Award Data

Development of a reflection control and direction device (RCDD) is proposed. This innovative device will progress the state of the art for propulsion of solar sails used to fly space weather monitoring sensors to sub-LaGrange point orbits for earlier warning times of impending destructive space weather events. A reflection control device (RCD) utilizes polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) mater ...

Drought is responsible for $327.7B in economic loss since 1980 in the United States and typically precedes, cooccurs, or initiates other hazards like wildfires or prolonged periods of intense heat. The compounding or cascading of these hazards routinely threatens the wellbeing and stability of communities. The economic impact from drought can be especially harsh when the drought begins rapidly in ...

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 ...

Tropical Cyclone meteorological data from the Atlantic main development region (MDR) is difficult to collect due to the remoteness of the location and difficulty of deploying manned aircraft to the region. Data collection is frequent upon development of a major hurricane but many tropical disturbances in the MDR leading up to hurricane development are of interest. Being able to collect meteorologi ...

Many municipalities in the United States have begun to use impermeability measurements to incentivize storm water retention as part of the architectural and landscaping design process. These measurements are performed through analysis of high-resolution aerial photography and updated on an annual or semi-annual basis. The practice of using high resolution aerial or even satellite photography is pr ...

The recent COVID-19 world pandemic demonstrates most effectively the urgent need for near real-time detection of ambient airborne pathogens. It has been demonstrated that electrospray ionization, utilized in many mass spectrometers today, has the unique ability to capture bioaerosols non-destructively out of the air for subsequent interrogation. This proposal leverages on this electrospray capture ...

Remote areas, particularly over the oceans, represent regions with the least observation coverage and contribute significantly to reducing the potential accuracy of Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models. In addition to space-based observations, dropsondes are possibly the only viable meteorological sensors for use over remote areas, where there is no cost-effective approach to permit regular r ...

LIDAR is a powerful tool for the measurement and characterization of aerosols in the atmosphere. In battlefield environments, a wide variety of aerosol constituents and plume types are present. Traditional LIDAR analysis methods aim to characterize plumes in well controlled environments with a minimum of atmospheric clutter. To extend the abilities of plume characterization and identification in c ...

Biowarfare agents pose a significant threat to military personnel and operations. Effective decontamination strategies that eliminate the biowarfare agents prior to human exposure can help mitigate risks associated with exposure. Traditional decontamination techniques rely on “wet” solutions such as chemicals including bleach. However, these decontaminants are unsuitable for sensitive equipmen ...

SiO2 Materials Science (SiO2) is a U.S. advanced medical technology company that produces high-performance, durable, glass-equivalent primary containers that are uniquely designed to store, transport, and protect drugs, including those that require cold-chain storage. SiO2 is an SBA Defense SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP) small business. SiO2’s primary containers are wholly manufactured in ...