Dr. John W Armstrong


Education: 
  • B. S. Harvey Mudd College, Claremont CA (1969)
  • Ph. D. University of California, San Diego (1975)

Research Interests: 
  • Gravitational Wave Detectors
  • Radio Science
  • Wave Propagation in Random Media
  • Time Series Analysis

Professional Experience: 
  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory (1977-present; currently Senior Research Scientist)
  • Postdoctoral Astronomer, National Radio Astronomy Observatory (1975-1977)

Selected Awards: 
  • Henry G. Booker Fellow, International Scientific Radio Union (URSI), 1981
  • NASA technology awards:
    • Novel design of a deep-space optical telecommunications system using adaptive near-earth relay mirrors (with C. Yeh and K. Wilson)
    • A method to cancel exactly the leading noise source--laser frequency fluctuations--in unequal-arm Michelson interferometers (with M. Tinto)
    • Time-delay-interferometry (TDI): laser noise cancellation and gravitational wave detection with unequal-arm detectors (with F.B. Estabrook and M. Tinto)
    • Synthetic LISA simulation package (with M. Vallisneri)
    • A method to correct antenna mechanical noise in precision Doppler tracking observations (with F.B. Estabrook)

Selected Publications: 
  • Woo, R. and Armstrong, J., W., 1979 "Spacecraft Radio Scattering Observations of the Power Spectrum of Electron Density Fluctuations in the Solar Wind", JGR, 84, 7288
  • Armstrong, J. W., 1984 "Interstellar Scintillation and Ultra-Low-Frequency Gravitational Wave Observations", Nature, 307, 527
  • Armstrong, J. W., Rickett, B. J., and Spangler, S. R., 1995 "Electron Density Power Spectrum in the Local Interstellar Medium", ApJ, 443, 209
  • Tinto, M., and Armstrong, J. W. 1999 "Cancellation of Laser Noise in an Unequal-Arm Interferometer Detector of Gravitational Radiation", Phys. Rev. D, 59, 102003
  • Armstrong, J. W., Estabrook, F. B., and Tinto, M. 1999 "Time-Delay Interferometry for Space-Based Gravitational Wave Searches", ApJ,527, 814
  • Estabrook, F. B., Tinto, Massimo, and Armstrong, J. W. 2000 "Time-Delay Analysis of LISA Gravitational Wave Data: Elimination of Spacecraft Motion Effects", Phys. Rev. D.62, 042002
  • Armstrong, J. W., Iess, L., Tortora, P., and Bertotti, B. 2003 "Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background: Upper Limits in the 10 -6-10 -3 Hz Band", ApJ, 599, 806
  • Armstrong, J. W. 2006 “Low-Frequency Gravitational Wave Searches Using Spacecraft Doppler Tracking”, Living Reviews in Relativity, 9, 1 http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2006-1
Dr. John W Armstrong
Address: 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Dr.
Pasadena, CA 91109
Phone: (818) 354-3151
Fax Number: (818) 354-2825