Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Bandwidth”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 613 records · Page 34

Time-dependent local density measurements in unsteady flows

A laser-induced fluorescence technique for measuring the relative time-dependent density fluctuations in unsteady or turbulent flows is demonstrated. Using a 1.5-W continuous-wave Kr(+) laser, measurements have been obtained in 0.1-mm-diameter by 1-mm-long sampling volumes in a Mach 3 flow of N2 seeded with biacetyl vapor. A signal amplitude resolution of 2% was achieved for a detection frequency bandwidth of 10 kHz. The measurement uncertainty was found to be dominated by noise behaving as photon statistical noise. The practical limits of signal-to-noise ratios have been characterized for a wide range of detection frequency bandwidths that encompasses those of interest in supersonic turbulence measurements.

Mckenzie, R. L.↗

Comparison of phase modulation systems

Comparison of the energy to noise ratio necessary to obtain a given modulation bit error probability has indicated that three-phase modulation is about 0.75 db superior to four-phase. It is shown that this apparent superiority results entirely from the greater bandwidth required by the three-phase system for the same bit transmission rate. Two further comparison criteria are proposed, which are based on the cut-off rate R sub 0 of the discrete channel created by the modulation system. For the criterion which constrains both the bandwidth and transmitted power, it is shown that four-phase modulation is always superior to three-phase modulation. The conclusion is that three-phase modulation offers no practical advantage over four-phase modulation.

Massey, J. L.↗

Efficiency enhancement of dual-mode traveling wave tubes at saturation and in the linear range by use of spent-beam refocusing and multistage depressed collectors

An axisymmetric, multistage depressed collector of fixed geometric design was evaluated in conjunction with an octave-bandwidth, dual-mode TWT. The TWT was operated over a wide range of conditions to simulate different applications. The collector was operated in three-, four-, and five-stage configurations, and its performance was optimized (within the constraint of fixed geometric design) over the range of TWT operating conditions covered. For operation of the dual-mode TWT at and near saturation, the collectors increased the TWT overall efficiency by a factor of 2 1/2 to 3 1/2. Collector performance was relatively constant for both the high and low TWT modes and for operation of the TWT across an octave bandwidth. For operation of the TWT in the linear, low-distortion range, collector efficiencies of 90 percent and greater were obtained, leading to a five- to twelvefold increase in the TWT overall efficiency for the range of operating conditions covered and reasonably high (greater than 25 percent) overall efficiencies well below saturation.

Ramins, P.↗

Adaptive coding of MSS imagery

A number of adaptive data compression techniques are considered for reducing the bandwidth of multispectral data. They include adaptive transform coding, adaptive DPCM, adaptive cluster coding, and a hybrid method. The techniques are simulated and their performance in compressing the bandwidth of Landsat multispectral images is evaluated and compared using signal-to-noise ratio and classification consistency as fidelity criteria.

Habibi, A.↗

Full-scale engine tests of bulk absorber acoustic inlet treatment

Three different densities of Kevlar bulk absorber fan inlet treatment were tested on a YF 102 turbofan engine. This bulk absorber material may have potential for flight application. Far-field noise measurements were made and the attenuation properties of the three treatment densities were compared. In addition the best bulk treatment was compared to the best single degree of freedom, SDOF (honeycomb and perforated cover sheet) treatment from another investigation. Although the density was varied over a large range, (3 to 1) the effect on attenuation was small. The highest density treatment, 11.8 lb/cu ft, had a somewhat broader attenuation bandwidth. The comparison of the best bulk and SDOF treatments showed the bulk to have a greater attenuation bandwidth. At the design frequency both types of treatment had almost equal performance.

Heidelberg, L. J.↗

Time-dependent local density measurements in unsteady flows

A laser-induced fluorescence technique for measuring the relative time-dependent density fluctuations in unsteady or turbulent flows is demonstrated. Using a 1.5-W continuous-wave Kr(+) laser, measurements have been obtained in 0.1-mm diameter by 1-mm-long sampling volumes in a Mach 3 flow of N2 seeded with biacetyl vapor. A signal amplitude resolution of 2% was achieved for a detection frequency bandwidth of 10 kHz. The measurement uncertainty was found to be dominated by noise behaving as photon statistical noise. The practical limits of signal-to-noise ratios have been characterized for a wide range of detection frequency bandwidths that encompasses those of interest in supersonic turbulence measurements.

