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At least 55 records · Page 3

A parallel-series-fed microstrip array with high efficiency and low cross-polarization

The requirements of a microstrip array with a vertically polarized fan beam are addressed that correspond to its use in C-band interferometric SAR. A combination of parallel- and series-feed techniques are utilized in an array design with a three-stage parallel-fed configuration to enhance bandwidth performance. The linearly polarized traveling-wave microstrip array antenna is fed by microstrip transmission lines in two rows of 36 elements that resonate at 5.30 GHz. The transmission lines are impedance-matched at every junction for all the waves that travel toward the two ends of the array. The two measured principal-plane patterns are shown, and the measured narrow-beam pattern is found to agree with the calculated values. The VSWR bandwidths and narrow and broad beamwidths of the antenna are found to permit efficient performance. The efficiency is attributed to the parallel and series-feed configuration which allows proper impedance matching, and low cross-polarization is a result of the antiphase feed technique employed in the configuration.

Huang, John↗

Parallel and series FED microstrip array with high efficiency and low cross polarization

A microstrip array antenna for vertically polarized fan beam (approximately 2 deg x 50 deg) for C-band SAR applications with a physical area of 1.7 m by 0.17 m comprises two rows of patch elements and employs a parallel feed to left- and right-half sections of the rows. Each section is divided into two segments that are fed in parallel with the elements in each segment fed in series through matched transmission lines for high efficiency. The inboard section has half the number of patch elements of the outboard section, and the outboard sections, which have tapered distribution with identical transmission line sections, terminated with half wavelength long open-circuit stubs so that the remaining energy is reflected and radiated in phase. The elements of the two inboard segments of the two left- and right-half sections are provided with tapered transmission lines from element to element for uniform power distribution over the central third of the entire array antenna. The two rows of array elements are excited at opposite patch feed locations with opposite (180 deg difference) phases for reduced cross-polarization.

Huang, John↗

Reflector antennas with low sidelobes, low cross polarization, and high aperture efficiency

Techniques are presented for computing the horn near field patterns on the subreflectors and for correcting the phase center errors of the horn pattern by shaping the subreflector surface. The diffraction pattern computations for scanned beams are described. The effects of dish aperture diffraction on pattern bandwidth are investigated. A model antenna consisting of a reflector, shaped subreflector, and corrugated feed horn is described.

Faigen, I. M.↗

Recovering Microwave Cross-Polarization Losses

Reception improved by adding normally discarded portion of signal. For signal enhancement, major and minor signals combined in slaved closedloop receiver channels. Both receiver channels served by common local oscillator controlled by phase-locked loop in main channel. 10-MHz intermediate-frequency (IF) signals of channels coherently summed. For polarization tracking, phasemeter added to measure phase difference between points A and B. With new circuit, low-level signal used at receiver to augment main signal.

Seidel, B. L.↗

Episodes of Cross-Polar Transport in the Arctic Troposphere During July 2008 as Seen from Models, Satellite, and Aircraft Observations

During the POLARCAT summer campaign in 2008, two episodes (2 5 July and 7 10 July 2008) occurred where low-pressure systems traveled from Siberia across the Arctic Ocean towards the North Pole. The two cyclones had extensive smoke plumes from Siberian forest fires and anthropogenic sources in East Asia embedded in their associated air masses, creating an excellent opportunity to use satellite and aircraft observations to validate the performance of atmospheric transport models in the Arctic, which is a challenging model domain due to numerical and other complications. Here we compare transport simulations of carbon monoxide (CO) from the Lagrangian transport model FLEXPART and the Eulerian chemical transport model TOMCAT with retrievals of total column CO from the IASI passive infrared sensor onboard the MetOp-A satellite. The main aspect of the comparison is how realistic horizontal and vertical structures are represented in the model simulations. Analysis of CALIPSO lidar curtains and in situ aircraft measurements provide further independent reference points to assess how reliable the model simulations are and what the main limitations are. The horizontal structure of mid-latitude pollution plumes agrees well between the IASI total column CO and the model simulations. However, finer-scale structures are too quickly diffused in the Eulerian model. Applying the IASI averaging kernels to the model data is essential for a meaningful comparison. Using aircraft data as a reference suggests that the satellite data are biased high, while TOMCAT is biased low. FLEXPART fits the aircraft data rather well, but due to added background concentrations the simulation is not independent from observations. The multi-data, multi-model approach allows separating the influences of meteorological fields, model realisation, and grid type on the plume structure. In addition to the very good agreement between simulated and observed total column CO fields, the results also highlight the difficulty to identify a data set that most realistically represents the actual pollution state of the Arctic atmosphere.

