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At least 163 records · Page 9

Characteristics of the SIR-A system and images

Sample images obtained with the Shuttle Imaging Radar A (SIR-A) are presented, along with design and performance features of the SIR-A, Seasat and Landsat images of the same scenes for comparison purposes. The SIR-A functions at the L-band 25 cm at a frequency of 1278 GHz with a spectral bandwidth of 6 MHz. The images were taken at an angle of 47 deg and furnished a resolution of 40 m from an altitude of 259 km. The images covered a ground swath 50 km wide. The images are provided to assist in the development of effective techniques for interpreting radar imagery. The SIR-A instrument is a precursor of another imaging device which will be flown around Venus. The images provided include sections of France, Sardinia and Algeria.

Rebillard, PH.↗

Complex Signal Kurtosis and Independent Component Analysis for Wideband Radio Frequency Interference Detection

Radio-frequency interference (RFI) has negatively implicated scientific measurements across a wide variation passive remote sensing satellites. This has been observed in the L-band radiometers SMOS, Aquarius and more recently, SMAP [1, 2]. RFI has also been observed at higher frequencies such as K band [3]. Improvements in technology have allowed wider bandwidth digital back ends for passive microwave radiometry. A complex signal kurtosis radio frequency interference detector was developed to help identify corrupted measurements [4]. This work explores the use of ICA (Independent Component Analysis) as a blind source separation technique to pre-process radiometric signals for use with the previously developed real and complex signal kurtosis detectors.

microwave↗

Serendipitous Discovery of Three Millisecond Pulsars with the GMRT in Fermi-directed Survey and Follow-up Radio Timing

We report the discovery of three millisecond pulsars (MSPs): PSRs J1120–3618, J1646–2142, and J1828+0625 with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at a frequency of 322 MHz using a 32 MHz observing bandwidth. These sources were discovered serendipitously while conducting the deep observations to search for millisecond radio pulsations in the directions of unidentified Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) γ-ray sources. We also present phase coherent timing models for these MSPs using ~5 yr of observations with the GMRT. PSR J1120–3618 has a 5.5 ms spin period and is in a binary system with an orbital period of 5.6 days and minimum companion mass of 0.18 M ⊙ , PSR J1646–2142 is an isolated object with a spin period of 5.8 ms, and PSR J1828+0625 has a spin period of 3.6 ms and is in a binary system with an orbital period of 77.9 days and minimum companion mass of 0.27 M ⊙ . The two binaries have very low orbital eccentricities, in agreement with expectations for MSP-helium white dwarf systems. Using the GMRT 607 MHz receivers having a 32 MHz bandwidth, we have also detected PSR J1646–2142 and PSR J1828+0625, but not PSR J1120–3618. PSR J1646–2142 has a wide profile, with significant evolution between 322 and 607 MHz, whereas PSR J1120–3618 exhibits a single peaked profile at 322 MHz and PSR J1828+0625 exhibits a single peaked profile at both the observing frequencies. These MSPs do not have γ-ray counterparts, indicating that these are not associated with the target Fermi LAT pointing emphasizing the significance of deep blind searches for MSPs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Flat-Panel Wideband Dual-Circularly Polarized 8X8 Phased Array Antenna for SATCOM Applications

A wideband, dual-circularly polarized (CP) 8×8 phased array is designed for operation at K-/Ka-band, which exhibits wide impedance and axial ratio (AR) bandwidths that encompass both of the desired satellite communication (SATCOM) bands of 22.55–23.55 GHz and 25.5–27.5 GHz. The array has a scan range of ±50° and ±36° at 23.05 GHz and 26.5 GHz, which are the center frequencies of the two aforementioned bands. The array has been integrated with a beamforming network utilizing 5G silicon RFICs, and the measurement results will be presented during the conference.

phased array antenna↗

New limit on dark photon kinetic mixing in the 0.2 – 1.2 μ eV mass range from the Dark E-field Radio experiment

We report new limits on the kinetic mixing strength of the dark photon spanning the mass range 0.21 − 1.24 μ eV corresponding to a frequency span of 50–300 MHz. The Dark E-field Radio experiment is a wideband search for dark photon dark matter. In this paper we detail changes in calibration and upgrades since our proof-of-concept pilot run. Our detector employs a wide-bandwidth E-field antenna moved to multiple positions in a shielded room, a low noise amplifier, wideband analog-to-digital converter, followed by a 2 24 -point fast Fourier transform. An optimal filter searches for signals with Q ≈ 10 6 . In nine days of integration, this system is capable of detecting dark photon signals corresponding to a kinetic mixing strength ε several orders of magnitude lower than previous limits. We find a 95% exclusion limit on ε over this mass range between 6 × 10 − 15 and 6 × 10 − 13 , tracking the complex resonant mode structure in the shielded room. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Development of a wide bandwidth heterodyne dispersion interferometer for electron density measurement of atmospheric pressure plasmas

