SBIR-STTR Award

GeoOptics operates the CICERO constellation of 6U cubesats for weather applications, delivering over 1,000 GNSS radio occultation (RO) profiles daily to customers. CICERO carries the advanced Cion GNSS-RO instrument, derived from TriG, developed by JPL for COSMIC-2. The Cion offers TriG performance in a cubesat package. Under this SBIR we will enhance the CICERO/Cion system to improve RO performance and add the ability to collect GNSS reflections (GNSS-R) from oceans, snow, ice and land. This will yield an extended CICERO-X addressing five of the eleven SBEM data gaps: Ionospheric density, equatorial ionospheric scintillation, tropical cyclone intensity, ocean surface vector winds, and soil moisture. We will study five specific CICERO upgrades that could be implemented in a protoflight CICERO-X spacecraft and be ready to launch within 15 months of study completion.gnss radio occultation,gnss reflections,ionospheric scintillation,electron density,cyclone intensity,surface vector winds,Soil moisture

Signals from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are proving of great value in sensing the atmosphere and Earth for weather forecasting, space weather and global climate monitoring. Here we address two key GNSS measurement types: atmospheric radio occultation (GNSS-RO) and reflections from oceans, ice, snow and land (GNSS-R). GeoOptics is now enhancing its operational 6U CICERO cubesat design to improve RO performance and collect high-quality GNSS-R data while maintaining its 6U form factor and low overall system cost. These enhancements address six of the 11 SBEM data gaps and three other Air Force areas of interest: GNSS-RO: Ionospheric density and scintillation, tropical cyclone intensity, global precipitation monitoring, tropospheric sensing and profiling, and vertical temperature and moisture profiles. GNSS-R: Ocean surface vector winds, soil moisture, and sea ice characterization. This proposal focuses on four specific system improvements: 1. Doubling the science antenna to 4x3 elements to match the gain of COSMIC-2; 2. Providing 1D antenna beam steering identical to that on COSMIC-2; 3. Introducing a GNSS-R function superior to that on NASA's CYGNSS; 4. Adding dual polarization to enhance GNSS-R and sense heavy precipitation with GNSS-RO. ---------- Under a current ONR grant, GeoOptics is developing a cubesat-based space radar called COAST (Cellular Ocean Altimetry/Scatterometry Technology) to measure sea surface topography, surface vector winds, soil moisture, snow and ice cover, and other surface properties. The current contract matured the COAST flight system design, including instruments and 12U spacecraft. under this SBIR we propose to build a COAST instrument package, including dual-frequency cubesat radar, microwave radiometer for calibrating water vapor, and GNSS precise orbit determination system, for a demonstration and validation flight as a hosted payload.