P. F. M. SIGNAL PROCESSING
Description of the necessary ground processing equipment for pulse frequency modulated explorer xii signal transmissions to maintain continuous synchronization
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Description of the necessary ground processing equipment for pulse frequency modulated explorer xii signal transmissions to maintain continuous synchronization
Manual retrieval methods were used to complete 54 searches of interest for the General Aviation Newsletter. Subjects of search ranged from television transmission to machine tooling, Apollo moon landings, electronic equipment, and aerodynamics studies.
The generation and format is discussed of the Landsat 1 and 2 system corrected multispectral scanner computer compatible tapes. Included in the discussion are the spacecraft sensors, scene characteristics, the transmission of data, and the conversion of the data to computer compatible tapes at the NASA Data Processing Facility. Geometric and radiometric corrections, tape formats, and the physical characteristics of the tape are also described.
The use of digital techniques for transmission of pictorial data is discussed for multi-frame images (television). Video signals are processed in a manner which includes quantization and coding such that they are separable from the noise introduced into the channel. The performance of digital television systems is determined by the nature of the processing techniques (i.e., whether the video signal itself or, instead, something related to the video signal is quantized and coded) and to the quantization and coding schemes employed.
The application of optical communications for a deep space link via an earth-orbiting relay satellite is discussed. The system uses optical frequencies for the free-space channel and RF links for atmospheric transmission. The relay satellite is in geostationary orbit and contains the optics necessary for data processing and formatting. It returns the data to earth through the RF terrestrial link and also transmits an optical beacon to the satellite for spacecraft return pointing and for the alignment of the transmitting optics. Future work will turn to modulation and coding, pointing and tracking, and optical-RF interfacing.
The High Altitude Missions Branch of NASA's Ames Research Center has been pursuing methods and communication architectures to decrease processing time and shorten the dissemination paths of the data from scientific experiments on board the high altitude ER-2 aircraft. The Satellite Telemetry and Return Link (STARLink) is an innovative approach for providing real-time data from existing experiments and allows for highly interactive future experiment systems on the ER-2. The concept involves placing an advanced wideband data link system on the ER-2 (and future NASA aircraft) for communicating to the NASA Tracking Data and Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) and its designated ground station. The emphasis is on providing full duplex real-time data between the ground station hub (and its remote nodes) and the on board experiments, allowing real-time processing and alteration to the experiments. This paper defines the concept, goals, multiplexing and data transmission system architecture, current capabilities, and future plans of the STARLink and its ability to provide a distributed interactive gateway node between the aircraft and various scientific centers worldwide.
Polycrystalline superconducting Nb thin films are extensively used for submillimeter and millimeter transmission line applications and, less commonly, used in microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) applications. The microwave and mm-wave loss in these films is impacted, in part, by the presence of surface nitrides and oxides. In this study, glancing incidence x-ray diffraction was used to identify the presence of niobium nitride and niobium monoxide surface layers on Nb thin films which had been exposed to chemicals used in standard photolithographic processing. A method of mitigating the presence of ordered niobium monoxide surface layers is presented. Furthermore, we discuss the possibility of using glancing incidence x-ray diffraction as a non-destructive diagnostic tool for evaluating the quality of Nb thin films used in MKIDs and transmission lines. For a given fabrication process, we have both the x-ray diffraction data of the surface chemistry and a measure of the mm-wave and microwave loss, the latter being made in superconducting resonators.
Compressive Sensing is an emerging technology for data compression and simultaneous data acquisition. This is an enabling technique for significant reduction in data bandwidth, and transmission power and hence, can greatly benefit spaceflight instruments. We apply this process to detect exoplanets via gravitational microlensing. We experiment with various impact parameters that describe microlensing curves to determine the effectiveness and uncertainty caused by Compressive Sensing. Finally, we describe implications for spaceflight missions.
