Computer assisted diagnostics on a High-Power Microwave system

The use of computer algorithms to improve the quality or amount of information available from system diagnostics is not new. Many people use computers to "massage" their data into a more legible or usable format. At the Texas Tech University High-Power Microwave Facility computers are used to compensate for the inherent limits of a probe and produce data which cannot be acquired by normal diagnostic methods. The diode voltage probe is compensated by using a computer-based fast Fourier transform program. Quantities of the microwave propagation are measured using a particle-in-cell simulation code.