Reconstruction of the gravitational wave signal h(t)h(t) during the Virgo science runs and independent validation with a photon calibrator

The Virgo detector is a kilometer-scale interferometer for gravitational wave detection located near Pisa (Italy). About 13 months of data were accumulated during four science runs (VSR1, VSR2, VSR3 and VSR4) between May 2007 and September 2011, with increasing sensitivity. In this paper, the method used to reconstruct, in the range 10 Hz-10 kHz, the gravitational wave strain time series $h(t)$ from the detector signals is described. The standard consistency checks of the reconstruction are discussed and used to estimate the systematic uncertainties of the $h(t)$ signal as a function of frequency. Finally, an independent setup, the photon calibrator, is described and used to validate the reconstructed $h(t)$ signal and the associated uncertainties. The uncertainties of the $h(t)$ time series are estimated to be 8% in amplitude. The uncertainty of the phase of $h(t)$ is 50 mrad at 10 Hz with a frequency dependence following a delay of 8 $\mu$s at high frequency. A bias lower than $4\,\mathrm{\mu s}$ and depending on the sky direction of the GW is also present.Comment: 35 pages, 16 figures. Accepted by CQ

Spectrum Sensing of DVB-T2 Signals in Multipath Channels for Cognitive Radio Networks

© 2018 VDE VERLAG GMBHIn this paper, spectrum sensing of digital video broadcasting-second generation terrestrial (DVB-T2) signals in different fading environments with energy detection (ED) is considered. ED is known to achieve an increased performance among low computational complexity detectors, but it is susceptible to noise uncertainty. By taking into consideration the edge pilot and scattered pilot periodicity in DVB-T2 signals, a low computational complex noise power estimator is proposed. It is shown analytically that the choice of detector depends on the environment, the detector requirements, the available prior knowledge and with the noise power estimator. Simulation confirm that with the noise power estimator, ED significantly outperforms the pilot correlation-based detectors. Simulation also show that the proposed scheme enables ED to obtain increased detection performance in fading channels

Spectrum Sensing of DVB-T2 Signals using a Low Computational Noise Power Estimation

© 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted ncomponent of this work in other works.Cognitive radio is a promising technology that answers the spectrum scarcity problem arising from the proliferation of wireless networks and mobile services. In this paper, spectrum sensing of digital video broadcasting-second generation terrestrial (DVB-T2) signals in AWGN, WRAN and COST207 multipath fading environment are considered. ED is known to achieve an increased performance among low computational complexity detectors, but it is susceptible to noise uncertainty. Taking into consideration the edge pilot and scattered pilot periodicity in DVB-T2 signals, a low computational noise power estimator is proposed. Analytical forms for the detector are derived. Simulation results show that with the noise power estimator, ED significantly outperforms the pilot correlation-based detectors. Simulation also show that the proposed scheme enables ED to obtain increased detection performance in multi-path fading environments. Moreover, based on this algorithm a practical sensing scheme for cognitive radio networks is proposed.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Max-Min SNR Signal Energy based Spectrum Sensing Algorithms for Cognitive Radio Networks with Noise Variance Uncertainty

This paper proposes novel spectrum sensing algorithms for cognitive radio networks. By assuming known transmitter pulse shaping filter, synchronous and asynchronous receiver scenarios have been considered. For each of these scenarios, the proposed algorithm is explained as follows: First, by introducing a combiner vector, an over-sampled signal of total duration equal to the symbol period is combined linearly. Second, for this combined signal, the Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) maximization and minimization problems are formulated as Rayleigh quotient optimization problems. Third, by using the solutions of these problems, the ratio of the signal energy corresponding to the maximum and minimum SNRs are proposed as a test statistics. For this test statistics, analytical probability of false alarm ($P_f$) and detection ($P_d$) expressions are derived for additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. The proposed algorithms are robust against noise variance uncertainty. The generalization of the proposed algorithms for unknown transmitter pulse shaping filter has also been discussed. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms achieve better $P_d$ than that of the Eigenvalue decomposition and energy detection algorithms in AWGN and Rayleigh fading channels with noise variance uncertainty. The proposed algorithms also guarantee the desired $P_f(P_d)$ in the presence of adjacent channel interference signals

Potential of the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor for the monitoring of terrestrial chlorophyll fluorescence

Global monitoring of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is improving our knowledge about the photosynthetic functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. The feasibility of SIF retrievals from spaceborne atmospheric spectrometers has been demonstrated by a number of studies in the last years. In this work, we investigate the potential of the upcoming TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite mission for SIF retrieval. TROPOMI will sample the 675–775 nm spectral window with a spectral resolution of 0.5 nm and a pixel size of 7 km × 7 km. We use an extensive set of simulated TROPOMI data in order to assess the uncertainty of single SIF retrievals and subsequent spatio-temporal composites. Our results illustrate the enormous improvement in SIF monitoring achievable with TROPOMI with respect to comparable spectrometers currently in-flight, such as the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2) instrument. We find that TROPOMI can reduce global uncertainties in SIF mapping by more than a factor of 2 with respect to GOME-2, which comes together with an approximately 5-fold improvement in spatial sampling. Finally, we discuss the potential of TROPOMI to map other important vegetation parameters at a global scale with moderate spatial resolution and short revisit time. Those include leaf photosynthetic pigments and proxies for canopy structure, which will complement SIF retrievals for a self-contained description of vegetation condition and functioning