The frequency shifts and Q changes of a resonant microwave cavity were utilized as a basis for determining microwave properties of solids and liquids. The method employed consisted of varying the depth of penetration of a cylindrical sample of the material into a cavity operating in the TM0 1 0 Mode. The liquid samples were contained in a thin-walled quartz tube. The perturbation of the cavity was achieved by advancing the sample into the cavity along the symmetry axis by employing a micrometer drive appropriately calibrated for depth of penetration of the sample. A differentiation method was used to obtain the half-power points of the cavity resonance profile at each depth of penetration. The perturbation techniques for resonant cavities were used to reduce the experimental data obtained to physical parameters for the samples. The probing frequency employed was near 9 gHz.

Thesis. 1976. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Engineering. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references. / Ph.D.

Abstract not available

The seasonal cycle of snow and sea ice is a fundamental feature of the Arctic climate system. In the Northern Hemisphere, about 55 million km2 of sea ice and snow undergo complete melt and freeze processes every year. Because snow and sea ice are much brighter (higher albedo) than the underlying surface, their presence reduces absorption of incoming solar energy at high latitudes. Therefore, changes of the sea-ice and snow cover have a large impact on the Arctic climate and possibly at lower latitudes. One of the most important determining factors of the seasonal snow and sea-ice cover is the timing of the seasonal melt-freeze transitions. Hence, in order to better understand Arctic climate variability, it is key to continuously monitor these transitions. This thesis presents an algorithm for obtaining melt-freeze transitions using scatterometers over both the land and sea-ice domains. These satellite-borne instruments emit radiation at microwave wavelengths and measure the returned signal. Several scatterometers are employed: QuikSCAT (1999–2009), ASCAT (2009–present), and OSCAT (2009–present). QuikSCAT and OSCAT operate at Ku-band (λ=2.2 cm) and ASCAT at C-band (λ=5.7 cm), resulting in slightly different surface interactions. This thesis discusses these dissimilarities over the Arctic sea-ice domain, and juxtaposes the time series of seasonal melt-freeze transitions from the three scatterometers and compares them with other, independent datasets. The interactions of snow and sea ice with other components of the Arctic climate system are complex. Models are commonly employed to disentangle these interactions. But this hinges upon robust and well-formulated models, reached by perpetual testing against observations. This thesis also presents an evaluation of how well eleven state-of-the-art global climate models reproduce the Arctic sea-ice cover and the summer length—given by the melt-freeze transitions—using surface observations of air temperature. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: In press. Paper 4: Submitted.</p>

No description available.

This study investigates the manifestation of geometric features of turbine blades in signatures of non-optical time of arrival (ToA) probes. The approach enables an evaluation of the various signal characteristics used for defining ToA for a range of airfoil geometries and provides knowledge about additional waveform characteristics. The objective of this research is to increase the accuracy of microwave ToA probes by gaining a better understanding of the microwave signals in five steps. Firstly, ToA definitions used in the past are compared. Considering accuracy, computational effort, and versatility, the constant fraction crossing definition is found to be the most accurate. Secondly, an experimental apparatus capable of measuring airfoil ToA with microwave probes and optical probes as a reference is designed and built. As a third step, a catalog of 16 turbine blade geometries is developed. Fourthly, the signatures of these turbine blades are acquired using both the optical and the microwave probes. Finally, the impact of the geometric effects on the signatures is evaluated. The quality of the microwave results is found to be highly dependent on the polarization of the microwaves. Analysis of the time domain signal shows that decreasing the blade width, increasing the chord angle, or incorporating a blade tip pocket or a varying cross-section leads to a decrease in the amplitude of the peak caused by the blade. Increasing the blade width and incorporating a chord angle leads to an increase in peak width. A frequency domain analysis is conducted on the microwave signals and verified using a synthetic signal. This analysis confirms the findings from the time domain analysis. The time domain analysis of the laser measurements shows that the spatial resolution of the laser is much higher than that of the microwave sensor. Consequently, the signal acquired with the optical setup provides a good means of defining the blade ToA. The knowledge gained in this study about the sensor and its interaction with passing blade tips of varying geometry can be used to enhance the understanding of microwave ToA measurements. This knowledge provides further insight into airfoil and engine health.