Polycrystalline Nb thin films are extensively used for microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) and superconducting transmission line applications. The microwave and mm-wave loss in these films is impacted, in part, by the presence of surface nitrides and oxides. In this study, glancing incidence x-ray diffraction was used to identify the presence of niobium nitride and niobium monoxide surface layers on Nb thin films which had been exposed to chemicals used in standard photolithographic processing. A method of mitigating the presence of ordered niobium monoxide surface layers is presented. Furthermore, we discuss the possibility of using glancing incidence x-ray diffraction as a non-destructive diagnostic tool for evaluating the quality of Nb thin films used in MKIDs and transmission lines. For a given fabrication process, we have both the X-ray diffraction data of the surface chemistry and a measure of the mm-wave and microwave loss, the latter being made in superconducting resonators.
Polycrystalline Nb thin films are extensively used for microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) and superconducting transmission line applications. The microwave and mm-wave loss in these films is impacted, in part, by the presence of surface nitrides and oxides. In this study, glancing incidence x-ray diffraction was used to identify the presence of niobium nitride and niobium monoxide surface layers on Nb thin films which had been exposed to chemicals used in standard photolithographic processing. A method of mitigating the presence of ordered niobium monoxide surface layers is presented. Furthermore, we discuss the possibility of using glancing incidence x-ray diffraction as a non-destructive diagnostic tool for evaluating the quality of Nb thin films used in MKIDs and transmission lines. For a given fabrication process, we have both the X-ray diffraction data of the surface chemistry and a measure of the mm-wave and microwave loss, the latter being made in superconducting resonators.
This document gives detailed descriptions of the tracking services, signal generation and processing, range and Doppler extraction, and the principles and procedures involved in modeling range and Doppler observations via the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). Major topics discussed include the following: TDRSS telecommunication services, functional description of the TDRSS, tracking signal generation and processing, range and Doppler observations modeling, angular observed and computed measurement algorithms, and tracking data transmission format.
Astrobiology missions to ocean worlds in our solar system must overcome both scientific and technological challenges due to extreme temperature and radiation conditions, long communication times, and limited bandwidth. While such tools could not replace ground-based analysis by science and engineering teams, machine learning algorithms could enhance the science return of these missions through development of autonomous science capabilities. Examples of science autonomy include onboard data analysis and subsequent instrument optimization, data prioritization (for transmission), and real-time decision-making based on data analysis. Similar advances could be made to develop streamlined data processing software for rapid ground-based analyses. Here we discuss several ways machine learning and autonomy could be used for astrobiology missions, including landing site selection, prioritization and targeting of samples, classification of “features” (e.g., proposed biosignatures) and novelties (uncharacterized, “new” features, which may be of most interest to agnostic astrobiological investigations), and data transmission.
This paper provides an overview of current vibration methods used to identify the health of helicopter transmission gears. The gears are critical to the transmission system that provides propulsion, lift and maneuvering of the helicopter. This paper reviews techniques used to process vibration data to calculate conditions indicators (CI s), guidelines used by the government aviation authorities in developing and certifying the Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS), condition and health indicators used in commercial HUMS, and different methods used to set thresholds to detect damage. Initial assessment of a method to set thresholds for vibration based condition indicators applied to flight and test rig data by evaluating differences in distributions between comparable transmissions are also discussed. Gear condition indicator FM4 values are compared on an OH58 helicopter during 14 maneuvers and an OH58 transmission test stand during crack propagation tests. Preliminary results show the distributions between healthy helicopter and rig data are comparable and distributions between healthy and damaged gears show significant differences.
This paper provides an overview of current vibration methods used to identify the health of helicopter transmission gears. The gears are critical to the transmission system that provides propulsion, lift and maneuvering of the helicopter. This paper reviews techniques used to process vibration data to calculate conditions indicators (CI's), guidelines used by the government aviation authorities in developing and certifying the Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS), condition and health indicators used in commercial HUMS, and different methods used to set thresholds to detect damage. Initial assessment of a method to set thresholds for vibration based condition indicators applied to flight and test rig data by evaluating differences in distributions between comparable transmissions are also discussed. Gear condition indicator FM4 values are compared on an OH58 helicopter during 14 maneuvers and an OH58 transmission test stand during crack propagation tests. Preliminary results show the distributions between healthy helicopter and rig data are comparable and distributions between healthy and damaged gears show significant differences.