One of the challenges of electron density measurements of an atmospheric pressure plasma (APP) with a laser interferometer is the significant and unwanted phase shift caused by changes in the neutral gas density. These unwanted phase shifts can be mitigated and plasma density measured using an interferometer architecture called a dispersion interferometer (DI). A DI is composed of two nonlinear orientation patterned GaAs crystals for frequency doubling and measures the phase shift induced by a plasma in the interference signal between two second-harmonic beams. Measurement of plasma dynamics or a short plasma pulse in less than a millisecond is enabled with heterodyne detection in a DI using an acousto-optic cell with a frequency of 40 MHz. This heterodyne DI (HDI) is targeted to measure APPs in an electron density range of 10 20 –10 24 m −3 . Finally, the HDI achieves a line-integrated density resolution of 2 × 10 15 m −2 (a phase resolution of 0.005°) with a time constant of 1 μs using ensemble averaging techniques.

atmospheric pressure plasma↗

Design of an L-band Microwave Radiometer with Active Mitigation of Interference

Radio frequency interference (RFI) impairs L-band radiometry outside the protected 20 MHz frequency band around 1413 MHz. However, bandwidths of 100 MHz or more are desired for certain remote sensing applications as well as certain astronomy applications. Because much of the RFI in this band is from radars with pulse lengths on the order of microseconds, traditional radiometers (i.e., those which directly measure total power or power spectral density integrated over time scales of milliseconds or greater) are poorly-suited to this task. Simply reducing integration time and discarding contaminated outputs may not be a practical answer due to the wide variety of modulations and pulse lengths observed in L-band RFI signals, the dynamic and complex nature of the associated propagation channels, and the logistical effort associated with post-measurement data editing. This motivates the design and development of radiometers capable of coherent sampling and adaptive, real-time mitigation of interference. Such a radiometer will be described in this presentation. This design is capable of coherently-sampling up to 100 MHz bandwidth at L-band. RFI mitigation is implemented in FPGA components so that real-time suppression is achieved. The system currently uses a cascade of basic time- and frequency- domain detection and blanking techniques; more advanced algorithms are un- der consideration. The modular FPGA-based architecture provides other benefits, such as the ability to implement extremely stable digital filters and the ability to reconfigure the system "on the fly". An overview of the basic design along with on-the-air results from an initial implementation will be provided in the presentation. Related L-band RFI surveys will be described to illustrate the relevance of this approach in a variety of operating conditions.

Ellingson, S. W.↗

Design of an L-band Microwave Radiometer with Active Mitigation of Interference

Radio frequency interference (RFI) impairs L-band radiometry outside the protected 20 MHz frequency band around 1413 MHz. However, bandwidths of 100 MHz or more are desired for certain remote sensing applications as well as certain astronomy applications. Because much of the RFI in this band is from radars with pulse lengths on the order of microseconds, traditional radiometers (i.e., those which directly measure total power or power spectral density integrated over time scales of milliseconds or greater) are poorly-suited to this task. Simply reducing integration time and discarding contaminated outputs may not be a practical answer due to the wide variety of modulations and pulse lengths observed in L-band RFI signals, the dynamic and complex nature of the associated propagation channels, and the logistical effort associated with post-measurement data editing. This motivates the design and development of radiometers capable of coherent sampling and adaptive, real-time mitigation of interference. Such a radiometer will be described in this presentation. This design is capable of coherently-sampling up to 100 MHz bandwidth at L-band. RFI mitigation is implemented in FPGA components so that real-time suppression is achieved. The system currently uses a cascade of basic time- and frequency-domain detection and blanking techniques; more advanced algorithms are under consideration. The modular FPGA-based architecture provides other benefits, such as the ability to implement extremely stable digital filters and the ability to reconfigure the system "on the fly". An overview of the basic design along with on-the-air results from an initial implementation will be provided in the presentation. Related L-band RFI surveys will be described to illustrate the relevance of this approach in a variety of operating conditions.

