GRC RF Propagation Studies

GRC RF Propagation Studies

Glenn Research Center

ESA Information Exchange

PI: James Nessel

October 1, 2013

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Outline

• HistoricalPerspective:ACTS

• KabandSiteCharacterizationofNASANetworks

– KabandPropagationStudiesfortheDeepSpaceNetwork:

Goldstone

– KabandPropagationStudiesfortheSpaceNetwork:WhiteSands

– KabandPropagationStudiesintheTropics:Guam

– KabandPropagationStudiesatthePole:Svalbard

• BeyondKaband:MillimeterWavePropagationStudies

• InternationalCollaborativeEfforts:Alphasat AldoPayload

Experiment

• NASAOnlinePropagationDatabase

• ITUModelingEfforts

2

ProgramHistory– ACTS

NASAhelpedopenuptheKabandspectrumthroughpropagationcharacterizationinthe1990’s

throughtheAdvanced CommunicationsTechnologySatellite(ACTS)program.

20.2/27.5 GHz (K/Ka) Gaseous Absorption Scintillation Rain Fade 20.2/27.5 GHz (K/Ka) Gaseous Absorption Scintillation Rain Fade 20.2/27.5 GHz (K/Ka) Rain Fade Snow Fade Depolarization ~ 20.2/27.5 GHz (K/Ka) ,> . . I

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Scintillation C t. . I Rain Fade 20.2/27.5 GHz (K/Ka) Gaseous Absorption Scintillation Rain Fade 20.2/27.5 GHz (K/Ka) Depolarization Scintillation Rain Fade 20.2/27.5 GHz (K/Ka) Site Diversity Rain Fade (Subtropical Zone) 20.7 GHz (K) Rain Fade (Tropical Zone)

ACTSImpact

ACTSpropagationmeasurementshavelaidthefoundationfor thedevelopmentofglobalattenuationpredictionmodelsused bysystemdesignerstoproperlyaccountforpropagationlosses incommunicationssystemlinkbudgets. ACTSPropagationmeasurementsidentifiedandcharacterized manyofthelossmechanismsassociatedwithKabandsystems including: • RainAttenuation • AttenuationduetoGaseousAbsorption • Snow/IceDepolarization • Scintillation • WidebandDispersion • SiteDiversity • AntennaWetting

"Perhaps the crown jewel of the ACTS program is the exceptional body of knowledge developing from the measurements. The data in the handbook, the engineering guide, the guidelines, will be a significant enabler for all satellite communications  government, military, civil, commercial  for years to come, perhaps for decades. We should also understand that this is yet another excellent example of NASA leading the way by providing technical advantages that enhance the state of the art and the nation's leadership. This exceptional work and the commitment behind it is deserving of the highest praise. It gives me great pleasure on behalf of our industry to salute you and say, ‘Well done ACTS, and many, many thanks.’“

Dr.TomBrackey

KABANDSITECHARACTERIZATIONOF

NASA NETWORKS

CurrentNASANetworkCharacterizationSites

Goldstone,CA • GaseousAbsorption • RainFade • Phase WhiteSands,NM • GaseousAbsorption • RainFade • Phase Guam • GaseousAbsorption • RainFade • Phase • SiteDiversity Svalbard • GaseousAbsorption • BrightnessTemperature GRCTestbed Cleveland,OH Madrid,Spain • Phase Canberra,Australia • Phase InthepostACTSera,NASApropagationactivitieshaveprimarilyfocusedon sitecharacterizationofNASAoperationalnetworksthroughouttheworld. 6

GRCPropagationTerminalDevelopment

Throughoutpropagationcampaigns,groundstationhardwarehasundergone

evolutionaryimprovementsinperformanceandautonomousoperationprocedures.

ACTSPropagationTerminal

OperationalFrequency:20.7/27.5GHz DynamicRange:20dB SamplingRate:1Hz/10Hz Resolution:<0.3dBrms accuracy HardwarebasedFFTReceiver

GoldstoneInterferometer

OperationalFrequency:20.2GHz DynamicRange:50dB SamplingRate:1Hz Resolution:<0.1dBrms accuracy SoftwarebasedFFTReceiver

WhiteSands/GuamTerminal

OperationalFrequency:20.2GHz DynamicRange:60dB SamplingRate:1Hz/10Hz Resolution:<0.1dBrms accuracy SoftwarebasedFFTReceiver

CurrentGRCPropagationCampaigns

Overview

WhiteSands,NM

¾InterferometerDataCollected(asofSep.2013):

4YRS8MO

¾MicrowaveProfilerDataCollected(asofSep.2013):

1YR

¾AFRLV/WRadiometerDataCollected(asofSep.2013):

10MO

Objective:ToprovidesecondarysitemeasurementstoreferenceGoldstoneDSN

siteperformance.Tocharacterizeatmosphericeffectsinthemillimeterwave.