Mckenzie, R. L.↗

Loudness of steady sounds - A new theory

A new mathematical theory for calculating the loudness of steady sounds from power summation and frequency interaction, based on psychoacoustic and physiological information, assuems that loudness is a subjective measure of the electrical energy transmitted along the auditory nerve to the central nervous system. The auditory system consists of the mechanical part modeled by a bandpass filter with a transfer function dependent on the sound pressure, and the electrical part where the signal is transformed into a half-wave reproduction represented by the electrical power in impulsive discharges transmitted along neurons comprising the auditory nerve. In the electrical part the neurons are distributed among artificial parallel channels with frequency bandwidths equal to 'critical bandwidths for loudness', within which loudness is constant for constant sound pressure. The total energy transmitted to the central nervous system is the sum of the energy transmitted in all channels, and the loudness is proportional to the square root of the total filtered sound energy distributed over all channels. The theory explains many psychoacoustic phenomena such as audible beats resulting from closely spaced tones, interaction of sound stimuli which affect the same neurons affecting loudness, and of individually subliminal sounds becoming audible if they lie within the same critical band.

Howes, W. L.↗

Description of the ISEE satellite-to-satellite kilometric wavelength interferometer system

The International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE) spacecraft 1 and 2 carry receivers for detecting electromagnetic waves with kilometric wavelengths. For selected receiver frequencies from 30 kHz to 2 MHz, a 10-kHz bandwidth channel is single-sideband mixed down to baseband. These analog data and a reference frequency, which is a submultiple of the local oscillator frequency, are transmitted to ground stations and tape recorded along with the precise time and frequency information. Cross correlation of these tape recorded signals constitutes a satellite-to-satellite interferometer with a fringe spacing of 0.4 to 41 arcmin (at a range of 10,000 to 100 km spacing between spacecraft for 250 kHz in frequency) and with a time-delay resolution of 32 microsec for a 10-kHz bandwidth, which gives an angular resolution of 3 min to 6 deg of arc. For kilometric radiation at earth, sources in the size range of 25 to 2500 km can be identified (from 20 earth radii) and located in relative position ranging from 0.02 to 2 earth radii, depending on spacecraft spacing. Reception and analysis of solar and Jovian bursts may also be possible.

Shawhan, S. D.↗

Flexible stator control on the Galileo spacecraft

Galileo is a dual-spin spacecraft designed to deliver a probe to Jupiter and then orbit the planet. The stator, or despun section, contains four flexible modes below 10 Hz and the despun actuator is separated from the inertial sensors by this flexibility. Control loop separation by bandwidth proved unacceptable due to performance requirements. To obtain the desired performance, a control scheme was devised which consists of three parts. First, flexibility damping and control notch filtering are accomplished by phase locked loop techniques. Second, slewing maneuvers are produced by torque profiles which are nonexcitatory to the structure. Finally, a low bandwidth perturbation controller is supplied to remove spacecraft disturbances.

Kopf, E. H.↗

Weighting in digital synthetic aperture radar processing

Weighting is employed in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) processing to reduce the sidelobe response at the expense of peak center response height and mainlobe resolution. The weighting effectiveness in digital processing depends not only on the choice of weighting function, but on the fineness of sampling and quantization, on the time bandwidth product, on the quadratic phase error, and on the azimuth antenna pattern. The results of simulations conducted to uncover the effect of these parameters on azimuth weighting effectiveness are presented. In particular, it is shown that multilook capabilities of future SAR systems may obviate the need for consideration of the antenna pattern, and that azimuth time-bandwidth products of over 200 are probably required before the digital results begin to approach the ideal results.

Dicenzo, A.↗

Multistage depressed collector with efficiency of 90 to 94 percent for operation of a dual-mode traveling wave tube in the linear region

An axisymmetric, multistage, depressed collector of fixed geometric design was evaluated in conjunction with an octave bandwidth, dual mode traveling wave tube (TWT). The TWT was operated over a wide range of conditions to simulate different applications. The collector performance was optimized (within the constraint of fixed geometric design) over the range of TWT operating conditions covered. For operation of the TWT in the linear, low distortion range, 90 percent and greater collector efficiencies were obtained leading to TWT overall efficiencies of 20 to 35 percent, as compared with 2 to 5 percent with an undepressed collector. With collectors of this efficiency and minimized beam interception losses, it becomes practical to design dual mode TWT's such that the low mode can represent operation well below saturation. Consequently, the required pulse up in beam current can be reduced or eliminated, and this mitigates beam control and dual mode TWT circuit design problems. For operation of the dual mode TWT at saturation, average collector efficiencies in excess of 85 percent were obtained for both the low and high modes across an octave bandwidth, leading to a three to fourfold increase in the TWT overall efficiency.

Ramins, P.↗

A 163 micron laser heterodyne radiometer for OH

A 163 micron (1.836 THz) radiometer developed for airplane and/or balloon platforms is described. The laser local oscillator is a CO2 pumped methanol laser operating at a frequency which is approx. 1 GHz from the J = 3/2 - 1/2 transition of OH. The laser is used directly as a local oscillator or is translated in frequency to closer coincidence with the OH emission, depending on achieved detector IF bandwidth. Frequency translation techniques which are described are diode mixing and a method of single sideband generation using an external Stark modulated gas cell. The photoconductive mixer used is a strained Ge crystal, doped with Ga, originally used as an incoherent detector. The uniaxial strain on the Ga doped Ge crystal shifts the threshold for photoconduction from 100/cm to frequencies as low as 50/cm. These detectors are currently being characterized as mixers in the laboratory. Of particular interest are the effect of local oscillator power and strain on IF, bandwidth detector impedance, and conversion loss. Preliminary results of these tests are described and compared with theorectical expectations.

