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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.

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At least 577 records · Page 32
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1979

Costas loop demodulation of suppressed carrier BPSK signals in the DSN environment: Experimental results obtained at TDL

Suppressed carrier binary phase-shift keyed (BPSK) signalling is currently being considered as a design alternative for future DSN telemetry in the multimegabit range. Carrier tracking of such signals is usually achieved by a Costas loop, as opposed to the ordinary phase lock loop. A Costas loop capable of demodulating BPSK signals with data rates up to 1 Msps was designed and constructed and its Doppler tracking performance with respect to a Block 3 receiver was tested at the Telecommunications Development Laboratory (TDL). The compatibility of suppressed carrier signalling with the current radiometric system, specifically Doppler tracking and ranging, was investigated. The experimental results obtained to-date with respect to Doppler tracking are presented.

Reasoner, R.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Signal processing in ultrasound

Signal is the term used to denote the characteristic in the time or frequency domain of the probing energy of the system. Processing of this signal in diagnostic ultrasound occurs as the signal travels through the ultrasonic and electrical sections of the apparatus. The paper discusses current signal processing methods, postreception processing, display devices, real-time imaging, and quantitative measurements in noninvasive cardiology. The possibility of using deconvolution in a single transducer system is examined, and some future developments using digital techniques are outlined.

Le Croissette, D. H.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Pilot signals for large active retro-directive arrays

It has been suggested that for large active retrodirective arrays, as in the solar power system, a two tone uplink pilot signal with frequencies symmetrically situated around the downlink frequency be used in order to reduce ionospheric biases and to lower the cost since a two tone receiver is economically much cheaper than a single tone phase locked receiver. Such a system now faces two difficulties: the Pi-ambiguity; and a large phase difference between the downlink and uplink signals. The Pi-ambiguity is shown to be easily removed by using a two tone uplink signal with both frequencies situated at one side of the downlink frequency, and the phase difference can be greatly reduced with a three tone or a four tone uplink pilot signal.

Chan, C. H.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Pilot signals for large active retrodirective arrays

It was suggested that for large active retrodirective arrays, as in the solar power system, a two tone uplink pilot signal with frequencies symmetrically situated around the downlink frequency be used in order to reduce ionospheric biases and to lower the cost. Unfortunately such a system faces the following difficulties: (1) the pi-ambiguity, and (2) a large phase difference between the downlink and uplink signals. It is shown how the pi-ambiguity can be easily removed by using a two tone uplink signal with both frequencies situated at one side of the downlink frequency, and the phase difference can be greatly reduced with a three tone or a four tone uplink pilot signal.

Chan, C. H.↗
NASA NTRS1980

A design study of a signal detection system

A system is described which can aid in the search for radio signals from extraterrestrial sources, or in other applications characterized by low signal-to-noise ratios and very high data rates. The system follows a multichannel (16 million bin) spectrum analyzer, and has critical processing, system control, and memory fuctions. The design includes a moderately rich set of algorithms to be used in parallel to detect signals of unknown form. A multi-threshold approach is used to obtain high and low signal sensitivities. Relatively compact and transportable memory systems are specified.

Healy, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS1981

A unique method to study acoustic transmission through ducts using signal synthesis and averaging of acoustic pulses

An acoustic impulse technique using a loudspeaker driver is developed to measure the acoustic properties of a duct/nozzle system. A signal synthesis method is used to generate a desired single pulse with a flat spectrum. The convolution of the desired signal and the inverse Fourier transform of the reciprocal of the driver's response are then fed to the driver. A signal averaging process eliminates the jet mixing noise from the mixture of jet noise and the internal noise, thereby allowing very low intensity signals to be measured accurately, even for high velocity jets. A theoretical analysis is carried out to predict the incident sound field; this is used to help determine the number and locations of the induct measurement points to account for the contributions due to higher order modes present in the incident tube method. The impulse technique is validated by comparing experimentally determined acoustic characteristics of a duct-nozzle system with similar results obtained by the impedance tube method. Absolute agreement in the comparisons was poor, but the overall shapes of the time histories and spectral distributions were much alike.