Sodemann, H.↗

Calculating the High-Latitude Ionospheric Electrodynamics Using A Machine Learning-Based Field-Aligned Current Model

We introduce a new framework called Machine Learning (ML) based Auroral Ionospheric electrodynamics Model (ML-AIM). ML-AIM solves a current continuity equation by utilizing the ML model of Field Aligned Currents of Kunduri et al. (2020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JA027908), the FAC-derived auroral conductance model of Robinson et al. (2020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JA028008), and the solar irradiance conductance model of Moen and Brekke (1993, https://doi.org/10.1029/92gl02109). The ML-AIM inputs are 60-min time histories of solar wind plasma, interplanetary magnetic fields (IMF), and geomagnetic indices, and its outputs are ionospheric electric potential, electric fields, Pedersen/Hall currents, and Joule Heating. We conduct two ML-AIM simulations for a weak geomagnetic activity interval on 14 May 2013 and a geomagnetic storm on 7–8 September 2017. ML-AIM produces physically accurate ionospheric potential patterns such as the two-cell convection pattern and the enhancement of electric potentials during active times. The cross polar cap potentials (ΦPC) from ML-AIM, the Weimer (2005, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004ja010884) model, and the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) data-assimilated potentials, are compared to the ones from 3204 polar crossings of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program F17 satellite, showing better performance of ML-AIM than others. ML-AIM is unique and innovative because it predicts ionospheric responses to the time-varying solar wind and geomagnetic conditions, while the other traditional empirical models like Weimer (2005, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004ja010884) designed to provide a quasi-static ionospheric condition under quasi-steady solar wind/IMF conditions. Plans are underway to improve ML-AIM performance by including a fully ML network of models of aurora precipitation and ionospheric conductance, targeting its characterization of geomagnetically active times.

auroral electrodynamics↗

Scattering from randomly oriented circular discs with application to vegetation

A vegetation layer is modeled by a collection of randomly oriented circular discs over a half space. The backscattering coefficient from such a half space is computed using the radiative transfer theory. It is shown that significantly different results are obtained from this theory as compared with some earlier investigations using the same modeling approach but with restricted disc orientations. In particular, the backscattered cross polarized returns cannot have a fast increasing angular trend which is inconsistent with measurements. By setting the appropriate angle of orientation to zero the theory reduces to previously published results. Comparisons are shown with measurements taken from milo, corn and wheat and good agreements are obtained for both polarized and cross polarized returns.

Karam, M. A.↗

Polarized Light Microscopy

Polarized light microscopy (PLM) is a technique which employs the use of polarizing filters to obtain substantial optical property information about the material which is being observed. This information can be combined with other microscopy techniques to confirm or elucidate the identity of an unknown material, determine whether a particular contaminant is present (as with asbestos analysis), or to provide important information that can be used to refine a manufacturing or chemical process. PLM was the major microscopy technique in use for identification of materials for nearly a century since its introduction in 1834 by William Fox Talbot, as other techniques such as SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy), FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy), XPD (X-ray Powder Diffraction), and TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) had not yet been developed. Today, it is still the only technique approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for asbestos analysis, and is often the technique first applied for identification of unknown materials. PLM uses different configurations in order to determine different material properties. With each configuration additional clues can be gathered, leading to a conclusion of material identity. With no polarizing filter, the microscope can be used just as a stereo optical microscope, and view qualities such as morphology, size, and number of phases. With a single polarizing filter (single polars), additional properties can be established, such as pleochroism, individual refractive indices, and dispersion staining. With two polarizing filters (crossed polars), even more can be deduced: isotropy vs. anisotropy, extinction angle, birefringence/degree of birefringence, sign of elongation, and anomalous polarization colors, among others. With the use of PLM many of these properties can be determined in a matter of seconds, even for those who are not highly trained. McCrone, a leader in the field of polarized light microscopy, often advised, If you cant determine a specific optical property of a particle after two minutes, move onto another configuration. Since optical properties can be seen so very quickly and easily under polarized light, it is only necessary to spend a maximum of two minutes on a technique to determine a particular property, though often only a few seconds are required.

