Near-Imaging Field Tower Implementation (NIFTI)

Abstract

The Naval Research Laboratory's Midway Research Center (MRC) located in Stafford, Virginia, has a mission to provide highly precise and repeatable signals for tailored, precision calibration and testing of national and tactical systems. Their numerous assets include three 60-ft diameter antennas, which are required to provide highly accurate RF signals. Because of their size and location, they are difficult to characterize through farfield measurements, which is as much as 25 miles away, nor is it possible through close-in nearfield measurements. A midrange calibration system has been designed and is being implemented that transforms these nearfield measurements into a farfield pattern. This provides corrected effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP), tilt angle, axial ratio, boresight, and gain, which can then be applied to the command and control system for the antennas. The Near Imaging Field Tower Implementation (NIFTI) system has proven itself during prototype tests to accurately derive farfield parameters from nearfield measurements.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2005
Accession Number
ADA523009

Entities

People

  • D. L. King

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Acoustic Absorption
  • Amplitude
  • Anechoic Chambers
  • Calibration
  • Circular Polarization
  • Command And Control
  • Command And Control Systems
  • Control Systems
  • Elevation
  • Errors
  • Frequency Converters
  • Information Operations
  • Measurement
  • Microwave Receivers
  • Military Research
  • Space Systems

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Electromagnetic Wave Scattering and Antenna Radiation Engineering
  • Fluid Dynamics.
  • Radar Systems Engineering.

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control