Detecting Discontinuities From In Situ Space Measurements: Method and FPGA Implementation. Issue 10 (13th October 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Munteanu, C.; Turicu, D. C.; Creţ, O.; Echim, M.
• Is Part Of: Earth and space science. Volume 9:Issue 10(2022)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2022-10-13
• Subjects: magnetic field directional discontinuities -- on‐board monitoring and processing of data -- FPGA‐based design -- high‐level synthesis (HLS); Space sciences -- Periodicals; Geophysics -- Periodicals; 500.5
• DOI: 10.1029/2022EA002537
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2333-5084

Abstract

Abstract: The analysis in real time of space data variability is essential for scientists and space mission controllers. Automated tools designed to extract key descriptors of variability are needed and solutions to adapt such algorithms for on‐board computers are rare. This paper describes the design of an automated system for detecting directional discontinuities of a physical quantity and its implementation in Field‐Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The system is currently adapted for solar wind or terrestrial magnetosheath magnetic field directional discontinuities, that is, sharp changes of the magnetic field directionality. Our detection algorithm uses analysis windows of adjustable width and averaging procedures in order to reduce the effects of random fluctuations. A sliding‐window approach is designed for continuous monitoring and detection of magnetic directional discontinuities. A software implementation of the algorithm was tested using in‐situ magnetic field measurements, and emphasized improvements of performance when using analysis windows of adjustable width. The FPGA implementation of the detection algorithm is built on DILIGENT Nexys 4 DDR featuring a commercial Xilinx Artix‐7 device and is designed to be ported to space qualified infrastructure. The FPGA system was tested with synthetic and laboratory signals, and provides results in very good agreement with the software implementation. The FPGA system provides an efficient real‐time monitoring solution using minimal computational and energy resources, and reducing the main on‐board computer utilization. Key Points: We designed an algorithm to detect directional discontinuities from in‐situ space measurements, suitable for automated application A Field‐Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) implementation of the algorithm, designed to be adapted for on‐board operations, is provided Tests with laboratory and space measurements of the FPGA and software implementations of the detection algorithm give excellent results