Title :
MESSENGER solar scintillation measurements at superior solar conjunction
Author :
Mosavi, Nelofar ; Sequeira, H. Brian ; Copeland, David J. ; Sepan, David M. ; Menyuk, Curtis R.
Author_Institution :
Johns Hopkins Univ. Appl. Phys. Lab., Laurel, MD, USA
Abstract :
During the superior solar conjunction of spacecraft, the spacecraft have a very limited communication with the ground station due to the effects of the Sun on the RF signal transmission. Our analyses of data received during a recent solar conjunction of MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENivornment, GEochmeisty, and Ranging) shown that within the time during which a single frame is transmitted, the RF signal propagation is strongly dominated by amplitude scintillation. We observed frequency broadening in our data on a time scale that is on the order of hours. The scintillation index is also calculated. The X-band scintillation data follows a curve that is representative of Ka-band performance as predicted by a previous model.
Keywords :
Sun; radiowave propagation; signal processing; solar wind; space communication links; space vehicles; Ka-band performance; MESSENGER solar scintillation measurements; MErcury Surface Space ENivornment GEochmeisty and Ranging spacecraft; RF signal propagation; RF signal transmission; X-band scintillation data; amplitude scintillation; data analyses; frequency broadening; ground station; scintillation index; spacecraft; superior solar conjunction; time scale; Amplitude modulation; Frequency modulation; Indexes; Noise; Space vehicles; Time-frequency analysis; Universal Serial Bus;
Conference_Titel :
Aerospace Conference, 2015 IEEE
Conference_Location :
Big Sky, MT
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4799-5379-0
DOI :
10.1109/AERO.2015.7119068
