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NASA NTRS2000

The Earth Occultation Technique with the Burst and Transient Source Experiment

The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) is successfully being used as an all-sky hard X-ray monitor. The experiment consists of a set of eight uncollimated detectors sensitive to photons in the 20 keV to 2 MeV range. Since CGRO orbits the Earth at an altitude of about 450 km, about 33% of the sky, as viewed with BATSE, is covered by the Earth at any given time. The entire sky is subject to Earth occultation for some portion of CGRO's 52 day precession period. When a source sets below or rises above the Earth's limb, atmospheric attenuation produces step-like features in the BATSE data. The observed change in count rate in several energy bands provides a measurement of the source intensity and spectrum without sophisticated background models. These occultation features are used to locate and monitor astrophysical sources with BATSE when the source signal can be separated from the detector background. Examples of step searches, spectra, light curves, and transform imaging are presented.

Wilson, C. A.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Results From Phase-1 and Phase-2 GOLD Experiments

The Ground/Orbiter Lasercomm Demonstration conducted between the Japanese Engineering Test Satellite (ETS-VI) and the ground station at JPL's Table Mountain Facility, Wrightwood, California, was the rst ground-to-space two-way optical communications experiment. Experiment objectives included validating the performance predictions of the optical link. Atmospheric attenuation and seeing measurements were made during the experiment, and data were analyzed. Downlink telemetry data recovered over the course of the experiment provided information on in-orbit performance of the ETS-VI's laser communications equipment. Biterror rates as low as 10 4 were measured on the uplink and 10 5 on the downlink. Measured signal powers agreed well with theoretical predictions.

Wilson, K.↗

NASA NTRS1993

CCSDS Link Budget Weather Related Losses

The following paper describes the method used in computation of weather-related losses, namely the atmospheric attenuation and the system noise temperature increase due to weather.

NASA/JPL/DSN tracking stations CCSDS link budget p↗

NASA NTRS2006

Exo-atmospheric telescopes for deep space optical communications

For deep space optical communications, optical telescopes located above the Earth's atmosphere would have significant performance advantages over telescopes mounted on the Earth's surface. Link outages due to could cover would be eliminated, atmospheric attenuation would be eliminated, and signal degradation due to stray light would be reduced.

orbiting optical terminal↗

NASA NTRS2006

Analysis of Acoustic Modeling and Sound Propagation in Aircraft Noise Prediction

An analysis has been performed of measured and predicted aircraft noise levels around Denver International Airport. A detailed examination was made of 90 straight-out departures that yielded good measurements on multiple monitors. Predictions were made with INM 5, INM 6 and the simulation model NMSIM. Predictions were consistently lower than measurements, less so for the simulation model than for the integrated models. Lateral directivity ("installation effect") patterns were seen which are consistent with other recent measurements. Atmospheric absorption was determined to be a significant factor in the underprediction. Calculations of atmospheric attenuation were made over a full year of upper air data at seven locations across the United States. It was found that temperature/humidity effects could cause variations of up to +/-4 dB, depending on season, for the sites examined. It was concluded that local temperature and humidity should be accounted for in aircraft noise modeling.

Plotkin, Kenneth J.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Polarimetric Microwave Remote Sensing of Hurricane Ocean Winds

We presented the analysis of Windsat data for hurricanes Isabel and Fabian in 2003. The polarimetric third and fourth Stokes parameter observations from the Windsat 10, 18 and 37 GHz channels were collocated with the ocean surface winds from the Holland wind model, the QuikSCAT wind vectors and the Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) operated by the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). The collocated data were binned as a function of wind speed and wind direction, and were expanded by sinusoidal series of the relative azimuth angles between wind and observation directions. The coefficients of the sinusoidal series, corrected for atmospheric attenuation, have been used to develop an empirical geophysical model function (GMF). The Windsat GMF for extreme high wind compares very well with the aircraft radiometer and radar measurements.