The solution data computed from large scale simulations are sometimes too big for main memory, for local disks, and possibly even for a remote storage disk, creating tremendous processing time as well as technical difficulties in analyzing the data. The excessive storage demands a corresponding huge penalty in I/O time, rendering time and transmission time between different computer systems. In this paper, a multiresolution scheme is proposed to compress field simulation or experimental data without much loss of important information in the representation. Originally, the wavelet based multiresolution scheme was introduced in image processing, for the purposes of data compression and feature extraction. Unlike photographic image data which has rather simple settings, computational field simulation data needs more careful treatment in applying the multiresolution technique. While the image data sits on a regular spaced grid, the simulation data usually resides on a structured curvilinear grid or unstructured grid. In addition to the irregularity in grid spacing, the other difficulty is that the solutions consist of vectors instead of scalar values. The data characteristics demand more restrictive conditions. In general, the photographic images have very little inherent smoothness with discontinuities almost everywhere. On the other hand, the numerical solutions have smoothness almost everywhere and discontinuities in local areas (shock, vortices, and shear layers). The wavelet bases should be amenable to the solution of the problem at hand and applicable to constraints such as numerical accuracy and boundary conditions. In choosing a suitable wavelet basis for simulation data among a variety of wavelet families, the supercompact wavelets designed by Beam and Warming provide one of the most effective multiresolution schemes. Supercompact multi-wavelets retain the compactness of Haar wavelets, are piecewise polynomial and orthogonal, and can have arbitrary order of approximation. The advantages of the multiresolution algorithm are that no special treatment is required at the boundaries of the interval, and that the application to functions which are only piecewise continuous (internal boundaries) can be efficiently implemented. In this presentation, Beam's supercompact wavelets are generalized to higher dimensions using multidimensional scaling and wavelet functions rather than alternating the directions as in the 1D version. As a demonstration of actual 3D data compression, supercompact wavelet transforms are applied to a 3D data set for wing tip vortex flow solutions (2.5 million grid points). It is shown that high data compression ratio can be achieved (around 50:1 ratio) in both vector and scalar data set.
Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) wide-field-of-view (WFOV) nonscanners aboard ERBS and NOAA- 9/NOAA-10 provided broadband shortwave and longwave irradiances from 1985 to 1999. The previous analysis showed dome degradation in the shortwave nonscanner instruments. The correction was performed with a constant spectral (gray assumption) degradation. We suspect that the gray assumption affected daytime longwave irradiance and led to a day-minus-night longwave flux differences (little change in night time longwave) increase over time. Based on knowledge from the CERES process, we will reprocess entire ERBE nonscanner radiation dataset by characterizing shortwave dome transmissivity with spectral dependent degradation using the solar data observed by these instruments. Once spectral dependent degradation is derived, imager derived cloud fraction and the cloud phase as well as surface type over the FOV of nonscanner instruments will be used to model unfiltering coefficients. This poster primarily explains the reprocessing techniques and includes initial comparison of several months of data processed with existing and our recent methods.
The application of a newly developed diagnostic method to a helicopter gearbox is demonstrated. This method is a pattern classifier which uses a multi-valued influence matrix (MVIM) as its diagnostic model. The method benefits from a fast learning algorithm, based on error feedback, that enables it to estimate gearbox health from a small set of measurement-fault data. The MVIM method can also assess the diagnosability of the system and variability of the fault signatures as the basis to improve fault signatures. This method was tested on vibration signals reflecting various faults in an OH-58A main rotor transmission gearbox. The vibration signals were then digitized and processed by a vibration signal analyzer to enhance and extract various features of the vibration data. The parameters obtained from this analyzer were utilized to train and test the performance of the MVIM method in both detection and diagnosis. The results indicate that the MVIM method provided excellent detection results when the full range of faults effects on the measurements were included in training, and it had a correct diagnostic rate of 95 percent when the faults were included in training.
Activities related to: (1) understanding, controlling, and using the ocean's biological and physical processes for food and energy production and ship design purposes, and (2) providing navigation, communication, and data transmission technological aids which improve efficiency and enhance safety in maritime operations are disclosed.