CubeSounder: Flying a Novel 3D Weather Imaging Sensor on a High-Altitude Balloon
PI: Sean Bryan, Daniel Bliss (Co-I), Arizona State University
PI: Sean Bryan, Daniel Bliss (Co-I), Arizona State University
- NA
Weather forecasting requires consistent collection of global temperature and humidity data. Current weather satellite sensors rely on high-SWaP-C components that are difficult to replace. CubeSounder allows for state-of-the-art atmospheric sounding capabilities to be integrated into CubeSats, which would allow for significant improvements in weather forecasting accuracy, as well as the more efficient deployment of weather sensing technology.
Maturing this low-SWAP-C technology will fill an important weather forecasting need as many current U.S. weather satellites reach the end of their service lives. The CubeSounder high-altitude balloon flight will advance sensor capabilities that are lower cost, provide more spectral channels, and a higher level of stability. Having already demonstrated functionality in a lab setting, flight testing will advance the TRL of the millimeter-wave filter bank technology from TRL 4 to 6.
•Commercial Earth observation satellites
•Other flight-based environmental monitoring applications
Technology Details
-
Selection DateTechFlights20 (Sep 2020)
-
Program StatusActive
- 1 Balloon
Development Team
-
PISean Bryan
-
PI Organization
-
Co-IDaniel Bliss
-
Co-I Organization
-
Sponsor