Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Cion”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

A GNSS Receiver for Small-Sats Enabling Precision POD, Radio Occultations and Reflections

A low cost, low power, and low mass GNSS receiver (called Cion) has been developed and is currently flying on the CICERO cubesats. The receiver was designed in less than a year by JPL for Tyvak and GeoOptics for use in the GeoOptics CICERO constellation and leverages 25 years of JPL GNSS reciever design experience. Cion uses a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) computer along with existing space qualified RF down-converters, software, and firmware to produce atmospheric Radio Occultation (RO) data. By combining a FPGA with dual core ARM processor and an embedded system controller, the Xilinx Zynq processor is an enabling technology that provides a customizable digital signal processing platform integrated into the computer (System on a chip) and enables off-the-shelf hardware to become the main engine behind this software defined radio. Using Linux for the on-board computer allows for fast development times and liberal use of existing open source software libraries. The parts of the receiver that require realtime implementation are performed in the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), which can also be reprogrammed in flight. While the Zynq is not rad hard, the silicon on insulator (SOI) technology is rad tolerant ‘by accident’, allowing for its use in many space-based applications. Early results show that the Cion is working as designed, has demonstrated the first known GLONASS occultations, and obtains high quality atmospheric profiles with excellent lower troposphere penetration (near Earth’s surface).

Young, Larry↗

Direct Observations of Surface Fluxes and Air‐Sea Exchange Coefficients in Low Winds Using a Small Uncrewed Aircraft System

In the marine boundary layer, the exchange of momentum, heat, and moisture occurs between the atmosphere and ocean. Since it is too dangerous for a crewed aircraft to fly close to the ocean surface to directly obtain these measurements, a sUAS (small Uncrewed Aircraft System) is one of the only viable options. On 24 March 2023 a Black Swift Technologies S0 sUAS was deployed from the NOAA P-3 on a calm clear day off the west coast of Florida. For 23 min at the end of the mission, the sUAS flew 8 straight line legs with an average length of 2.15 km, at roughly 10 m above the ocean surface, with wind speeds between 3.0 and 4.5 m s −1 . For the first time over the open ocean using a sUAS, the 4-Hz wind and thermodynamic data was used to calculate surface momentum flux, sensible heat flux, and latent flux using both direct covariance methods and the bulk aerodynamic formulas. Since all the flux quantities can be found using both direct and indirect methods, we are able to calculate the exchange coefficients of momentum flux (C D ), latent heat flux (C E ), and sensible heat flux (C H ) with results that are generally in good agreement with previous studies over the same wind speed range. This study demonstrates the ability of sUAS to measure air-sea interactions. Future intention is to use sUAS to obtain similar measurements in high wind events such as hurricanes which could better help understand hurricane intensification and improve model physics.

Deloach, Christopher J. [Embry-Riddle Aeronautical↗