Guam

¾InterferometerDataCollected(asofSep.2013):

3YRS4MO

Objective:ToaddtropicalrainzonecharacterizationofKabandfor

insertiontotheITUdatabase.Todeterminepotentialforshortbaselinesite

diversityinthetropics.

Svalbard

¾RadiometerDataCollected(asofSep.2013):

2YRS4MO

Objective:TostatisticallycharacterizetheSvalbardNENsitetodetermine

systemimpactofpolaratmosphereforexpectedKabandsystemupgrades.

Goldstone,CA

¾InterferometerDataCollected(asofSep.2013):

5YRS11MO

Objective:TostatisticallycharacterizetheGoldstoneDSNsitetodetermine

systemimpactofatmosphericturbulenceonthearrayingofwidelydistributed

groundbasedsystemsforuplinkarraysoperatingatKaband

8

SiteCharacterization:AtmosphericPhaseDistortion

UplinkArrayingApplications

ProposedUplinkArrayArchitecture forDeepSpace Network

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SiteCharacterization:AtmosphericPhaseDistortion

Goldstone,CA(DeepSpaceNetwork)

Goldstone,CA:CurrentDeepSpaceNetworkSite Propagationprograminitiatedin2007 I

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SiteCharacterization:AtmosphericPhaseDistortion

WhiteSands,NM(SpaceNetwork)

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SiteCharacterization:KabandintheTropics

Guam(SpaceNetwork)

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Guam:NASASpaceNetworkgroundsite Propagationprograminitiatedin2010

600m

SiteCharacterization:KabandintheTropics

SiteDiversityAnalysis

•

Compact,highlyconvectiverainfallinGuamhasshownevidenceofraindiversityover

short(600m)antennaseparationdistances.

•

Guamsitediversitystudyindicatesthatmeaningfuldiversitygainispossiblewithinshort

baselineseparationdistances(<20km)andissufficienttoovercomerainattenuation

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Analysisresultslaysfoundationformodelingofshortbaselinesitediversity,whichhis

currentlylacking

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IMPACT:ConcludethathighavailabilityKabandoperationsinatropicalenvironment

ispossibleutilizingshortbaselinesitediversity

13 [4] R.Acosta,J.Morse,M.Zemba,J.Nessel,“TwoYearsofSiteDiversityMeasurementsinGuam,”18th_{Ka andBroadbandCommunicationsConference,} Ottawa,Canada,Sep.2427,2012

KabandPerformanceSiteComparisons

14 Time (Hours, GMT) Da te Goldstone RMS Phase (2011) T s = 600 sec 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 01-01 01-13 01-25 02-06 02-18 03-02 03-14 03-26 04-07 04-19 05-01 05-13 05-25 06-06 06-18 06-30 07-12 07-24 08-05 08-17 08-29 09-10 09-22 10-04 10-16 10-28 11-09 11-21 12-03 12-15 12-27 _{0 °} 12.5 ° 25 ° 37.5 ° 50 ° 62.5 ° 75 ° 87.5 ° 100 ° Time (Hours, GMT) Da te

White S ands RMS Phase (2011)

T s = 600 sec 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 01-01 01-13 01-25 02-06 02-18 03-02 03-14 03-26 04-07 04-19 05-01 05-13 05-25 06-06 06-18 06-30 07-12 07-24 08-05 08-17 08-29 09-10 09-22 10-04 10-16 10-28 11-09 11-21 12-03 12-15 12-27 _{0 °} 12.5 ° 25 ° 37.5 ° 50 ° 62.5 ° 75 ° 87.5 ° 100 ° Time (Hours, GMT) Da te Guam RMS Phase (2011) T s = 600 sec 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 01-01 01-13 01-25 02-06 02-18 03-02 03-14 03-26 04-07 04-19 05-01 05-13 05-25 06-06 06-18 06-30 07-12 07-24 08-05 08-17 08-29 09-10 09-22 10-04 10-16 10-28 11-09 11-21 12-03 12-15 12-27 _{0 °} 12.5 ° 25 ° 37.5 ° 50 ° 62.5 ° 75 ° 87.5 ° 100 ° [3] R.Acosta,J.Nessel,M.Zemba,J.Morse,“TwoYearsofSimultaneousKaBandPathLengthFluctuationsMeasurements:Goldstone,CA;White Sands,NM;Guam,”18th_{Ka andBroadbandCommunicationsConference,Ottawa,Canada,Sep.2427,2012}

KabandPerformanceSiteComparisons

15 90th_Percentile 99th_Percentile 90th_Percentile 99th_Percentile Site 2ElementArrayLoss 90th_{Percentile 99}th_Percentile Goldstone 0.17dB 0.94dB WhiteSands 0.23dB 0.89dB Guam 0.62dB 1.62dB

