Award Data

The goal of this Phase 1 SBIR is for Orbotic Systems to prove the feasibility of generating in-situ, global, ionospheric­thermospheric neutral density and wind ion data on a near real-time basis. Orbotic Systems is developing an instrument called WIND (Wind Ion Neutral Density). This proposal leverages Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7 and 8 hardware and software as the basis to develop a new ge ...

Temperature is the critical signal that allows monitoring of a myriad of Earth’s processes. From direct measurements of wildfire and urban heat to more complex relationships with drought, agriculture, aquaculture, and biodiversity, maintaining a steady pulse on Earth’s surface temperature enables us to mitigate for and adapt to the impacts of extreme events and increasingly variable water avai ...

The brevetoxins (PbTx) produced by Karenia brevis cause harmful algal blooms (HAB) or "red tide" in seawater. Currently, the only available ways of detecting PbTx are laboratory tests such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, which are expensive and slow, and require complex instrumentation and multiple processing steps. In previous work Intelligent Optical Systems (IOS) demonstrated a compact l ...

"The impact of wildfires on air quality in the surrounding hundreds of miles has been discussed since the ‘70s. There have been a number of studies investigating the severity of the impact of wildfire smoke on the health of people in affected areas that have shown that hundreds of thousands of people die as a consequence of smoke-tainted air. Many studies focus on the impact of particulate matte ...

Recent advances in technologies have shown great potential for widespread use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques in real-time Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications. However, the massive amounts of data collected and generated from ITS sensors pose a major challenge in data processing and transmission. This requires a shift from centralized repositories and cloud computing t ...

Ensuring a safe water supply for society and the sectors that rely on water for economic and environmental purposes is a difficult problem that needs significant investment in R&D across public and private organizations. Climate change accelerates and exacerbates this challenge, causing a breakdown in some traditional approaches that use the past to predict the future streamflow on a seasonal (10 ...

The long endurance “StratoSonde” lighter-than-air, uncrewed system combines a low-cost, 5day endurance StratoSonde supports up to 10 micro-dropsondes, which when released from the HAB, descend safely through the entire atmospheric column under a ribbon drogue while reporting observations directly back to the HAB. This project will assess the feasibility of integrating a disposable miniature ae ...

The Ionosphere-Thermosphere-Electrodynamics (I-T-E) Earth system varies markedly on different spatial and temporal scales and this variation can have adverse effects on human operations and systems. There is a need to specify and forecast near-Earth I-T-E space weather to reduce the risks from hazards to systems that operate in this environment. An indicator of the current state and the near-term ...

This project will build upon research conducted during a Phase I SBIR effort, which showed that germicidal UV-C radiation emitted by LEDs installed inside of submerged radiometers can reach levels known to prevent biofouling (accumulation of biological matter) on their external optical surfaces (windows, diffusers) without affecting the instrument’s measurements. This technology will improve the ...

As global efforts toward ocean health have gained momentum, it is critical to generate high quality ocean data for industries that operate and/or manage ocean resources. Blue Ocean Gear has demonstrated how Smart Buoys equipped with sensors can be useful to fisheries by tracking gear and providing enhanced marine condition awareness. Building on Phase I efforts, this project will highlight the opp ...