Abstract: An Advanced Focal Plane Array (“AFPA”) for parabolic dish antennas that exploits spatial diversity to achieve better channel equalization performance in the presence of multipath (better than temporal equalization alone), and which is capable of receiving from two or more sources within a field-of-view in the presence of multipath. The AFPA uses a focal plane array of receiving elements plus a spatio-temporal filter that keeps information on the adaptive FIR filter weights, relative amplitudes and phases of the incoming signals, and which employs an Interference Cancelling Constant Modulus Algorithm (IC-CMA) that resolves multiple telemetry streams simultaneously from the respective aero-nautical platforms. This data is sent to an angle estimator to calculate the target's angular position, and then on to Kalman filters FOR smoothing and time series prediction. The resulting velocity and acceleration estimates from the time series data are sent to an antenna control unit (ACU) to be used for pointing control.

Abstract: An optical communications receiver comprising a wide-band optical detector array and a high-speed digital signal processor programmed to operate on the raw data from the detector array to ameliorate the effects of atmospheric turbulence on the performance of the optical receiver in real-time while operating within the terrestrial atmosphere, or while attempting to communicate through any similar turbulent medium is provided. A method of sending optical communications through such optical communications receivers is also provided.

Abstract: An optical communications receiver comprising a wide-band optical detector array and a high-speed digital signal processor programmed to operate on the raw data from the detector array to ameliorate the effects of atmospheric turbulence on the performance of the optical receiver in real-time while operating within the terrestrial atmosphere, or while attempting to communicate through any similar turbulent medium is provided. A method of sending optical communications through such optical communications receivers is also provided.

Abstract: A clock pulse generator for decoding pulse position modulation in an optical communication receiver is synchronized by a delay tacking loop which multiplies impulses of a data pulse by the square-wave clock pulses from the generator to produce positive impulses when the clock pulse is of one level, and negative impulses when the clock pulse is of another level. A delay tracking loop integrates the impulses and produces an error signal that adjusts the delay so the clock pulses will be synchronized with data pulses. A dead-time .tau..sub.d provided between data pulses of an interval .tau..sub.p in the data pulse period .tau.. When synchronized, the average number of positive impulses integrated will equal the average number of negative impulses over the continuous stream of data pulses.