Hampson, G. A.↗

Inflatable Microstrip Reflectarray Antennas at X and Ka-band Frequencies

Inflatable antenna technology is being developed by JPL/NASA to enable the capabilities of low mass, high packaging efficiency, and low-cost deployment for future spacecraft high-gain and large aperture antennas. One of the technologies being considered is the inflatable microstrip reflectarray. A conventional inflatable parabolic reflector antenna will offer similar advantages with the added capability of wide electrical bandwidth. However, it suffers from the difficulty of maintaining its required large, thin, and curved-parabolic surface in the space environment. Since the microstrip reflectarray has the "natural" flat reflecting surface, it is much easier to maintain the required surface tolerance using an inflatable structure. This is the primary reason, despite its narrow bandwidth characteristic, that the inflatable microstrip reflectarray is being studied. This article discusses an already-developed one-meter X-band inflatable microstrip reflectarray and a three-meter Ka-band inflatable microstrip reflectarray which is currently under development. Both antennas' RF structures are designed at JPL and their mechanical inflatable structures are designed and manufactured at ILC Dover, Inc.

Huang, John↗

Linear Quantum Coupler for Clean Bosonic Control

Quantum computing with superconducting circuits relies on high-fidelity driven nonlinear processes. An ideal quantum nonlinearity would selectively activate desired coherent processes at high strength, without activating parasitic mixing products or introducing additional decoherence. The wide bandwidth of the Josephson nonlinearity makes this difficult, with undesired drive-induced transitions and decoherence limiting qubit readout, gates, couplers, and amplifiers. Significant strides have recently been made into building better “quantum mixers,” with promise being shown by Kerr-free three-wave mixers that suppress driven frequency shifts, and balanced quantum mixers that explicitly forbid a significant fraction of parasitic processes. We propose a novel mixer that combines both these strengths, with engineered selection rules that make it essentially linear (not just Kerr-free) when idle, and activate clean parametric processes even when driven at high strength. Furthermore, its ideal Hamiltonian is simple to analyze analytically, and we show that this ideal behavior is first-order insensitive to dominant experimental imperfections. We expect this mixer to allow significant advances in high-𝑄 control, readout, and amplification.

Quantum circuits↗

Ultra-Wideband Array in PCB for Millimeter-Wave 5G and ISM

Growing mobile data consumption has prompted the exploration of the millimeter-wave spectrum for large bandwidth, high speed communications. However, the allocated bands are spread across a wide swath of spectrum: Fifth generation mobile architecture (5G): 28, 38, 39, 6471 GHz; Industrial, Scientific, and Medical bands (ISM): 24, 60 GHz. Moreover, high gain phased arrays are required to overcome the significant path loss associated with these frequencies. Further, it is necessary to incorporate several of these applications in a single, small size and low cost platform. To this end, we have developed a scanning, Ultra-Wideband (UWB) array which covers all 5G, ISM, and other mm-W bands from 2472 GHz. Critically, this is accomplished using mass-production Printed Circuit Board (PCB) fabrication. The results of this work are presented in this poster.

Milli-Meter Wave↗

24-Way Radial Power Combiner/Divider for 31 to 36 GHz

The figure shows a prototype radial power-combining waveguide structure, capable of operation at frequencies from 31 to 36 GHz, that features an unusually large number (N = 24) of combining (input) ports. The combination of wide-band operation and large N is achieved by incorporating several enhancements over a basic radial power-combiner design. In addition, the structure can be operated as a power divider by reversing the roles of the input and output ports. In this structure, full-height waveguides at the combining ports are matched in impedance to reduced-height radial waveguides inside the combiner base. This match is effected by impedance-transforming stepped waveguide sections. This matching scheme is essential to achievement of large N because N is limited by the height of the waveguides in the base. Power is coupled from the 24 reduced- height radial waveguides into the TE01 mode of a circular waveguide in the base with the help of a matching post at the bottom of the base. ( TE signifies transverse electric, the first subscript is the azimuthal mode number, and the second subscript is the radial mode number.) More specifically, the matching post matches the reflections from the walls of the 24 reduced-height waveguides and enables the base design to exceed the bandwidth requirement. After propagating along the circular waveguide, the combined power is coupled, via a mode transducer, to a rectangular waveguide output port. The mode transducer is divided into three sections, each sized and shaped as part of an overall design to satisfy the mode-conversion and output-coupling requirements while enabling the circular waveguide to be wide enough for combining the 24 inputs over the frequency range of 31 to 36 GHz. During the design process, it was found that two different rectangular waveguide outputs could be accommodated through modification of only the first section of the mode converter, thereby enabling operation in multiple frequency ranges.

Epp, Larry↗

A wide-band, high-resolution spectrum analyzer

A million-channel, 20 MHz-bandwidth, digital spectrum analyzer under evelopment for use in the SETI Sky Survey and other applications in the Deep Space Network is described. The analyzer digitizes an analog input, performs a 2(20)-point Radix-2, Fast Fourier Transform, accumulates the output power, and normalizes the output to remove frequency-dependent gain. The effective speed of the real-time hardware is 2.2 GigaFLOPS.