widebands↗

NASA NTRS2006

Combined Active and Passive Remote Sensing of Hurricane Ocean Winds

The synergism of active and passive microwave techniques for hurricane ocean wind remote sensing is explored. We performed the analysis of Windsat data for Atlantic hurricanes in 2003-2005. The polarimetric third Stokes parameter observations from the Windsat 10, 18 and 37 GHz channels were collocated with the ocean surface winds from the Holland wind model, the QuikSCAT wind vectors and the Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) operated by the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). The collocated data were binned as a function of wind speed and wind direction, and were expanded by sinusoidal series of the relative azimuth angles between wind and observation directions. The coefficients of the sinusoidal series, corrected for atmospheric attenuation, have been used to develop an empirical geophysical model function (GMF). The Windsat GMF for extreme high wind compares very well with the aircraft radiometer and radar measurements.

sea surface winds↗

NASA NTRS2008

Jet Mixing Noise Scaling Laws SHJAR Data Vs. Predictions

High quality jet noise spectral data measured at the anechoic dome at the NASA Glenn Research Center is used to examine a number of jet noise scaling laws. Configurations considered in the present study consist of convergent as well as convergent-divergent axisymmetric nozzles. The spectral measurements are shown in narrow band and cover 8193 equally spaced points in a typical Strouhal number range of (0.01 10.0). Measurements are reported as lossless (i.e. atmospheric attenuation is added to as-measured data), and at 24 equally spaced angles (50deg to 165deg) on a 100-diameter arc. Following the work of Viswanathan [Ref. 1], velocity power laws are derived using a least square fit on spectral power density as a function of jet temperature and observer angle. The goodness of the fit is studied at each angle, and alternative relationships are proposed to improve the spectral collapse when certain conditions are met. On the application side, power laws are extremely useful in identifying components from various noise generation mechanisms. From this analysis, jet noise prediction tools can be developed with physics derived from the different spectral components.

Khavaran, Abbas↗

NASA NTRS2009

SHJAR Jet Noise Data and Power Spectral Laws

High quality jet noise spectral data measured at the Aeroacoustic Propulsion Laboratory at the NASA Glenn Research Center is used to examine a number of jet noise scaling laws. Configurations considered in the present study consist of convergent and convergent-divergent axisymmetric nozzles. The measured spectral data are shown in narrow band and cover 8193 equally spaced points in a typical Strouhal number range of 0.0 to 10.0. The measured data are reported as lossless (i.e., atmospheric attenuation is added to measurements), and at 24 equally spaced angles (50deg to 165deg) on a 100-diameter (200-in.) arc. Following the work of Viswanathan, velocity power factors are evaluated using a least squares fit on spectral power density as a function of jet temperature and observer angle. The goodness of the fit and the confidence margins for the two regression parameters are studied at each angle, and alternative relationships are proposed to improve the spectral collapse when certain conditions are met. As an immediate application of the velocity power laws, spectral density in shockcontaining jets are decomposed into components attributed to jet mixing noise and shock noise. From this analysis, jet noise prediction tools can be developed with different spectral components derived from different physics.

Khavaran, Abbas↗

NASA NTRS2008

Three-Stage InP Submillimeter-Wave MMIC Amplifier

A submillimeter-wave monolithic integrated- circuit (S-MMIC) amplifier has been designed and fabricated using an indium phosphide (InP) 35-nm gate-length high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) device, developed at Northrop Grumman Corporation. The HEMT device employs two fingers each 15 micrometers wide. The HEMT wafers are grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and make use of a pseudomorphic In0.75Ga0.25As channel, a silicon delta-doping layer as the electron supply, an In0.52Al0.48As buffer layer, and an InP substrate. The three-stage design uses coplanar waveguide topology with a very narrow ground-to-ground spacing of 14 micrometers. Quarter-wave matching transmission lines, on-chip metal-insulator-metal shunt capacitors, series thin-film resistors, and matching stubs were used in the design. Series resistors in the shunt branch arm provide the basic circuit stabilization. The S-MMIC amplifier was measured for S-parameters and found to be centered at 320 GHz with 13-15-dB gain from 300-345 GHz. This chip was developed as part of the DARPA Submillimeter Wave Imaging Focal Plane Technology (SWIFT) program (see figure). Submillimeter-wave amplifiers could enable more sensitive receivers for earth science, planetary remote sensing, and astrophysics telescopes, particularly in radio astronomy, both from the ground and in space. A small atmospheric window at 340 GHz exists and could enable ground-based observations. However, the submillimeter-wave regime (above 300 GHz) is best used for space telescopes as Earth s atmosphere attenuates most of the signal through water and oxygen absorption. Future radio telescopes could make use of S-MMIC amplifiers for wideband, low noise, instantaneous frequency coverage, particularly in the case of heterodyne array receivers.

