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At least 289 records · Page 16

The 20/30 GHz satellite systems technology needs assessment

Rain attenuation in the 20/30 GHz bands, and the resultant impact on system user costs were estimated for a variety of satellite communication system concepts. Results of previous and current NASA Lewis contractual and in-house studies on system design are reported as well as market studies conducted to evaluate the concepts and test their relevancy against forecasted market needs. The 20/30 GHz bands appear attractive economically and, with certain technology, appear to offer a virtually unlimited spectrum resource. This attractiveness is especially relevant to high density trunking where there is sufficient traffic to justify dual-station site diversity.

Stevens, G.↗

ATS-6 ascending - Near horizon measurements over water at 30 GHz

The return of the ATS-6 satellite to a western longitude during the fall of 1976 presented a unique opportunity to perform low-angle-of-elevation measurements at 30 GHz. For this purpose a receiver using a 1.5 m antenna was set up at Port Aransas, Texas, resulting in a propagation path entirely over water. The 30 GHz beacon was monitored daily for at least one hour from 8 September to 21 September 1976. During the time the elevation angle changed from 1.5 to 17.3 deg, the mean attenuation decreased from 20 to 2 dB and the standard deviation from over 6 dB to less than .2 dB. The deep fades at angles below 4 deg show significantly sharper nulls than peaks on a log scale. Spectra of the log amplitude fluctuations vary as the (-8/3) power of the spectral frequency in the limit. A flattening is noticeable at the low frequencies. A precipitation even at 8.5 deg elevation produced a 16 dB fade and significantly increased the variance.

Vogel, W. J.↗

Amplitude scintillation at 2 and 30 GHz on earth space paths

Extensive amplitude scintillation measurements have been made simultaneously at 2.075 and 30 GHz on earth-space propagation paths. These measurements were performed as the Applications Technology Satellite (ATS-6) was moved slowly from a synchronous position over India to a new synchronous position over the United States. The variance, path loss, covariance, and spectra are discussed as functions of the path elevation angle. These results are also compared with earlier simultaneous scintillation measurements at 20 and 30 GHz during the movement of ATS-6 to its position over India.

Hodge, D. B.↗

Cygnus A at 99 GHz - Observations of the three principal components and interpretation of the central source

The three principal emission components of Cygnus A have been observed at 99 GHz, the highest frequency at which radio measurements of this source have been accomplished. The observations show no definite indication of a high-frequency cutoff in the spectrum of the compact central component, which perhaps may be attributed to an optically thin synchrotron source that peaks at a frequency of several hundred GHz.

Hobbs, R. W.↗

The 18 and 30 GHz fixed service communications satellite system study

The use of the 18 and 30 GHz bands for fixed service satellite communications is examined. The cost and performance expected of 18 and 30 GHz hardware is assessed, selected trunking and direct to user concepts are optimized, and the cost of these systems are estimated. The effect of rain attenuation on the technical and economic viability of the system and methods circumventing the problem are discussed. Technology developments are investigated and cost estimates of these developments are presented.

Bronstein, L. M.↗

The effect of wind on the microwave emission from the ocean's surface at 37 GHz

The microwave brightness temperature measurements from the electrically scanned microwave radiometer (frequency = 37 GHz) are compared with oceanic wind measurements from data buoys. It is shown that the brightness temperature can be manipulated to yield a measure of the surface roughening, which can be very well accounted for by a simple geometric optics model. The data of Hollinger (1971) at 1.4, 8, 36, and 19.34 GHz were similarly manipulated and shown to require a surface with less slope variance than that predicted by the Cox and Munk (1955) optical measurements. It is also shown that the surface may be treated as isotropic to an accuracy equivalent to the roughening produced by a 2-m/s wind speed increment.

Wilheit, T. T.↗

Concepts for 18/30 GHz satellite communication system study. Executive summary

An examination of a multiplicity of interconnected parameters ranging from specific technology details to total system economic costs for satellite communication systems at the 18/30 GHz transmission bands are presented. It was determined that K sub A band systems can incur a small communications outage during very heavy rainfall periods and that reducing the outage to zero would lead to prohibitive system costs. On the other hand, the economics of scale, ie, one spacecraft accommodating 2.5 GHz of bandwidth coupled with multiple beam frequency reuse, leads to very low costs for those users who can tolerate the 5 to 50 hours per year of downtime. A multiple frequency band satellite network can provide the ultimate optimized match to the consumer performance/economics demands.