Engineering↗

Ladder and cross terms in second-order distorted Born approximation

In the strong fluctuation theory for a bounded layer of random discrete scatterers, the second moments of the fields in the second-order distorted Born approximation are obtained for copolarized and cross-polarized fields. The backscattering cross sections per unit area are calculated by including the mutual coherence of the fields due to the coincidental ray paths, and that due to the opposite ray paths, corresponding to the ladder and cross terms in the Feynman diagramatic representation. It is proved that the contributions from ladder and cross terms for the copolarized backscattering cross sections are the same, while the contributions for the cross-polarized backscattering cross sections are of the same order. The bistatic scattering coefficients in the second-order approximation for both the ladder and cross terms are also obtained. The contributions from the cross terms explain the enhancement in the backscattering direction.

Jin, Y. Q.↗

Scattering from randomly oriented circular discs with application to vegetation

A vegetation layer is modeled by a collection of randomly oriented circular discs over a half space. The backscattering coefficient from such a half space is computed using the radiative transfer theory. It is shown that significantly different results are obtained from this theory as compared with some earlier investigations using the same modeling approach but with restricted disc orientations. In particular, the backscattered cross-polarized returns cannot have a fast increasing angular trend which is inconsistent with measurements. By setting the appropriate angle of orientation to zero the theory reduces to previously published results. Comparisons are shown with measurements taken from milo, corn and wheat and good agreements are obtained for both polarized and cross-polarized returns.

Karam, M. A.↗

TPSAS-NF1676L-28148-DND

Currently, ocean carbon biomass is estimated from ocean color measurements primarily through particulate backscatter coefficients (bbp). Small non-algal particles contribute significantly to bbp due to the fact that small particles scatter more isotropically while bigger particles scatter mostly in the forward direction. CALIPSO’s ocean subsurface cross polarization measurements (Figure 1) are not sensitive to small particles far less than 2 microns in size since these particles rarely cause depolarization. Thus, cross polarization backscatter is contributed mostly by larger, depolarizing phytoplankton particles. This is why CALIPSO’s cross polarization has much larger contrasts comparing with MODIS reflectance (CALIPSO cross polarization is very weak in Gyres and much stronger in high latitudes, See Figure 1). CALIPSO cross-polarization measurements in the Southern Oceans also suggest that water cloud droplet number concentration covaries with phytoplankton carbon biomass (Figure 2), but it has less correlation with particulate organic carbon (POC) (Figure 2) and chlorophyll concentration. The study also agrees with water cloud droplet size retrieved from Parasol’s polarization measurements.

Yongxiang Hu↗

Scanning and Defocusing Properties of Microstrip Reflectarray Antennas

A symmetric reflectarray, consisting of variable-size square patch elements with a commonly used mathematical model for the horn in the form of a cosine function, has been designed using the transmit mode technique for different f/D ratios with 10 dB edge taper. Subsequently, the antennas were analyzed for the radiation pattern and gain. The infinite array model was used to determine the reflection phase of each patch element in the design and analysis codes. By displacing the feed laterally, the scan characteristics were obtained, such as the beam deviation factor, gain loss, and pattern degradation. The properties of reflect arrays were compared to those of the conventional paraboloidal reflectors. The same procedure was used to study the scan properties of offset reflectarrays. There is no cross-polarized radiation in the principal planes for a symmetric system. Cross-polarized radiation exists in non-principal planes off broadside in symmetric systems, with greater levels for larger values of subtended angles. Such cross-polarized radiation level increases with subtended angle just as cross-polarization level increases with decreasing values of f/D ratios for symmetric paraboloids in non-principal planes. Pattern distortions and gain loss were found to be more severe in the case of a microstrip reflectarray compared to the conventional parabolic reflector. The scan performance of the reflect arrays was found to improve with f/D ratios as is true for paraboloids. In general, scanning by means of displaced feed is limited to a few beam - widths in reflectarrays. Feed displacement in the axial direction of a symmetric reflectarray was investigated and compared to that of paraboloids. The gain loss due to the defocused feed of a reflectarray was found to be nearly the same as that of a paraboloid of the same subtended angle for larger values of f/D, and for displacements away from the antenna. The gain loss of an axially defocused reflectarray was found to be greater than that of a paraboloid for displacements closer to the antenna, especially for smaller values of f/D. In general, the performance of a defocused reflectarray was found to be poorer than that of a comparable paraboloid reflector.