Salikuddin, M.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Goldstone radio spectrum signal identification, March 1980 - March 1982

The signal identification process is described. The Goldstone radio spectrum environment contains signals that are a potential source of electromagnetic interference to the Goldstone tracking receivers. The identification of these signals is accomplished by the use of signal parameters and environment parameters. Statistical data on the Goldstone radio spectrum environment from 2285 to 2305 MHz are provided.

Gaudian, B. A.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Analogue implementation of analytic signal processing for pulse-echo systems

An alternative to rectification is proposed for detection of an ultrasonic signal. This method is especially useful in medical and non-destructive evaluation (nde) applications. With this method, the magnitude of the complex analytic signal is used to define the envelope of the ultrasonic waveform. The square of this quantity has been shown elsewhere to be equal to the true rate-of-arrival of energy. An earlier study, using digital data processing, has already demonstrated the superior resolvability of closely spaced interfaces obtained with the analytic signal magnitude, as compared to conventional rectification. Here, an analogue implementation is presented which utilizes single-sideband techniques to obtain both quadrature components of the analytic signal and its magnitude. A conventional transducer, pulser, and receiver are used.

Gammell, P. M.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Signal analysis and error analysis studies for a Geopotential Research Mission (GRM)

The signal characteristics and the geopotential parameter recovery capability of the SST Doppler sensor flown on the geopotential research mission (GRM) are discussed. Simulation studies of the velocity profiles resulting from the perturbation produced by a 1 deg/w/1 deg, 1 mgal anomaly as sensed by two GRM spacecraft orbiting altitudes of 160 km and 200 km respectively are described. It was found that the amplitude of the gravity signal drops off by a factor of 1.5 when going from an altitude of 160 km to 200 km. By extrapolation the signal amplitude is further decreased by a factor of 3 when the orbital altitude is increased to 250 km. Thus the amplitude of the measurement drops off as the altitude is increased to the point where it is insignificant at the 1 mgal level for altitudes above 200 km. Spectral analysis results show that for a GRM mission altitude of 160 km and a system precision of 1 micrometer/sec, gravity field information can be sensed up to 230 cycles per orbital revolution - beyond that frequency the gravity signal is characterized by white noise. It follows that at the GRM mission altitude of 160 km and a satellite to satellite Doppler system precision of 1 micrometer per second, 1/1 deg gravity and geoid anomalies can be determined to an accuracy of 3.4 mgals and 8.6 cm respectively.

Kahn, W. D.↗
NASA NTRS1983

A near-optimum receiver structure for the detection of M-ary optical PPM signals

A class of receivers called conditionally nulling receivers is defined for quantum noise limited optical communications. These receivers have the ability to decide at each moment in time whether or not to coherently combine a predetermined local oscillator field with the received optical field, prior to performing an energy measurement (photodetection) on the combined field. Conditionally nulling receivers are applicable to pulse position modulation and related modulation schemes, which have the property that, at each moment in time, the transmitted signal is in one of only two states, on or off. The local oscillator field which may or may not be added by the receiver is an exact replica of the negative of the received on field; hence, the receiver can exactly null the on signal if the on signal is present and the receiver chooses to use the local field. An ideal conditionally nulling receiver achieves very nearly the same error probability (within a multiplicative factor varying froom 1 to 2.15) as the optimum quantum measurement for quantum noise limited detection of M-ary PPM signals. In contrast, other known receiving methods, such as direct, heterodyne, and homodyne detection, are exponentially suboptimum.

Dolinar, S. J., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Interactive Digital Signal Processor

Interactive Digital Signal Processor, IDSP, consists of set of time series analysis "operators" based on various algorithms commonly used for digital signal analysis. Processing of digital signal time series to extract information usually achieved by applications of number of fairly standard operations. IDSP excellent teaching tool for demonstrating application for time series operators to artificially generated signals.