Pukala, David↗

NASA NTRS2007

Radar Interferometer for Topographic Mapping of Glaciers and Ice Sheets

A report discusses Ka-band (35-GHz) radar for mapping the surface topography of glaciers and ice sheets at high spatial resolution and high vertical accuracy, independent of cloud cover, with a swath-width of 70 km. The system is a single- pass, single-platform interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) with an 8-mm wavelength, which minimizes snow penetration while remaining relatively impervious to atmospheric attenuation. As exhibited by the lower frequency SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) AirSAR and GeoSAR systems, an InSAR measures topography using two antennas separated by a baseline in the cross-track direction, to view the same region on the ground. The interferometric combination of data received allows the system to resolve the pathlength difference from the illuminated area to the antennas to a fraction of a wavelength. From the interferometric phase, the height of the target area can be estimated. This means an InSAR system is capable of providing not only the position of each image point in along-track and slant range as with a traditional SAR but also the height of that point through interferometry. Although the evolution of InSAR to a millimeter-wave center frequency maximizes the interferometric accuracy from a given baseline length, the high frequency also creates a fundamental problem of swath coverage versus signal-to-noise ratio. While the length of SAR antennas is typically fixed by mass and stowage or deployment constraints, the width is constrained by the desired illuminated swath width. As the across-track beam width which sets the swath size is proportional to the wavelength, a fixed swath size equates to a smaller antenna as the frequency is increased. This loss of antenna size reduces the two-way antenna gain to the second power, drastically reducing the signal-to-noise ratio of the SAR system. This fundamental constraint of high-frequency SAR systems is addressed by applying digital beam-forming (DBF) techniques to synthesize multiple simultaneous receive beams in elevation while maintaining a broad transmit illumination. Through this technique, a high antenna gain on receive is preserved, thereby reducing the required transmit power and thus enabling high-frequency SARs and high-precision InSAR from a single spacecraft.

Moller, Delwyn K.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Terabit Wireless Communication Challenges

This presentation briefly discusses a research effort on Terabit Wireless communication systems for possible space applications. Recently, terahertz (THz) technology (300-3000 GHz frequency) has attracted a great deal of interest from academia and industry. This is due to a number of interesting features of THz waves, including the nearly unlimited bandwidths available, and the non-ionizing radiation nature which does not damage human tissues and DNA with minimum health threat. Also, as millimeter-wave communication systems mature, the focus of research is, naturally, moving to the THz range. Many scientists regard THz as the last great frontier of the electromagnetic spectrum, but finding new applications outside the traditional niches of radio astronomy, Earth and planetary remote sensing, and molecular spectroscopy particularly in biomedical imaging and wireless communications has been relatively slow. Radiologists find this area of study so attractive because t-rays are non-ionizing, which suggests no harm is done to tissue or DNA. They also offer the possibility of performing spectroscopic measurements over a very wide frequency range, and can even capture signatures from liquids and solids. According to Shannon theory, the broad bandwidth of the THz frequency bands can be used for terabit-per-second (Tb/s) wireless communication systems. This enables several new applications, such as cell phones with 360 degrees autostereoscopic displays, optic-fiber replacement, and wireless Tb/s file transferring. Although THz technology could satisfy the demand for an extremely high data rate, a number of technical challenges need to be overcome before its development. This presentation provides an overview the state-of-the- art in THz wireless communication and the technical challenges for an emerging application in Terabit wireless systems. The main issue for THz wave propagation is the high atmospheric attenuation, which is dominated by water vapor absorption in the THz frequency band. The technical challenges in design such a system and the techniques to overcome the challenges will be discussed in this presentation.

