3D Ray Tracing Research Articles

Wavefield distortion imaging of Earth's deep mantle

The seismic wavefield, as recorded at the surface, carries information about the seismic source and Earth's structure along the seismic path, essential for the understanding of the interior of our planet. For 40 years seismic tomography studies have resolved the 3D seismic velocity structure in growing detail using seismic traveltimes and waveforms. These studies have been driving our understanding of the dynamics and evolution of the planet, but are limited in their spatial resolution to imaging scales of a few 100 s to 1000 km due to the constraints of the tomographic inversion. Detailed studies of seismic waveforms can resolve finer scale structure but are often reliant on serendipitous source-receiver combinations and provide very uneven coverage of the planet. Therefore, we often lack an understanding of the fine scale structure of the Earth that is important to understand structures and processes such as mantle plumes or details of slab recycling. Here we show evidence that we can exploit slowness vector deviations of the seismic wavefield to extend our knowledge of Earth structure to smaller scales using large datasets. Analysing seismic array data, we show strong and measurable focussing and defocussing effects of the teleseismic P and Pdiff wavefield sampling the deep Earth. We compare the P-wave results to additional S and Sdiff data and find good agreement between both wavetypes. We can link the wavefield deviations to strong velocity variations assuming sharp boundaries are sampled along the path in the deep mantle. The dataset samples the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico well and shows strong horizontal incidence (backazimuth) deviations in the Pacific (up to 14° westwards) and beneath the Gulf of Mexico (up to 5 to 8° east- and west-ward). The backazimuth deviations are also reflected in slowness deviations in the range of ± 0.8 s/° relating to velocity variations in the range of ± 9 km/s. Using 3D raytracing we are able to forward model the detected backazimuth variations of the P and Pdiff dataset. The high frequencies of the P-waves, density of the ray-paths, and low computational cost of our forward calculation allow us to construct a higher resolution and more detailed model of velocity anomalies under Hawaii than was possible with previous methods. The best-fitting velocity model for the Pacific contains two low-velocity regions located at N25°/W155° and N25°/W165° beneath the tip of the Hawaii Emperor chain. The Pacific anomalies have diameters (D) of 6° and 2° with velocity reductions (dVP) of 8% and 4% with heights (H) above the CMB of 70 km and at least 200 km, respectively. We also detect a fast region of 3% velocity increase in the North Pacific rising at least 300 km above the CMB with a diameter of 12° at N60°/W175°. Beneath the Gulf of Mexico we find ambiguous results with either a slow region (N25°/W85°, H = 200 km, dVP=-3%, D = 2°) or a fast region (N15°/W75°, H = 200 km, dVP = 3%, D = 4°) able to explain the data. We thus show that the directivity information of the seismic wavefield - largely underexploited - can be used to resolve the fine scale velocity structure of the Earth's interior with great accuracy and can deliver additional insight into deep Earth dynamics.

Getting Cartilage Thickness Measurements Right: A Systematic Inter-Method Comparison Using MRI Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.

Magnetic resonance imaging is the standard imaging modality to assess articular cartilage. As the imaging surrogate of degenerative joint disease, cartilage thickness is commonly quantified after tissue segmentation. In lack of a standard method, this study systematically compared five methods for automatic cartilage thickness measurements across the knee joint and as a function of region and sub-region: 3D mesh normals (3D-MN), 3D nearest neighbors (3D-NN), 3D ray tracing (3D-RT), 2D centerline normals (2D-CN), and 2D surface normals (2D-SN). Based on the manually segmented femoral and tibial cartilage of 507 human knee joints, mean cartilage thickness was computed for the entire femorotibial joint, 4 joint regions, and 20 subregions using these methods. Inter-method comparisons of mean cartilage thickness and computation times were performed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Bland-Altman analyses and Lin's concordance correlation coefficient (CCC). Mean inter-method differences in cartilage thickness were significant in nearly all subregions (P < 0.001). By trend, mean differences were smallest between 3D-MN and 2D-SN in most (sub)regions, which is also reflected by highest quantitative inter-method agreement and CCCs. 3D-RT was prone to severe overestimation of up to 2.5 mm. 3D-MN, 3D-NN, and 2D-SN required mean processing times of ≤5.3 s per joint and were thus similarly efficient, whereas the time demand of 2D-CN and 3D-RT was much larger at 133 ± 29 and 351 ± 10 s per joint (P < 0.001). In automatic cartilage thickness determination, quantification accuracy and computational burden are largely affected by the underlying method. Mesh and surface normals or nearest neighbor searches should be used because they accurately capture variable geometries while being time-efficient.