Rengarajan, Sembiam↗

Parametric analysis of synthetic aperture radar data acquired over truck garden vegetation

An airborne X-band SAR acquired multipolarization and multiflight pass SAR images over a truck garden vegetation area. Based on a variety of land cover and row crop direction variations, the vertical (VV) polarization data contain the highest contrast, while cross polarization contains the least. When the radar flight path is parallel to the row direction, both horizontal (HH) and VV polarization data contain very high return which masks out the specific land cover that forms the row structure. Cross polarization data are not that sensitive to row orientation. The inclusion of like and cross polarization data help delineate special surface features (e.g., row crop against non-row-oriented land cover, very-rough-surface against highly row-oriented surface).

Wu, S. T.↗

Calibration of polarimetric radar systems

A practical technique is proposed for calibrating single-antenna polarimetric radar systems using a metal sphere plus any second target with a strong cross-polarized radar cross section. It is shown that all magnitudes and phases (relative to one of the like-polarized linear polarization configurations) of the radar transfer function can be calibrated without knowledge of the scattering matrix of the second target. Comparison of values measured (using this calibration technique) for a tilted cylinder at X-band with theoretical values shows agreement with + or - 0.3 dB in magnitude and + or - 5 deg in phase. The technique is particularly useful for calibrating a radar under field conditions because it does not require careful alignment of calibration targets.

Sarabandi, K.↗

Coaxial prime focus feeds for paraboloidal reflectors

A TE11 - TM11 dual mode coaxial feed for use in prime focus paraboloidal antenna systems is investigated. The scattering matrix parameters of the internal bifurcation junction was determined by the residue calculus technique. The scattering parameters and radiation fields of the aperture were found from the Weinstein solution. The optimum modeing ratio for minimum cross-polarization was determined along with the corresponding optimum feed dimensions. A peak cross-polarization level of -58 dB is predicted. The frequency characteristics were also investigated and a bandwidth of 5% is predicted over which the cross-polarization remains below -30 dB, the input VSWR is below 1.15, and the phase error is less than 10 deg. Theoretical radiation patterns and efficiency curves for a paraboloidal reflector illuminated by this feed were computed. The predicted sidelobe level is below -30 dB and aperture efficiencies greater than 70% are possible. Experimental results are also presented that substantiates the theoretical results. In addition, experimental results for a 'short-cup' coaxial feed are given. The report includes extensive design data for the dual-mode feed along with performance curves showing cross-polarization as a function of feed parameters. The feed is useful for low-cost ground based receiving antennas for use in direct television satellite broadcasting service.

Collin, R. E.↗

Multiple scattering effects on the Linear Depolarization Ratio (LDR) measured during CaPE by a Ka-band air-borne radar

Air-borne radar measurements of thunderstorms were made as part of the CaPE (Convection and Precipitation/Electrification) experiment in Florida in July 1991. The radar has two channels, X-band (10 GHz) and Ka-band (34.5 GHz), and is capable of measuring cross-polarized returns as well as co-polarized returns. In stratiform rain, the cross-polarized components can be observed only at the bright band region and from the surface reflection. The linear depolarization ratios (LDR's) measured at X-band and Ka-band at the bright band are nearly equal. In convective rain, however, the LDR in Ka-band often exceeds the X-band LDR by several dB, and sometimes by more than 10 dB, reaching LDR values of up to -5 dB over heavy convective rain. For randomly oriented hydrometeors, such high LDR values cannot be explained by single scattering from non-spherical scattering particles alone. Because the LDR by single backscatter depends weakly on the wavelength, the difference between the Ka-band and X-band LDR's suggests that multiple scattering effects prevail in the Ka-band LDR. In order to test this inference, the magnitude of the cross-polarized component created by double scattering was calculated using the parameters of the airborne radar, which for both frequencies has beamwidths of 5.1 degrees and pulse widths of 0.5 microsecond. Uniform rain beyond the range of 3 km is assumed.

Iguchi, Toshio↗