Hwu, Shian U.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Acoustic Data Processing and Transient Signal Analysis for the Hybrid Wing Body 14- by 22-Foot Subsonic Wind Tunnel Test

An advanced vehicle concept, the HWB N2A-EXTE aircraft design, was tested in NASA Langley's 14- by 22-Foot Subsonic Wind Tunnel to study its acoustic characteristics for var- ious propulsion system installation and airframe con gurations. A signi cant upgrade to existing data processing systems was implemented, with a focus on portability and a re- duction in turnaround time. These requirements were met by updating codes originally written for a cluster environment and transferring them to a local workstation while en- abling GPU computing. Post-test, additional processing of the time series was required to remove transient hydrodynamic gusts from some of the microphone time series. A novel automated procedure was developed to analyze and reject contaminated blocks of data, under the assumption that the desired acoustic signal of interest was a band-limited sta- tionary random process, and of lower variance than the hydrodynamic contamination. The procedure is shown to successfully identify and remove contaminated blocks of data and retain the desired acoustic signal. Additional corrections to the data, mainly background subtraction, shear layer refraction calculations, atmospheric attenuation and microphone directivity corrections, were all necessary for initial analysis and noise assessments. These were implemented for the post-processing of spectral data, and are shown to behave as expected.

Bahr, Christopher J.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Integrated Active Fire Retrievals and Biomass Burning Emissions Using Complementary Near-Coincident Ground, Airborne and Spaceborne Sensor Data

Ground, airborne and spaceborne data were collected for a 450 ha prescribed fire implemented on 18 October 2011 at the Henry W. Coe State Park in California. The integration of various data elements allowed near coincident active fire retrievals to be estimated. The Autonomous Modular Sensor-Wildfire (AMS) airborne multispectral imaging system was used as a bridge between ground and spaceborne data sets providing high quality reference information to support satellite fire retrieval error analyses and fire emissions estimates. We found excellent agreement between peak fire radiant heat flux data (less than 1% error) derived from near-coincident ground radiometers and AMS. Both MODIS and GOES imager active fire products were negatively influenced by the presence of thick smoke, which was misclassified as cloud by their algorithms, leading to the omission of fire pixels beneath the smoke, and resulting in the underestimation of their retrieved fire radiative power (FRP) values for the burn plot, compared to the reference airborne data. Agreement between airborne and spaceborne FRP data improved significantly after correction for omission errors and atmospheric attenuation, resulting in as low as 5 difference between AquaMODIS and AMS. Use of in situ fuel and fire energy estimates in combination with a collection of AMS, MODIS, and GOES FRP retrievals provided a fuel consumption factor of 0.261 kg per MJ, total energy release of 14.5 x 10(exp 6) MJ, and total fuel consumption of 3.8 x 10(exp 6) kg. Fire emissions were calculated using two separate techniques, resulting in as low as 15 difference for various species

airborne scanner↗

NASA NTRS2015

Results from Three Years of Ka-band Propagation Characterization at Svalbard, Norway

Over the next several years, NASA plans to launch several earth science missions which are expected to achieve data throughputs of 5-40 terabits per day transmitted from low earth orbiting spacecraft to ground stations. The current S-band and X-band frequency allocations in use by NASA, however, are incapable of supporting the data rates required to meet this demand. As such, NASA is in the planning stages to upgrade its existing Near Earth Network (NEN) polar ground stations to support Ka-band (25.5-27 GHz) operations. Consequently, it installed and operated a Ka-band radiometer at the Svalbard site. Svalbard was chosen as the appropriate site for two primary reasons: (1) Svalbard will be the first site to be upgraded to Ka-band operations within the NEN Polar Network enhancement plan, and (2) there exists a complete lack of Ka-band propagation data at this site (as opposed to the Fairbanks, AK NEN site, which has 5 years of characterization collected during the Advanced Communications Technology becomes imperative that characterization of propagation effects at these NEN sites is conducted to determine expected system Satellite (ACTS) campaign). processing and provide the Herein, we discuss the data three-year measurement results performance, particularly at low elevation angles ((is) less than 10 deg) from the ongoing Ka-band propagation characterization where spacecraft signal acquisition typically occurs. Since May 2011, NASA Glenn Research Center has installed and operated a Ka-band radiometer at the NEN site located in Svalbard, Norway. The Ka-band radiometer monitors the water vapor line, as well as 4 frequencies around 26.5 GHz at a fixed 10 deg elevation angle. Three-year data collection results indicate good campaign at Svalbard, Norway. Comparison of these results with the ITU models and existing ERA profile data indicates very good agreement when the 2010 rain maps and cloud statistics are used. Finally, the Svalbard data is used to derive the expected atmospheric margin requirements for this site agreement with models and comparable performance to necessary to maintain total system availability levels for the previously characterized northern latitude sites in the United States, i.e., Fairbanks, Alaska. The Svalbard data is used to upcoming Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) launch in the derive availability results for an upcoming earth-observation 2017/2022 timeframes. mission, JPSS-1, and indicate a requirement of 4 dB of atmospheric attenuation margin necessary to close the link with 99% overall system availability for the expected LEO orbital cycle, as observed from the Svalbard location.