3D ray tracing solver for communication blackout analysis in atmospheric entry missions

During the atmospheric entry phase at hypersonic speed, the radio communication from/to a space vehicle can be disrupted due to the formation of a plasma sheath within the surrounding flow field. In order to characterize such communication blackout phases, this work presents a numerical methodology combining Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations of ionized chemically reacting entry flows by means of Computational Object-Oriented Libraries for Fluid Dynamics (COOLFluiD) and a ray tracing analysis by means of the newly developed BlackOut RAy Tracer (BORAT). The latter is based on the numerical solution of the 3D Eikonal system of equations, offering a fast, efficient and accurate method to analyse the interaction between electromagnetic signals and weakly ionised plasmas. The proposed methodology, and BORAT in particular, is first verified on popular benchmark cases and then used to analyse the European Space Agency (ESA) 2016 ExoMars Schiaparelli entry flight into Martian environment. The corresponding results demonstrate the validity of the proposed ray tracing approach for predicting communication blackout, where signals emitted from the on-board antenna undergo reflection and refraction from the plasma surrounding the entry vehicle, and the advantage of a 3D approach for analysing real flight configuration.

Analytical ray tracing based on Hamilton principal function and conjugate variable pairs.

A transformation method based on optical Hamilton equations is proposed for 3D ray tracing in axially inhomogeneous gradient-index (GRIN) media with cylindrical symmetry. For a given GRIN field, the optical conjugate variable pairs of physical space can be transformed into a virtual space by applying canonical transformation. The virtual trace can be simply solved as a uniform expression regardless of what the GRIN field is, and one can inversely transform it into the physical space. The transformation is intimately related to a Hamilton principal function, called the S function, which simultaneously gives the real ray trace and its conjugate. The "conjugate trace" displays the direction cosines of the ray trace and thus shows the information about propagation direction at every point, and it can be independently derived from the S function without knowing the real trace. In addition, as two special dimension-reduction cases, the S function is also applicable for 2D structures with only axial inhomogeneity or cylindrical symmetry.

Research on Transmission Characteristics of 5G Signal for Indoor Substation Based on Ray Tracing

The 5G networks can be used to enhance the transmission ability of substation power services. However, because of the complex and diverse environment of substations, such as the presence of a large number of obstacles of different materials and electrical equipment indoors, we need to conduct wireless coverage modeling and transmission quality assessment. In this paper, the 5G signal transmission characteristics in the indoor environment of substations for the established indoor environment and equipment layout are analyzed using methods such as road loss statistical analysis and 3D ray tracing. It can quickly evaluate the 5G indoor coverage quality of substations and provide technical support for planning a reasonable and efficient 5G network.

Electro-optic modulation aberration correction algorithm based on phase difference compensation.

In order to achieve wide field-of-view, high-resolution LIDAR, a gating imaging structure combining an electro-optic crystal and an electron multiplication CCD is constructed. According to the index ellipsoid theory, a 3D ray tracing model is established to explore the principle of electro-optic modulation. The field-of-view and interference intensity distribution of the LiNbO3(LN) crystal electro-optic modulation are studied by using the proposed model. In order to solve the problem that the interference light intensity at the edge of the field-of-view of crystal electro-optic modulation is not homogeneous, we study and propose an electro-optic modulation aberration correction algorithm based on phase difference compensation. The corrected interference light intensity at the edge of the field-of-view increased from 0.87 to 0.94. Finally, a LIDAR imaging simulation system is established to image the target at a distance of 2000m. The results show that under the condition of a 1° wide field-of-view, the imaging accuracy of the system is 5mm, and the average imaging error introduced by the crystal electro-optic modulation is less than 2cm.

Development of a Set of Synthetic Diagnostics for the Confrontation between 2D Transport Simulations and WEST Tokamak Experimental Data

Transport codes are frequently used for describing fusion plasmas with the aim to prepare tokamak operations. Considering novel codes, such as SolEdge3X-HDG, synthetic diagnostics are a common technique used to validate new models and confront them with experimental data. The purpose of this study is to develop a set of synthetic diagnostics, starting from bolometer and visible cameras for the WEST tokamak, in order to compare the code results with the experimental data. This research is done in the framework of Raysect and Cherab Python libraries. This allows us to process various synthetic diagnostics in the same fashion in terms of 3D ray tracing with volume emitters developed specifically for fusion plasmas. We were able to implement the WEST tokamak model and the design of bolometer and visible cameras. Synthetic signals, based on full-discharge WEST plasma simulation, were used for to compare the SolEdge3X-HDG output plasma with experimental data. The study also considers the optical properties of the plasma-facing components (PFCs) and their influence on the performance of diagnostics. The paper shows a unified approach to synthetic diagnostic design, which will be further extended to cover the remaining diagnostics on the WEST tokamak.

