus subtilis spores on artificial meteorites survive hypervelocity atmospheric entry: implications for Lithopanspermia

An important but untested aspect of the lithopanspermia hypothesis is that microbes situated on or within meteorites could survive hypervelocity entry from space through Earth's atmosphere. The use of high-altitude sounding rockets to test this notion was explored. Granite samples permeated with spores of Bacillus subtilis strain WN511 were attached to the exterior telemetry module of a sounding rocket and launched from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico into space, reaching maximum atmospheric entry velocity of 1.2 km/s. Maximum recorded temperature during the flight was measured at 145 degrees C. The surfaces of the post-flight granite samples were swabbed and tested for recovery and survival of WN511 spores, using genetic markers and the unique DNA fingerprint of WN511 as recovery criteria. Spore survivors were isolated at high frequency, ranging from 1.2% to 4.4% compared with ground controls, from all surfaces except the forward-facing surface. Sporulation-defective mutants were noted among the spaceflight survivors at high frequency (4%). These experiments constitute the first report of spore survival to hypervelocity atmospheric transit, and indicate that sounding rocket flights can be used to model the high-speed atmospheric entry of bacteria-laden artificial meteorites.     

Solar irradiance forecast and far-side imaging

This paper presents a new approach to forecasting short-term Lyα solar irradiance variations due to the presence and evolution of magnetically heated regions in the Sun’s outer atmosphere. This scheme is based on images of the solar disk at key wavelengths, currently Ca II K filtergrams, maps of backscattered solar Lyα from the interplanetary medium, and helioseismic images of large far-side active regions. The combination of these resources allows accurate forecasts of the UV solar irradiance several days in advance. The technique takes into consideration the evolution of recently observed activity on the Sun’s near surface as well as active regions on the Sun’s far side. The far-side helioseismic maps and the Lyα backscattering are very important, because of the long period of time features spend on the Sun’s far side compared with their typical evolution time and their relatively sudden appearance on the near side. We describe the basics of the forecasting technique and apply it to a case study that shows how the technique dramatically improves Lyα irradiance forecasting. An extension of the technique described here promises realistic forecasts of the entire FUV/EUV solar spectral irradiance spectrum.     

Analysis of Squaring Circuit Mechanizations in Costas and Squaring Loops

Two different implementations of the carrier recovery loop for suppressed carrier binary phase-shift keyed (BPSK) signals are considered. In particular, the tracking performance of the squaring loop in which the squaring circuit is mechanized by a limiter/multiplier lier combination to produce the absolute value of the incoming signal, followed by appropriate bandpass filtering, is compared with that of the usual squaring loop whose squaring circuit is the timestwo wo multiplier which exhibits a square law characteristic.