The inception of the Advanced Communication Technology Satellite (ACTS) Project has required a si... more The inception of the Advanced Communication Technology Satellite (ACTS) Project has required a similarly advanced statistical mathematical modeling formalism to describe the behavior of the 30/20 GHz links emanating to and from the earth terminals through the deleterious effects of the earth's atmosphere. The resulting ACTS Rain Attenuation Prediction Model has been thoroughly described in (Manning). In the present paper, the basic rudiments of this model will be reviewed; Section 1 covers the static or time-independent portion of the model and Section 2 covers the dynamic or time-dependent portion. The results of Section 2 are then applied to a new approximate solution of the famous problem of the time duration tau of a fade of a random process below some threshold. This is known as the fade duration. The new approximate solution was published in Russian (Denisenko) and, unfortunately, was never published into English. Hence, this work is restated following (Denisenko) in Secti...
A novel method of microwave power conversion to direct current is discussed that relies on a modi... more A novel method of microwave power conversion to direct current is discussed that relies on a modification of well known resonant linear relativistic electron accelerator techniques. An analysis is presented that shows how, by establishing a 'slow' electromagnetic field in a waveguide, electrons liberated from an array of field emission cathodes, are resonantly accelerated to several times their rest energy, thus establishing an electric current over a large potential difference. Such an approach is not limited to the relatively low frequencies that characterize the operation of rectennas, and can, with appropriate waveguide and slow wave structure design, be employed in the 300 to 600 GHz range where much smaller transmitting and receiving antennas are needed.
A novel method of microwave power conversion to direct current is discussed that relies on a modi... more A novel method of microwave power conversion to direct current is discussed that relies on a modification of well known resonant linear relativistic electron accelerator techniques. In particular, an analysis will be presented that shows how, by establishing a "slow" electromagnetic field (in particular, a traveling TE wave) in a waveguide, electrons liberated from an array of field emission cathodes (FEC's), are resonantly (with respect to the phase of the electromagnetic wave) accelerated to several times their rest energy, thus establishing an electric current over a large potential difference. Such an approach is not limited to the relatively low frequencies that characterize the operation of rectennas (i.e., 2.45 GHz) and can, with appropriate waveguide and slow wave structure design, be employed in the 300-600 GHz range where much smaller transmitting and receiving antennas are needed.
20th AIAA International Communication Satellite Systems Conference and Exhibit, 2002
Since its founding, NASA has been dedicated to the advancement of aeronautics and space science. ... more Since its founding, NASA has been dedicated to the advancement of aeronautics and space science. The NASA Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Program Office plays a key part in helping NASA maintain this important role. The NASA STI Program Office is operated by Langley Research Center, the Lead Center for NASA's scientific and technical information. The NASA STI Program Office provides access to the NASA STI Database, the largest collection of aeronautical and space science STI in the world. The Program Office is also NASA's institutional mechanism for disseminating the results of its research and development activities. These results are published by NASA in the NASA STI Report Series, which includes the following report types:
Proceedings of The 1st International Electronic Conference on Atmospheric Sciences, 2016
The values of the key atmospheric turbulence parameters (structure constants) for temperature and... more The values of the key atmospheric turbulence parameters (structure constants) for temperature and water vapor, i.e., CT 2 , and CQ 2 , are highly dependent upon the vertical height within the atmosphere thus making it necessary to specify profiles of these values along the atmospheric propagation path. The remote sensing method suggested and described in this work makes use of a rapidly integrating microwave profiling radiometer to capture profiles of temperature and humidity through the atmosphere. The integration times of currently available profiling radiometers are such that they are approaching the temporal intervals over which one can possibly make meaningful assessments of these key atmospheric parameters. These integration times, coupled with the boundary effects of the Earth's surface are, however, unconventional for turbulence characterization; the classical Kolmogorov turbulence theory and related 2/3 law for structure functions prevalent in the inertial sub-range are no longer appropriate. An alternative to this classical approach is derived from first principles to account for the nuances of turbulent mechanics met with using radiometer sensing, i.e., the large-scale turbulence driven by the various possible boundary conditions within the buoyancy sub-range. Analytical expressions connecting the measured structure functions to the corresponding structure parameters are obtained. The theory is then applied to an experimental scenario involving radiometric profile measurements of temperature and shows very good results.
