Award Data

NOAA collects meteorological measurements in open ocean and coastal marine environments from research vessels, data buoys and commercial ships for use in numerical weather prediction, global climate change research, and severe storm identification. The current system cost for robust marine automated meteorological stations is too high to allow ubiquitous use on all the available platforms. Throu ...

Develop a miniature, lowcost scanning receiver.

Our Phase I effort was successful. We upgraded our baseline methane analyzer to meet or surpass the levels of performance posed by DOC solicitation subtopic 8.1.1R: sensitivity of 10 ppb (dry mole fraction), low maintenance for extended periods at remote field sites, less than one liter (NTP) of reference gas per day, and negligible response to platform motion. The analyzer is a novel applicatio ...

This SBIR Phase II project proposes to add telemetry and monitoring equipment to the spar designed and constructed under our Phase I contract. Furthermore, we propose to test and evaluate an automated spar feeding system suitable for use on an operating offshore fish farm. C Cates International, Inc. has developed a feeding system for it¿s underwater cages that functions from a small boat. But ...

The NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory seeks to perform advanced wide-area mapping of soil moisture and salinity. This requires a large scanning antenna with aerodynamic form, narrow beamwidth, high efficiency, and dual polarization. This antenna system must provide operation at L-band (1400-1427 MHz) and C-band (6.0-6.5 GHz). This large aperture must maintain stable performance independe ...

Current turbulence measurements are limited to pilot reports and measurements along a specific vertical or horizontal trajectory. Aside from the high cost, these methods do not provide information on turbulence patches, their size or persistence. This proposal combines emerging sensor instrumentation with new balloon technology to produce a balloon-borne, low cost Atmospheric Turbulence Measurem ...

IR Telemetrics builds microwave telemetry systems for transmitting sensor data through narrow metallic passages within automobile engines. IRT devices can interface with sensors and transmit their data to a local receiver network through complex passages as small as four centimeters. Research will adapt IRT core technology to enable continuous communication with marine containers. The performance ...

The combat load for today's individual Special Operations Forces warfighter is 100 pounds or more, which is unacceptably high. Lighter loads will reduce SOF operator fatigue, and increase his ability to move greater distances in a shorter time than is possible today. As a solution to this problem, we propose to manufacture a self-mobile trailer, a robotic "mule" capable of carrying loads up to 1 ...

Special Operation Forces personnel require a rugged, miniature receiver that is capable of monitoring RF energy while deployed on a mission. The RF receiver will give a better picture of the electromagnetic threat environment enabling a heightened situational awareness, yet the device must be small enough that it does not hamper the SOF warfighter during missions requiring stealth and rapid mobil ...

Open-ocean aquaculture businesses are proving commercially successful. There are several refinements this technology must undergo in order to maximize productivity. One of the specific areas of refinement is in gathering detailed statistical knowledge of the captive fish stock population as a function of time. This knowledge will allow optimization of feed rates. Optimized feed rates will mini ...