Award Data

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 ...

Maintaining healthy populations of salmon and trout (salmonids) has significant biological, cultural, and economic benefits. Significant data gaps exist for sources of mortality in juvenile and adult salmonids in small streams. These gaps can create discrepancies between main stem escapement counts and estimates of population health. Field Data Services, LLC is developing novel camera trap technol ...

The pHyter is a handheld device that accurately measures pH using colorimetry, communicating with a cellphone via Bluetooth Low Energy. The app records location, time, temperature, pH and meta-data. In Phase I, we redesigned the instrument using an ‘internet of things’ development platform, modified the app to operate on both Android and iOS phones, and showed, through a network of partners, t ...

There is a clear need to improve weather forecasting accuracy. The greatest contributions to forecast uncertainty is a lack of meteorological observations over remote areas and areas experiencing pronounced convective activity. StratoSolutions’ new high-altitude balloon (HAB) platform with mini-dropsonde is a disruptive new uncrewed meteorological observation data source able to collect data at ...

Field Data Services (FDS) proposes a technical feasibility study of newly available solid state LiDAR sensor chips for detecting migrating anadromous fish in small spawning streams. The LiDAR chip, first introduced in October 2020, uses an invisible infrared laser to measure time-of-flight distances to nearby objects with millimeter accuracy. This tiny computer chip is breakthrough technology that ...

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 ...

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 ...

NOAA SBIR topic 9.5 includes as a research priority the development of tools, platforms, … to make environmental information… more accessible, usable, understandable, and relatable to students, citizen scientists, and the public. Sunburst Sensors has twice used NOAA SBIR funding to successfully create new products. We propose using phase 1 funding to demonstrate the prototype pHyter as a tool ...

The decline of coral reefs can be feasibly reversed by introducing coral transplants that are stabilized via adhesion to substrates. An adhesive is under development to safely and economically improve the speed and success rate of stabilizing coral transplants. This adhesive comprises a bioactive inorganic and an organic polymer constituent that function synergistically to enable rapid and control ...

Coral transplantation is a primary management option for rehabilitation of degraded reefs. Stabilization (via adhesion, etc.) of transplants on existing reef or artificial substrates notably improves their survival rate. Improved underwater adhesives are needed for expedient and convenient stabilization of coral transplants with improved survival rate. A new hybrid organic-inorganic adhesive is pr ...