Baker, M.↗

ATS-6 ascending: Near horizon measurements over water at 30 GHz

The return of the ATS 6 satellite to a western longitude during the fall of 1976 presented a unique opportunity to perform low angle of elevation measurements at 30 GHz. For this purpose a receiver using a 1.5 m antenna was set up at Port Aransas, Texas, resulting in a propagation path entirely over water. The 30 GHz beacon was monitored daily for at least one hour from 8 September 1976 to 21 September 1976. During the time the elevation angle changed from 1.5 deg to 17.3 deg, the mean attenuation decreased from 20 dB to 2 dB and the standard deviation from over 6 dB to less than .2 dB. The deep fades at angles below 4 deg show significantly sharper nulls than peaks on a log scale. Spectra of the log amplitude fluctuations vary as the (-8/3) power of the spectral frequency in the limit. A flattening is noticeable at the low frequencies. A precipitation event at 8.5 deg elevation produced a 16 dB fade and significantly increased the variance.

Vogel, W. J.↗

Cumulative slant path rain attenuation associated with COMSTAR beacon at 28.56 GHz for Wallops Island, Virginia

Yearly, monthly, and time of day fade statistics are presented and characterized. A 19.04 GHz yearly fade distribution, corresponding to a second COMSTAR beacon frequency, is predicted using the concept of effective path length, disdrometer, and rain rate results. The yearly attenuation and rain rate distributions follow with good approximation log normal variations for most fade and rain rate levels. Attenuations were exceeded for the longest and shortest periods of times for all fades in August and February, respectively. The eight hour time period showing the maximum and minimum number of minutes over the year for which fades exceeded 12 db were approximately between 1600 to 2400, and 0400 to 1200 hours, respectively. In employing the predictive method for obtaining the 19.04 GHz fade distribution, it is demonstrated theoretically that the ratio of attenuations at two frequencies is minimally dependent of raindrop size distribution providing these frequencies are not widely separated.

Goldhirsh, J.↗

The use of radar at non-attenuating wavelengths as a tool for the estimation of rain attenuation at frequencies above 10 GHz

The paper describes radar techniques and modeling procedures for estimating slant path attenuation and site diversity performance. The estimation results of an ongoing experiment at Wallops Island, Virginia are examined. At this location a high resolution S-band radar (0.4 deg beamwidth) monitors the reflectivity at contiguous pulse volumes approximately colocated with an earth space-path along which the Comstar beacon signal at 28.56 GHz is received. Radar estimated levels of rain attenuation at 28.56 GHz are compared with directly measured values both on a case by case basis as well as statistically for summer and winter periods. Use is made of ground disdrometer measurements in the radar estimation scheme.

Goldhirsh, J.↗

A power law fit to oxygen absorption at 60 GHz and its application to remote sensing of atmospheric temperature

The paper presents an empirical study of the oxygen spectrum near 60 GHz with reference to its applicability to the remote sensing of the tropospheric and lower stratospheric temperature. It is demonstrated that the absorption coefficient of oxygen at 60 GHz can be fitted to the power law form with a relative rms error of about 8%. The power law form, when used in conjunction with the weighting function, permits the definition of some basic quantities in the passive remote sensing of the atmospheric temperature. It is shown how the power law form has been utilized in processing data from the Nimbus 5 microwave spectrometer experiment. The algorithm presented can be applied to spectrometer experiments at infrared frequencies.

Poon, R. K. L.↗

Market capture by 30/20 GHz satellite systems. Volume 1: Executive summary

Demand for 30/20 GHz satellite systems over the next two decades is projected. Topics include a profile of the communications market, switched, dedicated, and packet transmission modes, deferred and real-time traffic, quality and reliability considerations, the capacity of competing transmission media, and scenarios for the growth and development of 30/20 GHz satellite communications.

Gamble, R. B.↗

Atmospheric sounding near 118 GHz

The thermal emission spectrum of the atmosphere near the 118 GHz oxygen resonance has been measured from the NASA Convair-990 aircraft as it flew over clear air and storms. The instrument viewed the ground 45 deg from nadir with a 7.5 deg beamwidth. Brightness temperatures were measured in six bands 200 MHz wide centered at frequencies 821-1891 MHz from the line at 118.7505 GHz. The double-sideband super-heterodyne receiver had 1 K sensitivity for 1 s integration. Comparison of observed clear air brightness temperatures (from 238 mb) with those computed for a coincident dropsonde yielded agreement within 1.4 K; the retrieved temperature profile agreed with the dropsonde with an average magnitude error of 1.4 K.