A study to determine the feasibility of employing beamed electromagnetic energy for vehicle propu... more A study to determine the feasibility of employing beamed electromagnetic energy for vehicle propulsion within and outside the Earth’s atmosphere was co-funded by NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that began in June 2010 and culminated in a Summary Presentation in April 2011. A detailed report entitled “Beamed-Energy Propulsion (BEP) Study” appeared in February 2012 as NASA/TM—2012-217014. Of the very many nuances of this subject that were addressed in this report, the effects of transferring the required high energy-density electromagnetic fields through the atmosphere were discussed. However, due to the limitations of the length of the report, only a summary of the results of the detailed analyses were able to be included. It is the intent of the present work to make available the complete analytical modeling work that was done for the BEP project with regard to electromagnetic wave propagation issues. In particular, the present technical memorandum contains tw...
A STATISTICAL RAIN ATTENUATION PREDICTION MODEL WITH APPLICATION TO THE ADVANCED COMMUNICATION TE... more A STATISTICAL RAIN ATTENUATION PREDICTION MODEL WITH APPLICATION TO THE ADVANCED COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SATELLITE PROJECT III-A Stochastic Rain Fade Control Algorithm for Satellite Link Power Via Nonlinear Markov Filtering Theory Robert M. ...
IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 2014
ABSTRACT Differential phase data has been collected using a site test interferometer (STI) at K-b... more ABSTRACT Differential phase data has been collected using a site test interferometer (STI) at K-band for several years at various NASA ground station sites, including the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) in Goldstone, CA, and the NASA Space Network (SN) sites in White Sands, NM, and Guam. An objective of this work is to characterize the site-dependent atmospheric phase stability to determine the viability of that site for arraying applications. A useful figure of merit to quantify this effect is the determination of the microwave refractive index structure constant, C-n(2), which is highly dependent on variations in the water vapor concentration of the troposphere. In this paper, a method is proposed to derive C-n(2) from a two-element site test interferometer utilizing temporal phase structure function information. In this way, a path-averaged C-n(2) at each ground station site is determined which can be used in the design and expected system performance of future Ka-band communication systems in an arrayed architecture. Statistical characterization of microwave C-n(2) indicates that a mean value of 2.04 x 10(-14), 2.08 x 10(-14) and 9.8 x 10(-13) is expected for Goldstone, CA, White Sands, NM, and Guam, respectively.
Rain attenuation propagation data for 68 cities within the coverage area of the multiple beam and... more Rain attenuation propagation data for 68 cities within the coverage area of the multiple beam and steerable antennas of the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) are presented. These data provide the necessary data base for purposes of communication link power budgeting and rain attenuation mitigation controller design. These propagation parameters are derived by applying the ACTS Rain Attenuation Prediction Model to these 68 locations. The propagation parameters enumerated in tabular form for each location are as follows: (1) physical description of the link and location (e.g., latitude, longitude, antenna elevation angle, etc.), link availability versus attenuation margin (also in graphical form), fading time across fade depths of 3, 5, 8, and 15 dB versus fade duration, and required fade control response time for controller availabilities of 99.999, 99.99, 99.9, and 99 percent versus sub-threshold attenuation levels. The data for these specific locations can be take...
Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per res... more Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to
The systems engineering description of a wideband communications channel is provided which is bas... more The systems engineering description of a wideband communications channel is provided which is based upon the fundamental propagation aspects of the problem. In particular, the well known time variant description of a channel is formulated from the basic multiple scattering processes that occur in a random propagation medium. Such a connection is required if optimal processing methods are to be applied to mitigate the deleterious random fading and multipathing of the channel. An example is given which demonstrates how the effective bandwidth of the channel is diminished due to atmospheric propagation impairments.
