Electromagnetic spectrum aerial surveying
AssigneeIcf International
InventorDonald M. Bishop
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is an aerial surveying system for collecting electromagnetic spectrum data. Spectrally tuned antennas are used on an airplane to prefilter the data in accordance with spectral frequency bands. The data is sequentially sampled using an antenna switching device, band pass filtered and downconverted to an intermediate frequency. High speed vector signal analyzers and digitizers create frequency spectral data and I and Q temporal data. The collected data is recorded and compressed using any desirable compression technique, including video compression. Data analyzers analyze the data and display the data on a GIS map.
Claims23
A method of aerial surveying of electromagnetic signals having a broad frequency spectrum over a large geographical area to reduce the effects of ground scatter interference and signal reflections comprising:
- flying an airplane over said large geographical area to detect said electromagnetic signals at specific locations traversed by said airplane in said large geographical area;
- detecting said electromagnetic signals by said airplane using a plurality of antennas that are tuned to a plurality of frequency bands to produce a plurality of frequency band antenna signals from said plurality of antennas;
- band pass filtering said frequency band antenna signals to produce a plurality of filtered frequency band signals that have different frequency spectra;
- generating geospatial data relating to said specific locations at which said frequency band antenna signals are detected by determining locations of said airplane when said frequency band antenna signals are detected;
- digitizing said plurality of filtered frequency band signals to produce digitized frequency band signals;
- tagging said digitized frequency band signals with said geospatial data;
- performing vector analysis using a vector signal analyzer on said digitized frequency band signals to provide vector analyzed data regarding said digitized frequency band signals that comprises digital in-phase and quadrature phase data;
- generating frequency domain data from said digitized frequency band signals;
- compressing said vector analyzed data and said frequency domain data using video data compression techniques to produce compressed digital band data;
- storing said compressed digital band data in a mass storage device;
- analyzing said compressed digital band data stored in said mass storage device to determine spectrum utilization.
A system for aerial surveying of a broad frequency spectrum of electromagnetic signals at specific locations over a large geographical area comprising:
- a plurality of antennas that are mounted on an airplane that flies over said large geographical area at altitudes that are sufficiently low to detect said electromagnetic signals, said antennas tuned to a plurality of frequency bands to produce a plurality of frequency band antenna signals from said plurality of antennas;
- band pass filters that filter said frequency band antenna signals to produce a plurality of filtered frequency band signals;
- analog to digital converters that digitize said filtered frequency band signals to produce digitized frequency band signals;
- a geospatial receiver that captures geospatial data relating to said specific locations at which said frequency band antenna signals are detected by said plurality of antennas by determining locations of said airplane when said frequency band antenna signals are detected;
- vector signal analyzers that receive said digitized frequency band signals and generate digital in-phase and quadrature phase data corresponding to said electromagnetic signals;
- frequency analyzers that receive said digitized frequency band signals and generate frequency domain data corresponding to said electromagnetic signals;
- high speed, multiple channel recorders that tag said digital in-phase and quadrature phase data with said geospatial data;
- a video data compressor that compresses said digital in-phase and quadrature phase data and said frequency domain data to produce compressed digital band data;
- a mass storage device that stores said compressed digital band data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.