Ali, A. D. S.↗

VLA observations of impulsive solar flares at 4.9 GHz

A series of snapshot synthesis maps constructed as a function of time provided a complete mapping of source structure in one dimension and absolute location in two dimensions of five impulsive solar microwave bursts observed during July 15-18, 1978. It was found that all five flares were dominated by a single 12-18 arcsec source located between the H-alpha kernels, near the magnetic neutral line. Spectral data from Sagamore Hill (1.4-35 GHz) show that the spectral turnover at low frequencies results from the absorption by the ambient active region; these results, together with the observed magnetic configuration, suggest a model which could explain the evolution in source structure at 4.9 GHz in terms of magnetic reconnection which starts below the optical depth of the ambient active region equal to 1.

Marsh, K. A.↗

Very high resolution observations of SS433 at 10.65 GHz

Observations of SS433 made on June 12, 1979, from West Germany, Massachusetts, and West Virginia are discussed. It is noted that SS433 did not show fringes on any baseline although all the calibration sources were seen at their expected strengths. The measured total flux density of SS433 was found to be approximately 0.5 Jy, consistent with previous observations. The source was observed by on-offs at each telescope, which indicates that they were all pointed properly during the observations. The absence of fringes is not attributed to poor observing conditions or instrumental difficulties. It is concluded that if all the 10.65 GHz radiation emanates from a single component, then that component is at least 0.005 arcsec (approximately 10 to the 14th cm) in size. The measurements made on more sensitive intercontinental baselines indicate that there is no component of SS433 smaller than 0.001 arcsec emitting 10.65 GHz radiation above a level of 50 mJy.

Geldzahler, B. J.↗

Observations of six flat spectrum sources from the 5 GHz survey

Observations at radio, optical, and X-ray wavelengths of six sources from the Bonn-NRAO 5 GHz survey are reported. The sources were selected on the basis of their flux densities and spectral indices at 5 GHz. All have been shown to contain compact radio cores and to emit strongly at X-ray wavelengths; five are strongly polarized at optical wavelengths. The measured flux densities suggest that the sources are of comparable luminosity (per fractional bandwidth) in the X-ray and optical regions. The interpretation of these results in terms of a synchrotron-self-Compton mechanism is briefly discussed.

Biermann, P.↗

A model describing the microwave emission from a multi-layer snowpack at 37 GHz

A multilayer emission model is described and applied to emission measurements obtained at 37 GHz and H polarization using a microwave radiometer attached to a truck-mounted boom in Steamboat Springs, Colorado in 1977. Estimated absorption and scattering coefficients and their dependence on wetness were obtained using calculated values of the dielectric constant at 37 GHz along with the model. It was found that the scattering coefficient is comparable in value to the absorption coefficient for dry snow however, the absorption coefficient increases linearly with increasing snow wetness while the scattering coefficient decreases linearly with increasing wetness. The emission from each layer of the snowpack was also calculated using the estimated coefficients. It is shown that for dry snow, the ground underneath the snowpack contributes about 45% of all measured emission while the rest is due to emission from all the layers within the snowpack. When the wetness of the top 5 cm layer of snowpack increases to about 2% by volume, this top 5 cm snowlayer contributes more than 90% of all the measured emission.

Abdelrazik, M.↗

The 30/20 GHz communications satellite trunking network study

Alternative transmission media for a CONUS-wide trunking network in the years 1990 and 2000 are examined. The alternative technologies comprised fiber optic cable, conventional C- and Ku-band satellites, and 30/20 GHz satellites. Three levels of implementation were considered - a 10-city network, a 20-city network, and a 40-city network. The cities selected were the major metropolitan areas with the greatest communications demand. All intercity voice, data, and video traffic carried more than 40 miles was included in the analysis. In the optimized network, traffic transmitted less than 500 miles was found to be better served by fiber optic cable in 1990. By the year 2000, the crossover point would be down to 200 miles, assuming availability of 30/20 GHz satellites.

Kolb, W.↗