The inception of the Advanced Communication Technology Satellite (ACTS) Project has required a si... more The inception of the Advanced Communication Technology Satellite (ACTS) Project has required a similarly advanced statistical mathematical modeling formalism to describe the behavior of the 30/20 GHz links emanating to and from the earth terminals through the deleterious effects of the earth's atmosphere. The resulting ACTS Rain Attenuation Prediction Model has been thoroughly described in (Manning). In the present paper, the basic rudiments of this model will be reviewed; Section 1 covers the static or time-independent portion of the model and Section 2 covers the dynamic or time-dependent portion. The results of Section 2 are then applied to a new approximate solution of the famous problem of the time duration tau of a fade of a random process below some threshold. This is known as the fade duration. The new approximate solution was published in Russian (Denisenko) and, unfortunately, was never published into English. Hence, this work is restated following (Denisenko) in Secti...
A novel method of microwave power conversion to direct current is discussed that relies on a modi... more A novel method of microwave power conversion to direct current is discussed that relies on a modification of well known resonant linear relativistic electron accelerator techniques. An analysis is presented that shows how, by establishing a 'slow' electromagnetic field in a waveguide, electrons liberated from an array of field emission cathodes, are resonantly accelerated to several times their rest energy, thus establishing an electric current over a large potential difference. Such an approach is not limited to the relatively low frequencies that characterize the operation of rectennas, and can, with appropriate waveguide and slow wave structure design, be employed in the 300 to 600 GHz range where much smaller transmitting and receiving antennas are needed.
A novel method of microwave power conversion to direct current is discussed that relies on a modi... more A novel method of microwave power conversion to direct current is discussed that relies on a modification of well known resonant linear relativistic electron accelerator techniques. In particular, an analysis will be presented that shows how, by establishing a "slow" electromagnetic field (in particular, a traveling TE wave) in a waveguide, electrons liberated from an array of field emission cathodes (FEC's), are resonantly (with respect to the phase of the electromagnetic wave) accelerated to several times their rest energy, thus establishing an electric current over a large potential difference. Such an approach is not limited to the relatively low frequencies that characterize the operation of rectennas (i.e., 2.45 GHz) and can, with appropriate waveguide and slow wave structure design, be employed in the 300-600 GHz range where much smaller transmitting and receiving antennas are needed.
20th AIAA International Communication Satellite Systems Conference and Exhibit, 2002
Since its founding, NASA has been dedicated to the advancement of aeronautics and space science. ... more Since its founding, NASA has been dedicated to the advancement of aeronautics and space science. The NASA Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Program Office plays a key part in helping NASA maintain this important role. The NASA STI Program Office is operated by Langley Research Center, the Lead Center for NASA's scientific and technical information. The NASA STI Program Office provides access to the NASA STI Database, the largest collection of aeronautical and space science STI in the world. The Program Office is also NASA's institutional mechanism for disseminating the results of its research and development activities. These results are published by NASA in the NASA STI Report Series, which includes the following report types:
Proceedings of The 1st International Electronic Conference on Atmospheric Sciences, 2016
The values of the key atmospheric turbulence parameters (structure constants) for temperature and... more The values of the key atmospheric turbulence parameters (structure constants) for temperature and water vapor, i.e., CT 2 , and CQ 2 , are highly dependent upon the vertical height within the atmosphere thus making it necessary to specify profiles of these values along the atmospheric propagation path. The remote sensing method suggested and described in this work makes use of a rapidly integrating microwave profiling radiometer to capture profiles of temperature and humidity through the atmosphere. The integration times of currently available profiling radiometers are such that they are approaching the temporal intervals over which one can possibly make meaningful assessments of these key atmospheric parameters. These integration times, coupled with the boundary effects of the Earth's surface are, however, unconventional for turbulence characterization; the classical Kolmogorov turbulence theory and related 2/3 law for structure functions prevalent in the inertial sub-range are no longer appropriate. An alternative to this classical approach is derived from first principles to account for the nuances of turbulent mechanics met with using radiometer sensing, i.e., the large-scale turbulence driven by the various possible boundary conditions within the buoyancy sub-range. Analytical expressions connecting the measured structure functions to the corresponding structure parameters are obtained. The theory is then applied to an experimental scenario involving radiometric profile measurements of temperature and shows very good results.
