Session
Technical Session X: Instruments and Sensors
Abstract
The primary mission of the FORTE satellite experiment is to detect and record RF transients in the VHF radio band. This effort is difficult due to the presence of background noise signals which vary widely in power when observed at satellite altitudes. In order to optimize the detectability of signals of interest in this varying background, the FORTE RF system was designed to accommodate a multitude of possible configurations. The FORTE RF system consists of a number of elements including: four antennas, three tunable VHF receivers, two sub-band trigger systems, and Adaptive Pre-Whitener (APW), a Data Acquisition System (DAS) and an Event Classifier (EC). The use and configuration of each of these separate elements will depend on the characteristics of both the signal and the noise background. This paper will discuss the functionality and measured performance of the FORTE RF system. In addition, test tools developed for managing configurations and for making predictions of on-orbit performance will be discussed. This work supported by U.S. Department of Energy.
The Functionality and Performance of the Forte RF System
The primary mission of the FORTE satellite experiment is to detect and record RF transients in the VHF radio band. This effort is difficult due to the presence of background noise signals which vary widely in power when observed at satellite altitudes. In order to optimize the detectability of signals of interest in this varying background, the FORTE RF system was designed to accommodate a multitude of possible configurations. The FORTE RF system consists of a number of elements including: four antennas, three tunable VHF receivers, two sub-band trigger systems, and Adaptive Pre-Whitener (APW), a Data Acquisition System (DAS) and an Event Classifier (EC). The use and configuration of each of these separate elements will depend on the characteristics of both the signal and the noise background. This paper will discuss the functionality and measured performance of the FORTE RF system. In addition, test tools developed for managing configurations and for making predictions of on-orbit performance will be discussed. This work supported by U.S. Department of Energy.