3D ray tracing methods across inhomogeneous refractive indices using a transmission equation

When an aircraft flies at high speed in a dense atmosphere, the airflow outside the optical window interacts to form a complex flow field structure with irregular and nonuniform refractive index distribution, which makes it difficult to accurately calculate the ray propagation path based on the refractive index field. To solve this challenge, three ray tracing implementation methods with fourth-order accuracy are proposed. By comparing with the spiral ray resolution results, it is found that the Adams method has the smallest computational error of 1.2 × 10 − 11 compared with the fourth-order Runge–Kutta method and the Richardson extrapolation method. The Adams method is the most computationally efficient in terms of computational time cost, followed by the Richardson extrapolation method, and finally the fourth-order Runge–Kutta method. The results show that the Adams method is the fastest and most accurate for different step sizes and grid volumes.

Temperature reconstruction of an axisymmetric enclosed reactive flow using simultaneous background oriented schlieren and infrared thermography

The temperature distribution of a premixed methane air flame running at a Reynolds number of 1300 on a circular burner, 12.7 diameter, enclosed in a fused silica cylindrical liner has been experimentally reconstructed using a non-invasive approach combining background oriented schlieren (BOS) and infrared (IR) thermography. BOS is used to characterize both the air ambient to the system, using an existing technique called 3D ray tracing, and the reactive flow inside the enclosure, with a novel modified version of 3D ray tracing. IR thermography is used to characterize the thermal/optical characteristics of the quartz glass enclosure itself, since the information is required as BOS is a line of sight imaging technique. Out of necessity, an approximated species independent relationship is used to calculate flow temperature from refractive index. A simulation is used to show this error is in the range of 5.8%–7%. Additionally, it is found that drastically simplifying the approach by removing the IR thermography system entirely and using the near outer wall air temperature from BOS/3D ray tracing to characterize the internal temperature of the quartz liner itself only causes a 1.5%–3.8% degradation in the accuracy of the reconstructed temperature field. The technique as presented is a relatively inexpensive, experimentally simple approach capable of determining the steady state temperature characteristics of optically accessible axisymmetric reactive flows.

Pseudo Ray-Tracing: Deep Leaning Assisted Outdoor mm-Wave Path Loss Prediction

In this letter we present our results on how deep learning can be leveraged for outdoor path loss prediction in the 30GHz band. In particular, we exploit deep learning to boost the performance of outdoor path loss prediction in an end-to-end manner. In contrast to existing 3D ray tracing approaches that use geometrical information to model physical radio propagation phenomena, the proposed deep learning-based approach predicts outdoor path loss in the urban 5G scenario directly. To achieve this, a deep learning model is first trained offline using the data generated from simulations utilizing a 3D ray tracing approach. Our simulation results have revealed that the deep learning based approach can deliver outdoor path loss prediction in the 5G scenario with a performance comparable to a state-of-the-art 3D ray tracing simulator. Furthermore, the deep learning-based approach is 30 times faster than the ray tracing approach.

Using 3D Ray Tracing Technology to Study the Disturbance Effect of Rocket Plume on Ionosphere

In this paper, the initial neutral atmospheric parameters, background ionospheric parameters and geomagnetic field parameters of the ionosphere are obtained by NRLMSISE-00 model, IRI-2016 model and IGRF-13 model, respectively. Considering the neutral gas diffusion process, ion chemical reaction and plasma diffusion process, a three-dimensional dynamic model of chemical substances released by rocket plume disturbing the ionosphere is constructed. The influence of the disturbance on the echo path of high frequency radio waves with different incident frequencies is simulated by using three-dimensional digital ray-tracing technology. Using this model, the process of ionospheric disturbance caused by the main chemical substances H2 and H2O in the rocket plume under three different release conditions: fixed-point release at 300 km, vertical path at 250–350 km and parabolic path at 250–350 km, and the influence of the ionospheric cavity on the radio wave propagation of high frequency radio waves at different frequencies are simulated. The main purpose of the article is to focus on the effect of the cavity generated by the rocket exhaust on the propagation of radio waves. It mainly studies the perturbation effect on the ionosphere under different release conditions, considers the neutral gas diffusion process, ion chemical reaction and plasma diffusion process, and establishes the three-dimensional dynamics of the ionospheric electron density and the spatiotemporal distribution of the plume plasma learning model. Finally, the three-dimensional ray-tracing algorithm is used to simulate the propagation path of the radio wave through the disturbance area. We considered three different release conditions, including fixed-point release, vertical path and parabolic path. The ionospheric disturbances produced by these different releases are compared and analyzed, and their effects on the propagation path of radio waves are studied.