Ka-band↗

NASA NTRS2015

Results from Three Years of Ka-Band Propagation Characterization at Svalbard, Norway

near earth network↗

NASA NTRS2018

Results from One Year of Ka-Band Beacon Measurements at Svalbard

Since April 1, 2016, a Ka-band (20.198 GHz) propagation terminal has been installed and operating at the Svalsat facility in Longyearbyen, Norway. This campaign is a joint effort between the European Space Agency (ESA), Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), the French Aerospace Laboratory (ONERA), the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), and NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) to characterize atmospheric attenuation, scintillation, and depolarization in the Ka-band in high latitude regions at low elevation angles. The propagation terminal observes the Thor 7 20.198 GHz RHCP beacon at nominally 2.6 deg elevation angle. Simultaneous 10 Hz and 1 Hz sampling is performed and a total dynamic range of 35 dB is achieved. One year of propagation data has been collected and the preliminary results are presented in this paper. From the first year of measurements, it is observed that at these low elevation angles, strong scintillation/multi-path conditions, as well as significant depolarization events can occur which may impose difficulties in meeting mission link acquisition requirements at 5 deg elevation angle, such as those desired by the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) mission. The design of the dual-polarized terminal with integrated digital radiometer, as well as the data processing techniques are described, along with the first year results and preliminary conclusions.

Nessel, James↗

NASA NTRS2014

Acoustic Measurements from Wind Tunnel Test of AMELIA - Advanced Model for Extreme Lift and Improved Aeroacoustics

A wind tunnel test has been conducted to measure the aerodynamic and acoustic performance of an active circulation-control aircraft with leading- and trailing- edge slot blowing. The 11 Advanced Model for Extreme Lift and Improved Aeroacoustics (AMELIA) model was tested in the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) National Full Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) 40- by 80-Ft wind tunnel. Forward velocities ranged from 0 to Mach 0.15 and total slot mass-flow was varied from 0 to 2.8 lbmsec. Angle-of-attack and sideslip ranges were -5 to 25 and -10 to 10, respectively.This reports summarizes acoustic measurements from the wind tunnel test and the corrections applied to the released acoustic data. The analysis focuses on measurements for the clean wing configuration (turbine propulsion simulators removed) with trailing-and leading-edge slot blowing and with trailing-edge blowing, for systematic variations in slot mass flow from nearly zero to the system maximum. The acoustic measurements from a fixed phased microphone array and seven fixed microphones were corrected for sensor directional response and atmospheric attenuation. Graphs of 13-octave spectra, narrowband spectra, and directional variations in OASPL are presented for each active lift configuration. This report is intended to document the corresponding set of corrected data that is now available for development and verification of new predictive models of the active lift source.For large slot mass flow conditions 13-octave spectral shapes were level and flat, typical of a pink noise source. Little source directivity was present in the OASPL levels for the 0 flap conditions and show only a slight downstream increase with the 60 flap configuration. For moderate to high slot mass flow conditions trailing-edge only blowing spectra were similar to leading- and trailing edge blowing cases. However for the lower mass flows variations of as much as 5 dB were observed.

CCW↗