Mish, W. H.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Hybrid integrated optic modules for real-time signal processing

The most recent progress on four relatively new hybrid integrated optic device modules in LiNbO3 waveguides and one in YIG/GGG waveguide that are currently being studied are discussed. The five hybrid modules include a time-integrating acoustooptic correlator, a channel waveguide acoustooptic frequency shifter/modulator, an electrooptic channel waveguide total internal reflection moculator/switch, an electrooptic analog-to-digital converter using a Fabry-Perot modulator array, and a noncollinear magnetooptic modulator using magnetostatic surface waves. All of these devices possess the desirable characteristics of very large bandwidth (GHz or higher), very small substrate size along the optical path (typically 1.5 cm or less), single-mode optical propagation, and low drive power requirement. The devices utilize either acoustooptic, electrooptic or magnetooptic effects in planar or channel waveguides and, therefore, act as efficient interface devices between a light wave and temporal signals. Major areas of application lie in wideband multichannel optical real-time signal processing and communications. Some of the specific applications include spectral analysis and correlation of radio frequency (RF) signals, fiber-optic sensing, optical computing and multiport switching/routing, and analog-to-digital conversion of wide RF signals.

Tsai, C. S.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Signal-to-noise ratio for the wide field-planetary camera of the Space Telescope

Signal-to-noise ratios for the Wide Field Camera and Planetary Camera of the Space Telescope were calculated as a function of integration time. Models of the optical systems and CCD detector arrays were used with a 27th visual magnitude point source and a 25th visual magnitude per arc-sq. second extended source. A 23rd visual magnitude per arc-sq. second background was assumed. The models predicted signal-to-noise ratios of 10 within 4 hours for the point source centered on a signal pixel. Signal-to-noise ratios approaching 10 are estimated for approximately 0.25 x 0.25 arc-second areas within the extended source after 10 hours integration.

Zissa, D. E.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Signal analysis techniques for incipient failure detection in turbomachinery

Signal analysis techniques for the detection and classification of incipient mechanical failures in turbomachinery were developed, implemented and evaluated. Signal analysis techniques available to describe dynamic measurement characteristics are reviewed. Time domain and spectral methods are described, and statistical classification in terms of moments is discussed. Several of these waveform analysis techniques were implemented on a computer and applied to dynamic signals. A laboratory evaluation of the methods with respect to signal detection capability is described. Plans for further technique evaluation and data base development to characterize turbopump incipient failure modes from Space Shuttle main engine (SSME) hot firing measurements are outlined.

Coffin, T.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Perturbations of subionospheric LF and MF signals due to whistler-induced electron precipitation bursts

Increasing attention is now being devoted to the problem of the pitch angle scattering and resulting precipitation of magnetospheric energetic electrons by coherent waves. The present investigation has the objective to report the first evidence of a correlation between whistlers and amplitude perturbations on low-frequency (LF) signals at 37.2 kHz and medium-frequency (MF) signals at 780 kHz. Whistler-correlated amplitude perturbations were observed on a 780-kHz MF signal propagating on an approximately 1800 km path from South America to Palmer. The observed MF perturbations were of order 50 percent in amplitude and developed much more quickly than other changes of comparable magnitude on the signal.

Carpenter, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS1983

An improvement in SAR image interpretability provided by post-correlation signal processing

A presentation on the basis of subjective analysis of computer-generated SAR imagery depicts the improvement in interpretability obtained by post-correlation signal processing. A parametric study was conducted to determine the improvement in interpretability obtained by the application of signal weighting functions on the post-processed returns. The results suggest that a marked improvement in interpretability results from symmetrizing the exponential distribution of the fading signal. Preliminary analysis indicates that signal weighting improves the contrast ratio between the mean value of adjacent homogeneous regions in a SAR scene.

Matthews, N. D.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Blending Gyro Signals To Improve Control Stability

Interference by structural vibrations reduced by adding signals from spatially separated gyros. Technique involves blending signals from rate gyroscopes located at different parts of structure to obtain composite signal that more nearly represents rotation of entire structure. Aircraft vibrations perpendicular to pitch axis contribute to rotations sensed by pitch-rate gyros. Proper blending of signals from gyros suppress contribution of dominant vibrational mode. Most likely applications of concept are flight-control systems for aircraft.

J. F. L. Lee↗