A study to determine the feasibility of employing beamed electromagnetic energy for vehicle propu... more A study to determine the feasibility of employing beamed electromagnetic energy for vehicle propulsion within and outside the Earth’s atmosphere was co-funded by NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that began in June 2010 and culminated in a Summary Presentation in April 2011. A detailed report entitled “Beamed-Energy Propulsion (BEP) Study” appeared in February 2012 as NASA/TM—2012-217014. Of the very many nuances of this subject that were addressed in this report, the effects of transferring the required high energy-density electromagnetic fields through the atmosphere were discussed. However, due to the limitations of the length of the report, only a summary of the results of the detailed analyses were able to be included. It is the intent of the present work to make available the complete analytical modeling work that was done for the BEP project with regard to electromagnetic wave propagation issues. In particular, the present technical memorandum contains tw...
A STATISTICAL RAIN ATTENUATION PREDICTION MODEL WITH APPLICATION TO THE ADVANCED COMMUNICATION TE... more A STATISTICAL RAIN ATTENUATION PREDICTION MODEL WITH APPLICATION TO THE ADVANCED COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SATELLITE PROJECT III-A Stochastic Rain Fade Control Algorithm for Satellite Link Power Via Nonlinear Markov Filtering Theory Robert M. ...
IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 2014
ABSTRACT Differential phase data has been collected using a site test interferometer (STI) at K-b... more ABSTRACT Differential phase data has been collected using a site test interferometer (STI) at K-band for several years at various NASA ground station sites, including the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) in Goldstone, CA, and the NASA Space Network (SN) sites in White Sands, NM, and Guam. An objective of this work is to characterize the site-dependent atmospheric phase stability to determine the viability of that site for arraying applications. A useful figure of merit to quantify this effect is the determination of the microwave refractive index structure constant, C-n(2), which is highly dependent on variations in the water vapor concentration of the troposphere. In this paper, a method is proposed to derive C-n(2) from a two-element site test interferometer utilizing temporal phase structure function information. In this way, a path-averaged C-n(2) at each ground station site is determined which can be used in the design and expected system performance of future Ka-band communication systems in an arrayed architecture. Statistical characterization of microwave C-n(2) indicates that a mean value of 2.04 x 10(-14), 2.08 x 10(-14) and 9.8 x 10(-13) is expected for Goldstone, CA, White Sands, NM, and Guam, respectively.
Rain attenuation propagation data for 68 cities within the coverage area of the multiple beam and... more Rain attenuation propagation data for 68 cities within the coverage area of the multiple beam and steerable antennas of the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) are presented. These data provide the necessary data base for purposes of communication link power budgeting and rain attenuation mitigation controller design. These propagation parameters are derived by applying the ACTS Rain Attenuation Prediction Model to these 68 locations. The propagation parameters enumerated in tabular form for each location are as follows: (1) physical description of the link and location (e.g., latitude, longitude, antenna elevation angle, etc.), link availability versus attenuation margin (also in graphical form), fading time across fade depths of 3, 5, 8, and 15 dB versus fade duration, and required fade control response time for controller availabilities of 99.999, 99.99, 99.9, and 99 percent versus sub-threshold attenuation levels. The data for these specific locations can be take...
Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per res... more Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to
The systems engineering description of a wideband communications channel is provided which is bas... more The systems engineering description of a wideband communications channel is provided which is based upon the fundamental propagation aspects of the problem. In particular, the well known time variant description of a channel is formulated from the basic multiple scattering processes that occur in a random propagation medium. Such a connection is required if optimal processing methods are to be applied to mitigate the deleterious random fading and multipathing of the channel. An example is given which demonstrates how the effective bandwidth of the channel is diminished due to atmospheric propagation impairments.
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Papers by Robert Manning