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Plasmaspheric and Enhanced Ionospheric Total Electron Content Monitoring

Award Information

Agency:
Department of Defense 		Branch:
Air Force 		Award ID:
67462 		Program Year/Program:
2005 / SBIR
Agency Tracking Number:
F041-040-1111 		Solicitation Year:
N/A 		Solicitation Topic Code:
N/A 		Solicitation Number:
N/A
Small Business Information
NorthWest Research Associates, Inc.
P.O. Box 3027 Bellevue, WA -
View profile »
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No
 
Phase 2
Fiscal Year: 2005
Title: Plasmaspheric and Enhanced Ionospheric Total Electron Content Monitoring
Agency / Branch: DOD / USAF
Contract: FA8718-05-C-0026
Award Amount: $746,143.00
 

Abstract:

The integrated charge density through the ionosphere and plasmasphere along a line-of-sight, denoted Total Electron Content (TEC), is a quantity that influences the operation of various radio-frequency systems. Measurement of TEC is utilized in order to assess environmental or system impacts, with possibilities for correction or mitigation. The current primary source of TEC measurements is dual-frequency Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver systems. These measurements contain contributions from the ionosphere and the plasmasphere, as well as biases arising from instrumental sources. While plasmasphere charge densities are considerably less than those of the ionosphere, the large extent of the plasmasphere can produce a significant integrated contribution relative to that of the ionosphere. The instrumental biases can be of any magnitude. To achieve highly accurate measurements of ionospheric TEC, an accurate technique to eliminate the bias effects from the GPS TEC measurements and partition the observed TEC into ionosphere and plasmasphere components is required. Developments of a mathematical technique, based on observed characteristics of the ionosphere, have presented the opportunity for conducting separate measurements of the ionosphere and plasmasphere contributions to TEC. This proposal presents efforts to be undertaken for further developments and validation of this technique.

Principal Investigator:

Susan Rao
VP, Senior Research Scien
5203197773
jim@nwra.com

Business Contact:

Joan Oltman-Shay
President
4256449660
contracts-grants@nwra.com
Small Business Information at Submission:

NORTHWEST RESEARCH ASSOC., INC.
P.O. Box 3027 Bellevue, WA 98009

EIN/Tax ID: 911291143
DUNS: N/A
Number of Employees:
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No