NORTHWEST RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: It is well known that satellite communications and radar signals propagating in the natura

Description

It is well known that satellite communications and radar signals propagating in the natural ionosphere can be disturbed. It has also been widely reported that the ionosphere is subject to even greater disturbances following nuclear detonations. Hence the design of robust satellite communications and radar systems must take into account the effects of ionospheric disturbances. Radar and communications systems can be tested either in software or hardware or a combination through the use of realizations of input signals that include the disturbances produced by the ionosphere. The goal of this work is to improve the fidelity of such testing through the use of a physics-based multiple phase screen (MPS) simulation that can generate temporally and spatially varying realizations of impulse response functions. The existing MPS simulation capability will be extended to accommodate motion of phase screens relative to one another and the temporal variation of ionospheric structure, as for example occurs with time after the burst or after initial bubble formation in the equatorial ionosphere.