Thermal Design And Thermal Behaviour Of Radio Telescopes And Their Enclosures

E-Book Overview

Radio telescopes as well as communication antennas operate under the influence of gravity, temperature and wind. Among those, temperature influences may degrade the performance of a radio telescope through transient changes of the focus, pointing, path length and sensitivity, often in an unpredictable way. Thermal Design and Thermal Behaviour of Radio Telescopes and their Enclosures reviews the design and construction principles of radio telescopes in view of thermal aspects and heat transfer with the variable thermal environment; it explains supporting thermal model calculations and the application and efficiency of thermal protection and temperature control; it presents many measurements illustrating the thermal behaviour of telescopes in the environment of their observatory sites. The book benefits scientists and radio/communication engineers, telescope designers and construction firms as well as telescope operators, observatory staff, but also the observing astronomer who is directly confronted with the thermal behaviour of a telescope.

E-Book Information

• Series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library 364

• Year: 2,010

• Edition: 1

• Pages: 420

• Pages In File: 409

• Language: English

• Topic: 265

• Issue: до 2011-01

• Identifier: 3642038662,9783642038662

• Doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-03867-9

• Org File Size: 39,496,546

• Extension: pdf

• Tags: Astronomy, Observations and Techniques Engineering Thermodynamics, Heat and Mass Transfer Thermodynamics

• Toc: Front Matter....Pages i-xxiv Radio Astronomy and Radio Telescopes....Pages 1-12 Radio Telescope Constructions in View of Thermal Aspects....Pages 13-48 Telescope Enclosures....Pages 49-54 The Variable Thermal Environment....Pages 55-83 Calculation of Solar Illumination....Pages 85-106 Temperature Measurements and FEM Thermal Deformation Calculations....Pages 107-121 Heat Transfer....Pages 123-159 Radiative Coupling towards Sky and Ground (External View Factor)....Pages 161-171 Measured Thermal Behaviour of Radio Telescopes....Pages 173-261 Measured Thermal Behaviour of Enclosures....Pages 263-266 Thermal Model Calculations....Pages 267-304 Beam Formation and Beam Degradation....Pages 305-324 Thermal Tolerances....Pages 325-341 Optical Telescopes and Enclosures....Pages 343-346 A Summary and Further Studies....Pages 347-355 Back Matter....Pages 357-398