Site TotalPath Attenuation

90th_{Percentile 99}th_Percentile Goldstone 1.4dB 3.2dB WhiteSands 1.6dB 3.9dB Guam 3.9dB 7.8dB [3] R.Acosta,J.Nessel,M.Zemba,J.Morse,“TwoYearsofSimultaneousKaBandPathLengthFluctuationsMeasurements:Goldstone,CA;White Sands,NM;Guam,”18th_{Ka andBroadbandCommunicationsConference,Ottawa,Canada,Sep.2427,2012} Factor of2.5 Factor of1.2

SiteCharacterization:KabandinPolarAtmosphere

Svalbard(NearEarthNetwork)

SvalbardStationPolarNetwork Approach AsthefirstNearEarthNetwork(NEN)sitetobe upgradedtooperationalKaband,NASAGRCwastasked withcharacterizingthepropagationeffectsofKaband inanorthernlatitudesenvironment. Measurementsinitiatedin2011tomeasurepassive radiometricattenuationinpolaratmosphereto determinesystemplanningrequirementsforKaband upgrades 16 Indicatescloud cover~70%of thetime

SiteCharacterization:KabandinPolarAtmosphere

Svalbard(NearEarthNetwork)

•

TwoyearattenuationobservationsatSvalbardshowgoodagreementwith

attenuationstatisticsatAlaska

•

Svalbarddatacollectionindicatessignificantcloudattenuationpresentforhigh

percentageoftimenotaccountedforinmodelpredictions(resultingin

discrepancyof~2dB)

•

IMPACT:KabandpropagationdataresultsfromSvalbardrequiresreevaluation

ofKabandsystemoperations(reducedavailabilityfrom99%to97%)byNEN

planningteamatGSFC.

17 Modelvs. Measurement 95% Availability Attenuation 97% Availability Attenuation 99% Availability Attenuation Fairbanks, Alaska Model (Expected) 1.72 dB @ 10° elevation 2.09 dB @ 10° elevation 3.39 dB @ 10° elevation Measured (Actual) 2.8 dB @ 10° elevation 3.2 dB @ 10° elevation 4.8 dB @ 10° elevation Svalbard, Norway Model (Expected) 1.37 dB @ 10° elevation 1.56 dB @ 10° elevation 2.28 dB @ 10° elevation Measured (Actual) 2.5 dB @ 10° elevation 2.9 dB @ 10° elevation 4.1 dB @ 10° elevation K.McCarthy,F.Stocklin,B.Geldzahler,D.Friedman,P.Celeste,“NASA’sEvolutionto KabandSpaceCommunicationsforNearEarthSpacecraft,”AIAASpaceOps 2010, Apr.2530,2010,Huntsville,AL

BEYONDKABAND:

MillimeterWavePropagationStudies

CharacterizationofQ/V/Wband

19

Instruments: ProfilingRadiometer

W/VbandRadiometer

DataCollectionStarted:

December2012

TotalNumberofMonths:9

• GRCModel/Softwaredevelopedtoutilizeoutputs

ofmicrowaveradiometerandprofilertodevelop

predictionsforpropagationimpairmentsatV/W

bandupto~98%availability(cannotdetermine

rainattenuationeffects)

CollaborationwithAFRLandUniversityofNewMexico(UNM)providescosteffective

opportunitytoconductimmediateneartermrainfadeanddepolarizationmeasurements

priortohavinganactiveW/Vbandbeaconformodelvalidationandrainfademitigation.

NASAtoprovideV/Wbandbeacon receiver andweathersensors UNMtoprovidegraduatestudent operations/datacollectionsupport AFRLtoprovideV/Wband transmitterandoperationsfunding IMPACT: • TerrestrialLineofSightExperimentinW/V bandwillprovideimmediatepreliminary validation/predictionofmmwaverain attenuationanddepolarizationmodelspriorto theexpectedW/Vbandbeaconpayloadlaunch in2017timeframe.

V/WbandTerrestrialLinkExperiment

20 4q elevation angle WeatherStation Sites

INTERNATIONALCOLLABORATIONS

Alphasat AldoPayloadExperiment

Alphasat BeaconExperiment

22

CollaborationwithAFRLandPolitecnico diMilano(POLIMI)providesuniqueopportunityusing

theAlphasat beacontofurtherimprovemodelstopredictrainattenuationeffectsonQ/V/W

bandsignals(characterizationupto99.9%availability)

QbandBeaconCoverage Milanground station NASAtoprovideKa/Qbandbeacon receiver andweathersensors POLIMItoprovideoperations/data collectionsupportandaccesstoASI propagationdatabase AFRLtoprovideoperationsfunding andV/Wbandradiometer Functionsofdropsize distribution

IMPACT:Throughtheconcomitantcharacterizationofpassive

W/Vbandgaseousabsorption,multiplecoherentbeacon

frequencies(20/40GHz),andraindropsizedistributions,

improvedattenuationmodelsatW/Vbandfrequenciescanbe

developedtoestimatesystemavailabilityduetotheatmosphere.