On the Rayleigh Wave Induced Ionospheric Perturbations During the Mw 9.0 11 March 2011 Tohoku‐Oki Earthquake

AbstractSpatial and temporal characteristics of Rayleigh wave generated ionospheric perturbations are well documented based on the ionospheric measurements using Global Positioning System (GPS)‐Total Electron Content (TEC) technique. However, due to integrated nature of the GPS recorded TEC, the actual detection altitudes of these perturbations could not be determined. In general, the maximum electron density altitude (hmF2) is assumed as the perturbation detection altitude in GPS‐TEC. To validate this assumption, case studies focusing on the early detection of ionospheric perturbations induced by direct epicentral waves during the Mw 7.4 9 March 2011 Sanriku‐Oki and Mw 9.0 11 March 2011 Tohoku‐Oki earthquakes were performed. In the present study, we attempt to estimate the detection altitudes of GPS‐TEC derived ionospheric perturbations generated by the propagating Rayleigh surface waves following the Mw 9.0 11 March 2011 Tohoku‐Oki earthquake. Based on the 3D ray tracing of Rayleigh wave generated acoustic waves in the atmosphere and realistic GPS station‐satellite line of sight geometry, we could efficaciously compute the actual detection altitudes of Rayleigh wave generated coseismic ionospheric perturbations (CIPs). Further, our study also demonstrates the possible detection of CIPs progressively at different altitudes based on varying satellite geometries.

3D Dynamic Ray-tracing Propagation Model with Moving Scatterer Effects

Ray-tracing propagation model (RTPM) has been widely used for predicting channel characteristics, whereas the scenarios considered are generally static. The complexity of RTPM is significantly increased due to the rapidly time-varying scenario resulted from moving scatterers. A three-dimensional (3D) dynamic RTPM considering moving scatterer effects is advanced in this paper. First, a simplified dynamic scenario preprocessing method based on the predefined active region and face transformation is proposed. The random movement of multiple scatterers can be enabled without repeated scenario modeling. Second, an efficient dynamic ray-tracing method based on self-adaptive ray-launching technique is advanced. The computational efficiency of the dynamic RTPM can be significantly improved due to the exclusion of repeated ray-tracing process over time. Finally, the feasibility and accuracy of the RTPM is verified by comparing the simulation results with the measurements performed in an indoor scenario with pedestrians.

Adaptive 3D ray tracing approach for indoor radio signal prediction at 3.5 GHz

This paper explained an adaptive ray tracing technique in modelling indoor radio wave propagation. As compared with conventional ray tracing approach, the presented ray tracing approach offers an optimized method to trace the travelling radio signal by introducing flexibility and adaptive features in ray launching algorithm in modelling the radio wave for indoor scenarios. The simulation result was compared with measurements data for verification. By analyzing the results, the proposed adaptive technique showed a better improvement in simulation time, power level and coverage in modelling the radio wave propagation for indoor scenario and may benefit in the development of signal propagation simulators for future technologies.

3D Microseismic Monitoring Using Machine Learning

AbstractMicroseismic source localization is important for inferring the dynamic status of the subsurface stress field during hydraulic fracturing. Traditional deterministic methods for 3D microseismic source localization require either ray tracing or full waveform modeling, thus are computationally expensive. We propose a very efficient (e.g., within 1 s) microseismic source localization method based on machine learning. First, three‐dimensional (3D) ray tracing is performed with hypothetical event locations and realistic acquisition geometry to calculate the theoretical travel‐times. The theoretical travel‐time differences and the spatial locations of the stations are treated as the input features of the training data set, and the corresponding source locations are used as the labels. The manually or automatically picked arrival time differences between different stations and a reference station after a microseismic event and the actual station locations are fed into the well‐trained model for a fast and accurate location prediction. The proposed method is efficient enough to be widely applied for the real‐time monitoring of hydraulic fracturing. The machine learning model is analogous to 3D grid search but performs 3D ray tracings before the actual localization, and needs to be retrained when applied to a new study area. We use several synthetic tests and a real data example from the Weiyuan hydraulic fracturing experiment in Sichuan, China, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The application of the proposed method to earthquake localization is also demonstrated to be straightforward.

