NASA's alphasat propagation terminals: Milan, Italy, and Edinburgh, Scotland

Funding information N/A SinceMay of 2014, NASA’s Glenn Research Center has operatedmeasurement campaigns for theAlphasatAldoParaboni Propagation Experiment alongside the European community of propagation experimenters. Presently, three NASA stations have been deployed to distinct climatological regions across Europe. NASA’s participation in the campaign began in 2014 through a collaborative effort with the Politecnico diMilano (POLIMI) to jointly operate a 20/40 GHz ground terminal at the POLIMI campus inMilan, Italy. Subsequently, a single-channel 40 GHz terminal was deployed to Edinburgh, Scotland in March 2016 in collaboration with Heriot-Watt University (HWU). A third terminal was deployed toNASA’sMadridDeep SpaceCommunicationsComplex (MDSCC) inMarch 2017 with NASA’S Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), also observing the 40GHz beacon. In addition, a fourth station is planned for deployment to Andøya, Norway by early 2019 in collaboration with the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI). This paper will detail the design and results of the twomost established terminals, Milan and Edinburgh, which together comprise 11 station years of propagationmeasurements.

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