Electron densities and collision frequencies were obtained on a number of gases in a dc discharge at low pressures (0.70-2mm of Hg). These measurements were performed by microwave probing of a filament of the dc discharge placed coaxially in a resonant cavity operating in a TM₀₁₀ mode. The equipment and techniques for making the microwave measurements employing the resonant cavity are described. One of the main features of this investigation is the technique of differentiating the resonance signal of the loaded cavity in order to make accurate measurements of the resonant frequency and half-power point frequencies.

A microwave measurement system for obtaining continuous burning-rate information from a solid propellant slab-burning rocket motor is described. A previous derivative-based method for reducing the microwave data is reviewed and an improved data reduction technique is introduced. The improved microwave modeling technique is analyzed using simulated data to determine the accuracy of the burning-rate calculations and the sensitivity of the burning-rate calculations to errors in the model parameters. The microwave model is then used to calculate the burning rate of the propellant for a selected firing of the slab motor. / Master of Science

Most electromagnetic interference standards specify that measurements of radiated emissions must be performed in the far field (FF), e.g. at an open-area test site or in a semi-anechoic chamber. Since near field (NF) measurements are cheaper, quicker and more flexible compared to FF tests, establishing a correlation between NF and FF data is of great research interest. One strategy to achieve this goal is to find a set of basic radiators comprising electric and magnetic dipoles that generate the same NF as the original source at selected observation points. This set of dipoles, based on the uniqueness theorem, can then be used to predict the FF radiation patterns. The uniqueness theorem requires that electric or magnetic fields are matched on a closed surface with respect to the magnitude and phase. The focus of this thesis is the investigation of FF prediction based on NF magnitude-only data. In this thesis, a robust NF-FF conversion model based on Genetic Algorithms (GAs) is built up to predict the radiation of printed circuit boards (PCBs). This is done by introducing a dipole moment magnitude range pre-selection before the initialisation step of GAs, customising the processes of selection, crossover and mutation for anti-sticking and checking the correlation between NF and FF fitness values. Since the performance of GAs is tightly related to the number of dipoles in the GA model, FF characteristics of generic radiation sources (such as a long wire and a large loop) are analysed using both analytical calculation and source modelling by GAs. For structures with simple FF patterns, if more dipoles than necessary are used, the computational cost of GAs is unnecessarily high. On the other side, for structures with complicated FF patterns, the GA modelling may not be able to well approximate the FF radiation, due to the limitation for GAs to tackle too many unknowns. Therefore the scope of the model applicability is discussed, and a dipole number N, depending on the electrical size of the source, is recommended for GA modelling. By applying GAs to get the equivalent dipole set of a radiating PCB from the magnetic NF magnitudes, NF sampling approaches are investigated in detail, including where to locate NF sampling planes, what plane coverage angle to choose, how many points to observe, what type of data to collect, what dynamic range to allow for the data, and how many planes to choose. Two case studies are presented for predicting the FF radiation of PCBs from magnetic NF magnitude-only observations, and validate the NF sampling approaches in this thesis.

This work focuses on fixing measurement inaccuracies to which models and figures of merit are susceptible in two wireless communication environments: power amplifier and multipath. To emulate or rate the performance of these environments, models and figures of merit, respectively, are often used. The usefulness of a model depends on how accurately and efficiently it emulates its real-world counterpart. The usefulness of a figure of merit depends on how accurately it represents system behavior. Most discussions on the challenges and trade-offs faced in modeling nearly always focus on the complexity of the device or channel of interest and the resultant difficulty in describing it. Similarly, figures of merit are meant only to summarize the performance of the device or channel. At some point, either in generation or verification of a model or figure of merit, there is a dependence on measured data. Though the complexity and performance of the device or channel are challenges by themselves, there are other significant sources of distortion that must be minimized to avoid errors in the measured data. For this work, the unique distortion of power amplifier and multipath environments is considered, and then errors in measurement which would obscure these distortions are eliminated. Specifically, three measurement issues are addressed: 1) identifying measurement setup artifacts, 2) achieving consistent measurement results and 3) reducing variations in the environment. This work contributes to increasing the accuracy of microwave measurements used in the modeling of nonlinear high-power amplifiers and used in figures of merit for power amplifiers and multipath channels.