A millimeter wave radio frequency system for atmospheric turbulence measurements

Abstract

This paper describes a millimeter wave atmospheric transmission link operating at 116, 140 and 173 GHz designed to measure the mutual coherence function (MCF) for transmission through atmospheric turbulence. The transmitter and receiver local oscillator are phase-locked, and the receiver mixers are second harmonic types in the cross-guide configuration. The receiver uses double conversion, with intermediate frequencies of 930 and 30 MHz. A 30 MHz signal combining network uses phase shifters and video detectors to determine voltages proportional to the parameters required for determination of the MCF.