A new technique using background oriented schlieren for temperature reconstruction of an axisymmetric open reactive flow

A new technique, called 3D ray tracing, for refractive index field reconstruction of axisymmetric flows from displacement fields measured from background oriented schlieren (BOS) experiments is developed and applied to a lean premixed methane/air reactive flow at Reynolds number of 4000 on a 12 mm diameter circular burner. The temperature distribution is then calculated using a species independent direct relationship between refractive index, temperature, and ambient conditions. The error introduced by the approximation to reach this relationship is quantified using simulated flow fields and is found to be 8% within the inner unburnt region of the flow field, decreasing to 2% through the reaction zone, and then quickly reducing to 0% outside the flow field. The effect of random noise and reconstruction resolution on the accuracy of the method is assessed via application to synthetically generated data sets that mimic the characteristics of a heated air jet expelled into ambient. The novel 3D ray tracing allows for accurate temperature reconstructions of open axisymmetric reactive flows where 2D displacement fields are measured, which is shown to be a shortcoming of current direct methods in literature. Additionally, this is done without the need for any prior knowledge of flow field parameters; only ambient conditions to the system must be known. The simple experimental setup and low computational cost make this approach with BOS a good option for application into existing experimental combustion systems with minimal effort.

Radio Network Forensic with mmWave Using the Dominant Path Algorithm

For the last two decades, cybercrimes are growing on a daily basis. To track down cybercrimes and radio network crimes, digital forensic for radio networks provides foundations. The data transfer rate for the next-generation wireless networks would be much greater than today’s network in the coming years. The fifth-generation wireless systems are considering bands beyond 6 GHz. The network design of the next-generation wireless systems depends on propagation characteristics, frequency reuse, and bandwidth variation. This article declares the channel’s propagation characteristics of both line of sight (LoS) and non-LOS (NLoS) to construct and detect the path of rays coming from anomalies. The simulations were carried out to investigate the diffraction loss (DL) and frequency drop (FD). Indoor and outdoor measurements were taken with the omnidirectional circular dipole antenna with a transmitting frequency of 28 GHz and 60 GHz to compare the two bands of the 5th generation. Millimeter-wave communication comes with a higher constraint for implementing and deploying higher losses, low diffractions, and low signal penetrations for the mentioned two bands. For outdoor, a MATLAB built-in 3D ray tracing algorithm is used while for an indoor office environment, an in-house algorithmic simulator built using MATLAB is used to analyze the channel characteristics.

SuperDARN data for "Coordinate Registration of SuperDARN Radar Backscatter using 3D Raytracing"

SuperDARN data for "Coordinate Registration of SuperDARN Radar Backscatter using 3D Raytracing"

A fast piecewise 3D ray tracing algorithm for determining slant total delays

A fast piecewise 3D ray tracing algorithm for determining slant total delays

Doppler backscattering systems on the Globus-M2 tokamak

Doppler backscattering (DBS) was successfully previously used on the Globus-M tokamak. The diagnostic was utilised in the form of either a single-frequency or a four-frequency dual homodyne system. It was used primarily for the study of zonal flows, filaments and Alfvén eigenmodes. These phenomena are worth being studied both on the periphery and in the core region of the plasma in a tokamak. For this specific reason two multifrequency DBS systems were installed on the upgraded Globus-M2 tokamak. The first four-frequency system with dual homodyne detection had already been used on the Globus-M tokamak and has lower probing frequencies which provide measurements from the periphery plasma. The second and new six-frequency DBS system was installed with a non-linear transmission line that was adapted to generate probing signals at frequencies 50, 55, 60, 65, 70 and 75 GHz. In general, the range of probing frequencies corresponds to the region of critical plasma densities from 5 × 1018 to 7 × 1019 m−3 at normal incidence. The pyramidal horn antennas are located inside the vacuum vessel with a special cardan-like rotator outside the camera so as to tilt antennas in the toroidal and poloidal directions. A previously developed code was applied to simulate 3D raytracing for all frequency channels. Calculations were carried out for different angles of incidence and for different electron density distributions in order to investigate the possibilities of the implementation of radial and poloidal correlation Doppler reflectometry. Examples of the DBS system application for study of plasma properties in the Globus-M2 tokamak are presented.