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50 Years of Arecibo Lunar Radar Mapping

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50 Years of Arecibo Lunar Radar Mapping INTERNATIONAL UNION UNION OF RADIO-SCIENTIFIQUE RADIO SCIENCE INTERNATIONALE ISSN 1024-4530 Bulletin No 357 June 2016 Radio Science URSI, c/o Ghent University (INTEC) St.-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Gent (Belgium) Contents Radio Science Bulletin Staff ....................................................................................... 3 URSI Offi cers and Secretariat.................................................................................... 6 Editor’s Comments ..................................................................................................... 8 URSI 2017 GASS....................................................................................................... 10 Awards for Young Scientists - Conditions ............................................................... 11 Modifi cation of the Ionosphere by Precursors of Strong Earthquakes ............... 12 50 Years of Arecibo Lunar Radar Mapping ........................................................... 23 Special Section: Joint URSI BeNeLux - IEEE AP-S -NARF Symposium ........... 36 Implementation of Diff erent RF-Chains to Drive Acousto-Optical Tunable Filters in the Framework of an ESA Space Mission .......................................... 37 JS’17 ........................................................................................................................... 44 In Memoriam: Per-Simon Kildal ............................................................................. 45 In Memoriam: Richard Davis .................................................................................. 47 3rd URSI-RCRS ........................................................................................................ 48 Et Cetera .................................................................................................................... 49 EUCAP 2017 .............................................................................................................. 50 Solution Box ............................................................................................................... 51 DIPED 2016 ............................................................................................................... 54 Ethically Speaking .................................................................................................... 55 RFI 2016 ..................................................................................................................... 56 Telecommunications Health and Safety .................................................................. 57 Early Career Representative Column ..................................................................... 60 National Radio Science Meeting USNC/URSI ....................................................... 69 Women in Radio Science .......................................................................................... 71 Report on Frequencies and Radioscience 2016 Workshop ................................... 74 URSI Conference Calendar ...................................................................................... 76 Information for Authors ........................................................................................... 78 Front cover: A schematic overview of S-band (13 cm wavelength) Arecibo-Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mapping of the moon. See the paper by Thomas W. Thompson, Bruce A. Campbell, and D. Benjamin J. Bussey, pp. 23-35. The International Union of Radio Science (URSI) is a foundation Union (1919) of the International Council of Scientifi c Unions as direct and immediate successor of the Commission Internationale de Télégraphie Sans Fil which dates from 1914. Unless marked otherwise, all material in this issue is under copyright © 2016 by Radio Science Press, Belgium, acting as agent and trustee for the International Union of Radio Science (URSI). All rights reserved. Radio science researchers and instructors are permitted to copy, for non-commercial use without fee and with credit to the source, material covered by such (URSI) copyright. Permission to use author-copyrighted material must be obtained from the authors concerned. The articles published in the Radio Science Bulletin refl ect the authors’ opinions and are published as presented. Their inclusion in this publication does not necessarily constitute endorsement by the publisher. Neither URSI, nor Radio Science Press, nor its contributors accept liability for errors or consequential damages. 2 The Radio Science Bulletin No 357 (June 2016) Editor’s Comments Ross Stone Stoneware Limited 840 Armada Terrace San Diego, CA 92106, USA Tel: +1-619 222 1915, Fax: +1-619 222 1606 E-mail: [email protected] Our Papers recounts the fi rst lunar radar observations done as part of Arecibo’s commissioning in 1964, and traces the various lunar-mapping programs done using the delay-Doppler e have three papers in this issue. They span a wide technique from the 1960s through the 1980s. The use of Wrange of radio-science topics, cover more than 50 synthetic-aperture-radar techniques combined with bistatic years of history, and the authors cover the spectrum from measurements that begin in the 1990s is then described. students to senior researchers. These techniques resulted in a signifi cant improvement in resolution, and in the information that could be obtained Our first paper, by G. Ya. Khachikyan, B. T. using the polarization of the signals. The more-recent use of Zhumabayev, and A. V. Streltsov, is an invited contribution satellite-based radar combined with the Arecibo Observatory that resulted from a very interesting presentation I heard at is explained. The features that can be determined from the USNC-URSI National Radio Science Meeting in January lunar radar scattering, and how they are derived, are then of this year. The paper reviews results from numerical considered. This is followed by an annotated bibliography simulations and experiments showing that the precursors to tracing Arecibo lunar radar measurements. This paper is earthquakes with a magnitude greater than seven can produce both a signifi cant contribution to the record of the history measurable modifi cations to ionospheric parameters over of radio science, and a most interesting look at one way the periods ranging from several hours to several days before world’s largest radio telescope has been used for 50 years. the start of the earthquake. The paper begins with a review of 50 years of reports of observations of such ionospheric modifi cations. A review of simulations of how ionospheric Special Section: parameters can be modifi ed by earthquakes is then presented. BeNeLux Student Paper Winner These models are based on the global electric circuit concept, which is explained. The use of the models to explain the Our third paper is one of the winners of the Student DEMETER satellite observations of the ionosphere above Paper Contest from a BeNeLux symposium held in strong earthquakes and their precursors is analyzed. One of December, 2015. The paper is by J. Vanhamel, with coauthors the results of this analysis is the conclusion that there is a S. Berkenbosch, E. Dekemper, D. Fussen, P. Leroux, E. relationship among where strong earthquakes occur, where Neefs, and E. Van Lil. The topic is the implementation of geomagnetic fi eld lines penetrate the Earth’s surface near the RF drivers for tunable acousto-optical fi lters for a space earthquake’s epicenter, and the occurrence of modifi cations mission. The challenges faced in the work reported were to the ionosphere as a precursor to the earthquake. This also to design RF chains to drive the fi lters in each of the three leads to some interesting conclusions regarding the likely operating-wavelength ranges – ultraviolet (UV), visible, ability to observe such relationships over the next few years. and near-infrared (NIR) – using space-qualifi ed parts. The I think you will fi nd this a fascinating paper. paper begins with a discussion of the requirements and the challenges. Possible RF-generator architectures are John Mathews has brought us an invited paper by examined, and the bases for focusing on the phased-locked- Thomas Thompson, Bruce Campbell, and Ben Bussey, loop and Hilbert transform architectures are explained. The tracing 50 years of radar mapping of the Earth’s moon designs for implementing these architectures are presented. using the Arecibo Observatory. The paper begins with the The results obtained from tests of the systems built for recognition before Arecibo was built by William Gordon each channel are analyzed. The paper concludes with a – who conceived Arecibo and made it a reality – that the discussion of planned future work. This paper provides facility could be used for radar studies of the moon. It 8 The Radio Science Bulletin No 357 (June 2016) an excellent introduction to the realities of designing and Asta Pellinen-Wannberg’s Women in Radio Science building circuits to meet the requirements of space fl ight. column has a contribution from Anthea Coster, who is Assistant Director for the Haystack Observatory. She describes her career path and how it was infl uenced over the Our Other Contributions years. She also off ers some suggestions for those trying to work out their own career paths, and for those who would Stefan Wijnholds has provided us with a tutorial on help them do so. academic publishing, authored by W. Ross Stone, Stefan Wijnholds, and Phil Wilkinson. Put simply, the Editor of the Radio Science Bulletin, the Chair of the URSI Early Important Dates Career Representatives,
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