Award Data

To build a climate-smart and resilient nation, we need to foster a climate-literate public that understands its vulnerabilities to a changing climate and makes informed decisions. A core component of this challenge is to develop simple, intuitive and high-impact visualizations of climate data--data that is and will be made available through the President’s Climate Data Initiative--for education ...

During the Phase I program, Aurora conducted a comprehensive survey of potential platforms that included government owned and furnished UAVs and manned aircraft as well as Aurora’s Centaur Optionally Piloted Aircraft (OPA). The survey concluded, in part, that UAVs offer a significant improvement in data collection capability when compared to manned aircraft that are currently fielded by NOAA. ...

CURRENT SMOKE DETECTION TECHNOLOGIES SUFFER FROM SIGNIFICANT FALSE ALARM RATES. THESE PROBLEMS ARE CURRENTLY BEING ADDRESSED BY REDUCING THE SENSITIVITY OF EXISTING PARTICULATE DETECTORS. IN THIS WORK, THE FEASIBILITY OF A COMBINED PARTICULATE AND CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR WILL BE EVALUATED. THE USE OF MULTIPLE FIRE SIGNATURES HAS THE POTENTIAL FOR REDUCING THE FALSE ALARM PROBLEMS WHILE INCREASING ...

MICROWAVE REFLECTIONS FROM THE OCEAN ARE HIGHLY SENSITIVE TO THE CAPILLARY WAVE STRUCTURE OF THE SURFACE SO OIL SLICKS TEND TO REFLECT VERY LITTLE MICROWAVE POWER. IMAGING RADARS ARE THEREFORE ABLE TO MAP THE SHAPE AND EXTENT OF NAUTRAL AND MAN-MADE MARINE OIL SLICKS. THE EMISSIVITY OF MICROWAVE SIGNALS, HOWEVER, IS INCREASED BY OIL SURFACTANTS AND OIL SLICK THICKNESS CAN BE MEASURED USING A TWO-F ...

OPTRA PROPOSES TO DEVELOP A VERY HIGH PRECISION PHASEMETER FOR USE WITH HETERODYNE INTERFEROMETRY. IT IS BASED ON TWO INNOVATIONS: A PROPOSED POLARFASH PHASE-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER, AND A HIGH-SPEED 3-PHASE DEMODULATOR WHICH TAKES THE MEASUREMENT AND REFERENCE SIGNALS FROM THE HETERODYNE INTERFEROMETER AND GENERATES THE INPUT SIGNALS FROM THE POLARFLASH CONVERTER. THE PROPOSED PHASEMETER HAS SHOT/EL ...

STUDIES SUCH AS GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AND LARGE SCALE OCEAN CIRCULATION REQUIRE LONG TERM, LOW-COST, WIDE COVERAGE MEASUREMENTS TO THE INTERIOR OF THE OCEAN. PHASE I DEVELOPMENT PROPOSES THE SLOCUM PROFILER, AN AUTONOMOUS, NEUTRALLY BUOYANT AUV WHICH DERIVES ITS PROPULSIVE ENERGY FOR VERTICAL ASCENTS/DESCENTS FROM THE OCEAN THERMAL GRADIENT, AS A CANDIDATE MEASURMENT SYSTEM. SPECIFICALLY, PHASE I ...

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the atmosphere are primary drivers of global climate change and hence there is a crucial need to quantify their sources and sinks. A general technique to constrain source and sink strengths is the analysis of the relative proportions of isotopic variants of GHG's. These measurements must be performed with extremely high precision. The gold standard technique, i ...

There are currently no inexpensive observing systems that detect temperature, salinity and currents under the ocean's surface - all important factors in predicting the intensity of hurricanes. Boston Engineering proposes to develop the Multi-Purpose Above Surface/Below Surface Expendable Dropsondes (MASED). Our design builds on the highly successful air dropsondes already in use, combined with a ...

NOAA has identified a problem with the display and usability of satellite imagery on NWS websites. This proposal provides analysis of the feasibility and usability of a proposed system to address this concern. Our goal in the project is to create a heuristically sound conceptual design and tool set for display and interaction with satellite imagery on the NWS site. The project will also explore ...

The mechanics of single photons can be used to entangle information carry quantum states, allowing for quantum computation or random number generation. Quantum communication utilizes the quantum nature of single-photons to retain information, particularly in the form of quantum key distribution protocols. High-efficiency, low-noise single photon detection at high efficiency is critical for the app ...