Pickett, H. M.↗

Some n-p (Hg,Cd)Te photodiodes for 8-14 micrometer heterodyne applications

The results describing the dc and CO2 laser heterodyne characteristics of a three element photodiode array and single element and four element photodiode arrays are presented. The measured data shows that the n(+)-p configuration is capable of achieving bandwidths of 475 to 725 MHz and noise equivalent powers of 3.2 x 10 to the minus 20th power W/Hz at 77 K and 1.0 x 10 to the minus 19th power W/Hz at 145 K. The n(+)-n(-)-p photodiodes exhibited wide bandwidths (approximately 2.0 GHz) and fairly good effective heterodyne quantum efficiencies (approximately 13-30 percent at 2.0 GHz). Noise equivalent powers ranging from 1.44 x 10 to the minus 19th power W/Hz to 6.23 x 10 to the minus 20th power W/Hz were measured at 2.0 GHz.

Shanley, J. F.↗

RF spectrometers for heterodyne receivers

Several types of spectrometers developed for radio astronomy receivers which utilize RF filters, multiple oscillators and mixers, digital autocorrelators and acoustic/optic devices are considered. The RF spectrometer developed at GSFC to provide wide bandwidths (greater than 1 GHz) as well as high resolution (5MHz) is described. The 128 channel filter bank is divided into high and low resolution sections. The high resolution section is tunable by providing a second mixer ahead of the filter bank. This is necessary because infrared receivers which use gas lasers as local oscillators are only tunable to specific laser frequencies. To compensate for astronomical Doppler shifts and molecule frequency differences a second local oscillator and mixer is needed. A diagram of the RF section of the filter bank is shown. The RF spectrometer is shown to be the best means of achieving ultra-wide bandwidths for infrared heterodyne receivers. For high resolution with a large number of channels, the acousto/optical spectrometer is the principle instrument, particularly for balloon or space flight applications.

Buhl, D.↗

Signal to noise ratio calculation for fiber optics links

The signal to noise ratio (SNR) effect upon the maximum transmission length of a fiberoptic system is discussed. The relationships of different system parameters are discussed. A general formula to obtain the SNR of a single mode fiberoptic system is derived. The SNR attainable with single mode and multimode fiber optics links was calculated from fundamental noise considerations. It was found that for single mode fibers, laser noise dominates the noise contributions for links less than 30 km long, while thermal noise dominates for longer links. Multimode fibers degrade SNR for long links because of intermode dispersion. For frequency standard transmission, as long as the baseband modulation signals are within the bandwidth of the fibers, respectable SNR can be attained with low loss fibers (approximately 1 dB/km) for links as long as 70 km. For wideband transmission SNR is decreased by a factor equal to the ratio of the bandwidth.

Lau, K. Y.↗

Radar observations of asteroid 1580 Betulia

Radar observations of the asteroid 1580 Betulia, made at a wavelength of 12.6 cm, show a mean radar cross section of 2.2 + or- 0.8 sq km and a total spectral bandwidth of 26.5 + or- 1.5 Hz. Combining bandwidth measurements with the optically determined rotation period sets a lower limit to the asteroid's radius of 2.9 + or- 0.2 km.

Pettengill, G. H.↗

Pioneer Venus occultation radio science data generation

The paper deals with the Pioneer Venus Orbiter (signal) occultation experiment. During Pioneer Venus Orbiter radio science operations, an open-loop receiver baseband frequency output bandwidth was substantially reduced. This was made possible by programming an open-loop receiver first local oscillator with the predicted Doppler frequency profile so as to maintain the baseband signal within a narrow receiver output bandwidth.

Berman, A. L.↗

Solar-pumped gas laser development

A survey of gas properties through detailed kinetic models led to the identification of critical gas parameters for use in choosing appropriate gas combinations for solar pumped lasers. Broadband photoabsorption in the visible or near UV range is required to excite large volumes of gas and to insure good solar absorption efficiency. The photoexcitation density is independent of the absorption bandwidth. The state excited must be a metastable state which is not quenched by the parent gas. The emission bandwidth must be less than 10 A to insure lasing threshold over reasonable gain lengths. The system should show a high degree of chemical reversibility and an insensitivity to increasing temperature. Other properties such as good quantum efficiency and kinetic efficiency are also implied. Although photoexcitation of electronic vibrational transitions is considered as a possible system if the emission bands sufficiently narrow, it appears that photodissociation into atomic metastables is more likely to result in a successful solar pumped laser system.

Wilson, J. W.↗