SBIR-STTR Award

The proposed project will develop a lightweight, low volume and low power consuming sensor for accurate measurements of liquid water or ice water content of clouds, water vapor concentration and local thermodynamic state of the atmosphere. It will be capable to operate from a small unmanned aircraft system platform, with instrument weight less than 6 kg and power requirement of less than 150W. The observations of the Profiling Airborne Microwave Radiometer will improve understanding and representations of clouds in the climate and Earth system models, as well as their interaction and coupling with the Earth’s surface. Commercial application of this technology can significantly improve weather observation and thus local short term weather forecasts. Boulder Environmental Sciences and Technology will develop an advanced, compact, low power and integrated radiometer receivers. These receivers, the heart and the most expensive part of a radiometer, will be integrated into an airborne radiometer system that could be installed on a small unmanned aircraft system platform. The Profiling Airborne Microwave Radiometer will operate autonomously and it will depend on an aircraft only for power. The instrument overall preliminary design will be finalized during Phase I. Two filters for the proposed direct detect radiometer receivers, a critical technology for overall instrument development success, will be designed, manufactured and bench tested. The development of filters that are easy to integrate and have proper characteristics for a radiometer operation will allow higher level of instrument integration and thus overcome significant limitations of current technologies. According to a study of the U.S. Department of Transportation there will be ~250,000 unmanned aerial systems within the U.S. airspace by 2035, of which ~175,000 will be in the commercial market place. The widening of the commercial use of drones will increase the demand for sensors, capable of operations on these platforms. One of the important and obvious application are in observations of a local weather. Such observations can improve the accuracy of severe storms warnings and improve local, short term weather forecast. Any business whose operations depend on the weather will benefit from improved forecast. Such businesses are agricultural, airports, seaports, renewable energy producers, electrical utilities, shipping companies, skiing resorts, search and rescue providers, and others. A novel technology for integration of microwave radiometers will be developed. It will enable a development of a small, low power, weather sensor for operation on a drone. A preliminary design of a new miniature sensor for improved weather observation, important for agricultural, aviation, renewable energy, and other businesses, will be developed during Phase I.

Improved measurements of the atmospheric thermodynamic state, including water vapor and clouds are necessary to improve our understanding of many atmospheric problems. Clouds and water vapor are major players in environment and their accurate measurements are very important for furthering the scientific understanding of weather and climate. Unmanned aerial systems - UAS- are a new platform that can make such observations more frequently, more accurately and more affordable, but a lightweight, low power, autonomous sensors are lagging in development. Microwave radiometers are uniquely capable of measuring path-integrated liquid water and water vapor in clouds and providing ice/water phase partitioning by mass within a given volume. The need for such an instrument was identified as the number one priority by The Department of Energy Biological and Environmental Research Office’s Aerial Observational Needs Workshop in 2015. Existing microwave radiometers are notoriously large and demanding of electrical power, and thus present a challenge to airborne observations. A lightweight (4.6 kg), low power consuming (less than 75 W), small (830 mm long and 100 mm diameter) airborne microwave radiometer for atmospheric observations is being developed under this project. Profiling Airborne Microwave Radiometer - PAMR - will provide measurements in two polarizations within three bands: 60-90, 150 and 183 GHz. It is a modular instrument for which other radiometer bands or additional sensors for the PAMR can be developed in the future. PAMR is a “plug and play” instrument, operating autonomously from an- aircraft requiring only power from the hosting platform. A novel type of the microwave radiometer receiver is the heart of our technological improvement. It enables a radiometer operation on a small UAS without a thermal or pressure control while improving radiometer calibration and sensitivity. It also promises a more reliable operation in the rugged environment of UAS operations. A design of the PAMR was completed during the Phase II of the project. Major components for receivers were modelled, built, evaluated, and implemented into the radiometers’ layout. Other parts of the PAMR, such as motion and data acquisition systems were built. The objective of the Phase IIA project is to develop a fully functional prototype ready to take data in a field deployment. The radiometric receivers developed under this project have the potential to become a disruptive technology and improve weather observations around the planet. Small satellites welcome compact, low power sensors and they will be the next generation Earth observing platforms from space. Improved ground-based observations of the atmospheric boundary layer can significantly improve local and severe weather forecasting. Deployment on an ocean buoy, for example for offshore wind power generation, can make the cost of this energy more competitive on the market.