Alphasat BeaconExperiment

Status:

•

AFRLestablishedEOARDgrantwithuniversityfor

modeldevelopmentandoperationsof

propagationterminal

•

Ka/Qbandterminalfabricationcompletedand

undergoinglaboratorytesting

•

Relevantenvironment(rooftop)testingto

commencedAugust19,2013

•

SitesurveyplannedduringKabandconferencein

October2013

•

InstallationofterminalplannedforDecember

2013

20GHz Receiver 40GHz Receiver IFBox 20GHz Receiver 40GHz Receiver 23

NASA ONLINEPROPAGATIONDATABASE

Overview

• Forthepast20years,NASAGlennResearchCenter(incollaboration

withGSFCandJPL)hascollectedover100stationyearsofdata

characterizingatmosphericpropagationeffectsatK/Kaband

frequencies.

• TheRFPropagationDatabaseisthemeansinwhichthisdatais

disseminatedtotheusercommunitytomaintainpublicawarenessof

previous/currentNASAeffortsinthisareaofatmosphericpropagation

andtoenhancethescientificreturnofacquireddata.

25

PublicSite:

http://propagation.grc.nasa.gov

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CURRENT CAMPAIGNS PAST CAMPAIGNS (COMPLETED)

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ITUMODELINGEFFORTS

ITUModelingEfforts

InProgress…

• ValidationofITURmodelwithpropagationdata

collectedinwiderangeofclimates(dessert,tropics,

arctic)

• Presentlyworkingtoformatcollectedpropagationdata

toITUstandardstoincludeininternationalpropagation

database

• Multiplemodeldevelopmentactivitiesinprogress

– Shortbaselinesitediversitymodeling

– CloudattenuationmodelsforV/Wband

– RainattenuationmodelsforV/Wband

– Useofradiometricprofilerdatainpredictingopticalpath

scintillation

30

RecentPublications

31 JournalPublications • J.Nessel,R.Acosta,“PredictingSparseArrayPerformanceFromTwoElementInterferometerData,”IEEE TransactionsonAntennasandPropagation,Vol.60,No.2,pg.886894,Feb.2012 InternationalConferencePublications • J.Rosello,A.Martellucci,R.Acosta,J.Nessel,L.E.Braten,C.Riva,“26GHzdatadownlinkforLEOsatellites,”6th EuropeanConferenceonAntennasandPropagation,Prague,CzechRepublic,March2012. • R.Acosta,R.Simons,J.Morse,J.Budinger,J.Nessel,M.Zemba,“Q/V/WBandRFPropagationExperimentDesign,” 18th_{Ka andBroadbandCommunicationsConference,Ottawa,Canada,Sep.2427,2012} • R.Acosta,J.Nessel,M.Zemba,J.Morse,“TwoYearsofSimultaneousKaBandPathLengthFluctuations Measurements:Goldstone,CA;WhiteSands,NM;Guam,”18th_{Ka andBroadbandCommunicationsConference,} Ottawa,Canada,Sep.2427,2012 • R.Acosta,J.Morse,M.Zemba,J.Nessel,“TwoYearsofSiteDiversityMeasurementsinGuam,”18th_{Ka and} BroadbandCommunicationsConference,Ottawa,Canada,Sep.2427,2012 • J.Nessel,R.Acosta,“DevelopmentofaQbandPropagationCampaignintheUnitedStates,”18th_{Ka and} BroadbandCommunicationsConference,Ottawa,Canada,Sep.2427,2012 • D.Morabito,L.D’Addario,R.Acosta,J.Nessel,“AnInterComparisonofTwoIndependentSiteTestInterferometer LocatedinGoldstone,CA:InitialStudyResults,”18th_{Ka andBroadbandCommunicationsConference,Ottawa,} Canada,Sep.2427,2012 • J.Nessel,J.Morse,M.Zemba,“ResultsfromTwoYearsofKabandSiteCharacterizationatSvalbard,Norway,”19th Ka andBroadbandCommunicationsConference,Florence,Italy,Oct.1417,2013 InternationalPresentations[InvitedTalks] • R.Acosta,“NASAKaBandRFPropagationStudies,”EuropeanCooperationintheFieldofScientificandTechnical Research(COSTActionICO802)ManagementCommitteeMeeting(MCM7),Portsmouth,London,April16,2012