Wilck, H. C.↗

Inflatable Microstrip Reflectarray Antennas At X and Ka-Band Frequencies

Introduction: Inflatable antenna technology is being developed by JPL/NASA to enable the capabilities of low mass, high packaging efficiency, and low-cost deployment for future spacecraft high-gain and large aperture antennas. One of the technologies being considered [11 is the inflatable microstrip reflectarray. A conventional inflatable parabolic reflector antenna will offer similar advantages with the added capability of wide electrical bandwidth. However, it suffers from the difficulty of maintaining its required large, thin, and curved-parabolic surface in the space environment. Since the microstrip reflectarray has the "natural" flat reflecting surface, it is much easier to maintain the required surface tolerance using an inflatable structure. This is the primary reason, despite its narrow bandwidth characteristic, that the inflatable microstrip reflectarray is being studied. This article discusses an already-developed one-meter X-band inflatable microstrip reflectarray and a three-meter Ka-band inflatable microstrip reflectarray which is currently under development. Both antennas' RF structures are designed at JPL and their mechanical inflatable structures are designed and manufactured at ILC Dover, Inc.

Huang, John↗

Robotic pendant drop: containerless liquid for μs-resolved, AI-executable XPCS

Abstract The dynamics and structure of mixed phases in a complex fluid can significantly impact its material properties, such as viscoelasticity. Small-angle X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (SA-XPCS) can probe the spontaneous spatial fluctuations of the mixed phases under various in situ environments over wide spatiotemporal ranges (10 −6 –10 3 s /10 −10 –10 −6 m). Tailored material design, however, requires searching through a massive number of sample compositions and experimental parameters, which is beyond the bandwidth of the current coherent X-ray beamline. Using 3.7-μs-resolved XPCS synchronized with the clock frequency at the Advanced Photon Source, we demonstrated the consistency between the Brownian dynamics of ~100 nm diameter colloidal silica nanoparticles measured from an enclosed pendant drop and a sealed capillary. The electronic pipette can also be mounted on a robotic arm to access different stock solutions and create complex fluids with highly-repeatable and precisely controlled composition profiles. This closed-loop, AI-executable protocol is applicable to light scattering techniques regardless of the light wavelength and optical coherence, and is a first step towards high-throughput, autonomous material discovery.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Sensing Modalities Deployed - Acoustic

Acoustic approaches to OLM are based on analyzing changes in various forms of pressure waves propagating in solids, fluids or gases. These pressure waves can vary in frequency content from infrasound (seismic events) to the megahertz region (acoustic emissions). A wide variety of commercially available pressure or stain sensing devices are used to make acoustic measurements. These sensors differ in the transduction mechanism used to convert the pressure or strain signal to an electrical output, the sensitivity, dynamic range, bandwidth, directional characteristics, and physical size. All acoustic sensors must be integrated with signal conditioning electronics to convert the sensors’ analog output to discrete digital signals that can then be further analyzed for OLM. Ultimately, the sensing properties listed above will be a function of the sensor transduction mechanism, the sensor design and the conditioning electronics.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Quasiperiodic behavior in beam-driven strong Langmuir turbulence

The evolution of unmagnetized beam-driven strong Langmuir turbulence is studied in two dimensions by numerically integrating the Zakharov equations for systems pumped by monochromatic and broadband negative-damping drivers with nonzero central wavenumber. Long-time statistically steady states are reached for which the dependence of the evolution on the driver wavenumber, growth rate, and bandwidth is examined in detail. For monochromatic drivers, a quasiperiodic cycle is found to develop if the driver wavenumber is sufficiently large. The characteristic frequency of the quasiperiodic cycle and the average system energy are both approximately proportional to the growth rate. Broadening of the driver in wavenumber tends to degrade the system-wide coherence of the cycle, but its main features appear to survive on the scale of the coherence length of the driver.

Robinson, P. A.↗

Enhanced Self-Seeding with Ultrashort Electron Beams

In this paper, we describe a new method to produce intensity stable, highly coherent, narrow-band x-ray pulses in self-seeded free electron (FEL) lasers. The approach uses an ultrashort electron beam to generate a single spike FEL pulse with a wide coherent bandwidth. The self-seeding monochromator then notches out a narrow spectral region of this pulse to be amplified by a long portion of electron beam to full saturation. In contrast to typical self-seeding where monochromatization of noisy self-amplified spontaneous emission pulses leads to either large intensity fluctuations or multiple frequencies, we show that this method produces a stable, coherent FEL output pulse with statistical properties similar to a fully coherent optical laser.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