12,563 research outputs found
The Case for Combining a Large Low-Band Very High Frequency Transmitter With Multiple Receiving Arrays for Geospace Research: A Geospace Radar
We argue that combining a highâpower, largeâaperture radar transmitter with several largeâaperture receiving arrays to make a geospace radarâa radar capable of probing nearâEarth space from the upper troposphere through to the solar coronaâwould transform geospace research. We review the emergence of incoherent scatter radar in the 1960s as an agent that unified early, pioneering research in geospace in a common theoretical, experimental, and instrumental framework, and we suggest that a geospace radar would have a similar effect on future developments in space weather research. We then discuss recent developments in radioâarray technology that could be exploited in the development of a geospace radar with new or substantially improved capabilities compared to the radars in use presently. A number of applications for a geospace radar with the new and improved capabilities are reviewed including studies of meteor echoes, mesospheric and stratospheric turbulence, ionospheric flows, plasmaspheric and ionospheric irregularities, and reflection from the solar corona and coronal mass ejections. We conclude with a summary of technical requirements
Experimental Synthetic Aperture Radar with Dynamic Metasurfaces
We investigate the use of a dynamic metasurface as the transmitting antenna
for a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging system. The dynamic metasurface
consists of a one-dimensional microstrip waveguide with complementary electric
resonator (cELC) elements patterned into the upper conductor. Integrated into
each of the cELCs are two diodes that can be used to shift each cELC resonance
out of band with an applied voltage. The aperture is designed to operate at K
band frequencies (17.5 to 20.3 GHz), with a bandwidth of 2.8 GHz. We
experimentally demonstrate imaging with a fabricated metasurface aperture using
existing SAR modalities, showing image quality comparable to traditional
antennas. The agility of this aperture allows it to operate in spotlight and
stripmap SAR modes, as well as in a third modality inspired by computational
imaging strategies. We describe its operation in detail, demonstrate
high-quality imaging in both 2D and 3D, and examine various trade-offs
governing the integration of dynamic metasurfaces in future SAR imaging
platforms
Advances in Calibration and Imaging Techniques in Radio Interferometry
This paper summarizes some of the major calibration and image reconstruction
techniques used in radio interferometry and describes them in a common
mathematical framework. The use of this framework has a number of benefits,
ranging from clarification of the fundamentals, use of standard numerical
optimization techniques, and generalization or specialization to new
algorithms
Modern optical astronomy: technology and impact of interferometry
The present `state of the art' and the path to future progress in high
spatial resolution imaging interferometry is reviewed. The review begins with a
treatment of the fundamentals of stellar optical interferometry, the origin,
properties, optical effects of turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere, the
passive methods that are applied on a single telescope to overcome atmospheric
image degradation such as speckle interferometry, and various other techniques.
These topics include differential speckle interferometry, speckle spectroscopy
and polarimetry, phase diversity, wavefront shearing interferometry,
phase-closure methods, dark speckle imaging, as well as the limitations imposed
by the detectors on the performance of speckle imaging. A brief account is
given of the technological innovation of adaptive-optics (AO) to compensate
such atmospheric effects on the image in real time. A major advancement
involves the transition from single-aperture to the dilute-aperture
interferometry using multiple telescopes. Therefore, the review deals with
recent developments involving ground-based, and space-based optical arrays.
Emphasis is placed on the problems specific to delay-lines, beam recombination,
polarization, dispersion, fringe-tracking, bootstrapping, coherencing and
cophasing, and recovery of the visibility functions. The role of AO in
enhancing visibilities is also discussed. The applications of interferometry,
such as imaging, astrometry, and nulling are described. The mathematical
intricacies of the various `post-detection' image-processing techniques are
examined critically. The review concludes with a discussion of the
astrophysical importance and the perspectives of interferometry.Comment: 65 pages LaTeX file including 23 figures. Reviews of Modern Physics,
2002, to appear in April issu
Orbital Angular Momentum Waves: Generation, Detection and Emerging Applications
Orbital angular momentum (OAM) has aroused a widespread interest in many
fields, especially in telecommunications due to its potential for unleashing
new capacity in the severely congested spectrum of commercial communication
systems. Beams carrying OAM have a helical phase front and a field strength
with a singularity along the axial center, which can be used for information
transmission, imaging and particle manipulation. The number of orthogonal OAM
modes in a single beam is theoretically infinite and each mode is an element of
a complete orthogonal basis that can be employed for multiplexing different
signals, thus greatly improving the spectrum efficiency. In this paper, we
comprehensively summarize and compare the methods for generation and detection
of optical OAM, radio OAM and acoustic OAM. Then, we represent the applications
and technical challenges of OAM in communications, including free-space optical
communications, optical fiber communications, radio communications and acoustic
communications. To complete our survey, we also discuss the state of art of
particle manipulation and target imaging with OAM beams
- âŠ