Award Abstract #0838054
Collaborative Research: CubeSat-based Ground-to-Space Bistatic Radar Experiment--Radio Aurora Explorer

NSF Org:	ATM Division of Atmospheric Sciences
Initial Amendment Date:	August 26, 2008
Latest Amendment Date:	August 26, 2008
Award Number:	0838054
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Therese Moretto Jorgensen ATM Division of Atmospheric Sciences GEO Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date:	September 1, 2008
Expires:	August 31, 2011 (Estimated)
Awarded Amount to Date:	$381072
Investigator(s):	Hasan Bahcivan hasan.bahcivan@sri.com(Principal Investigator)
Sponsor:	SRI International 333 RAVENSWOOD AVE MENLO PARK, CA 94025 650/859-3571
NSF Program(s):	MID-SIZE INFRASTRUCTURE, UPPER ATMOSPHERIC FACILITIES
Field Application(s):	0205000 Space
Program Reference Code(s):	OTHR,0000
Program Element Code(s):	7716,4202

ABSTRACT

This project is a collaboration between a space science Principal Investigator (PI) at SRI International and an engineering PI at University of Michigan. The objective of this three-year cross-disciplinary team effort is to build and operate a tiny, so-called CubeSat, spacecraft carrying a UHF radar receiver payload. Launch of the satellite will be as a secondary on a Department of Defense launch scheduled for December 2009. The satellite will be operated in coordination with the AMISR incoherent scatter radar from the ground to investigate the radio aurora from field-aligned irregularities in the high-latitude ionosphere. The primary scientific objective of the Radio Aurora Explorer (RAE) mission is to understand the microphysics of plasma instabilities that lead to field-aligned irregularities (FAI) of electron density in the polar lower (80-300 km) ionosphere. The RAE mission is specifically designed to remotely measure, with extremely high angular resolution (~0.5 degree), the wave spectrum of ~1 m scale FAI as a function of altitude, in particular measuring the magnetic field alignment of the irregularities. Due to the magnetic field geometry at high latitudes this bi-static (ground radar to satellite) configuration, in which a narrow radar beam is scattered off the FAI and then observed by the CubeSat receiver, is the only way to perform these measurements. Better understanding of ionospheric irregularities and their role in ionospheric dynamics is an important space weather research objective because plasma structures in the ionosphere can have an adverse effect on communications via satellite, HF and VHF radio and as well as an adverse effect on navigation, tracking, and positioning. The project has a very strong educational component; it relies on extensive undergraduate and graduate student involvement through all aspects of the mission. The new, largely unproven technology involved in cubesat missions, inherently makes the project associated with significant risks. On the other hand, however, the project has tremendous potential to be transformational not only within its own research area but also for the larger field of space science and atmospheric research as well as within aerospace engineering and education.

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