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The Axial Double Probe (ADP) instrument measures the DC to ∼ 100 kHz electric field along the spin axis of the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft (Burch et al., Space Sci. Rev., 2014, this issue), completing the vector electric field when combined with the spin plane double probes (SDP) (Torbert et al., Space Sci. Rev., 2014, this issue, Lindqvist et al., Space Sci. Rev., 2014. Two cylindrical sensors are separated by over 30 m tip-to-tip, the longest baseline on an axial DC electric field ever attempted in space. The ADP on each of the spacecraft consists of two identical, 12.67 m graphite coilable booms with second, smaller 2.25 m booms mounted on their ends. A significant effort was carried out to assure that the potential field of the MMS spacecraft acts equally on the two sensors and that photo-and secondary electron currents do not vary over the spacecraft spin. The ADP on MMS is expected to measure DC electric field with a precision of ∼ 1 mV/m, a resolution of ∼ 25 µV/m, and a range of ∼ ±1 V/m in most of the plasma environments MMS will encounter. The Digital Signal Processing (DSP) units on the MMS spacecraft are designed to perform analog conditioning, analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion, and digital processing on the ADP, SDP, and search coil magnetometer (SCM) (Le Contel et al., Space Sci. Rev., 2014, this issue) signals. The DSP units include digital filters, spectral processing, a high-speed burst memory, a solitary structure detector, and data compression. The DSP uses precision analog processing with, in most cases, > 100 dB in dynamic range, better that −80 dB common mode rejection in electric field (E) signal processing, and better that −80 dB cross talk between the E and SCM (B) signals. The A/D conversion is at 16 bits with ∼ 1/4 LSB accuracy and ∼ 1 LSB noise. The digital signal processing is powerful and highly flexible allowing for maximum scientific return under a limited telemetry volume. The ADP and DSP are described in this article.

NASA’s Solar Probe Plus (SPP) mission will make the first in situ measurements of the solar corona and the birthplace of the solar wind. The FIELDS instrument suite on SPP will make direct measurements of electric and magnetic fields, the properties of in situ plasma waves, electron density and temperature profiles, and interplanetary radio emissions, amongst other things. Here, we describe the scientific objectives targeted by the SPP/FIELDS instrument, the instrument design itself, and the instrument concept of operations and planned data products.

Lightwave communications is a necessity for the information age. Optical links provide enormous bandwidth, and the optical fiber is the only medium that can meet the modern society's needs for transporting massive amounts of data over long distances. Applications range from global highcapacity networks, which constitute the backbone of the internet, to the massively parallel interconnects that provide data connectivity inside datacenters and supercomputers. Optical communications is a diverse and rapidly changing field, where experts in photonics, communications, electronics, and signal processing work side by side to meet the ever-increasing demands for higher capacity, lower cost, and lower energy consumption, while adapting the system design to novel services and technologies. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of this rich research field, Journal of Optics has invited 16 researchers, each a world-leading expert in their respective subfields, to contribute a section to this invited review article, summarizing their views on state-of-the-art and future developments in optical communications.

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We discuss recent advances in phase-sensitive amplification technology and review its application to the regeneration of multi-level phase-encoded signals.

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Recently an analytical model was presented that treats the nonlinear signal distortion from the Kerr nonlinearity in optical transmission systems as additive white Gaussian noise. This important model predicts the impact of the Kerr nonlinearity in systems operating at a high symbol rate and where the accumulated dispersion at the receiver is large. Starting from the suggested model for the propagating signal, we here give an independent and different calculation of the main result. The analysis is based on the Manakov equation with attenuation included and a complete and detailed derivation is given using a perturbation analysis. As in the case with the published model, in addition to assuming that the input signal can be written on a specific form, two further assumptions are necessary; the nonlinearity is weak and the signal-noise interaction is neglected. The result is then found without any further approximations. Index TermsOptical fiber communication, communication system nonlinearities, nonlinear optics, wavelength division multiplexing.Pontus Johannisson is with the