Miniature Frequency Agile RF Beacon Receivers for Ionospheric Effects Monitoring

Space Environment Corporation (SEC) proposes to develop a new passive beacon monitoring instrument that will provide extensive near-real-time information about the state of the ionosphere and impacts on operational systems. This instrument will identify signals using signal processing methods and will ingest observations of signals over a wide range of frequencies into a comprehensive ionospheric model by means of ray-tracing signal strength analysis estimates, resulting in an ionospheric weather specification that includes weather observations and impact warnings. The innovative combination of engineering and physics-based approaches will address the problems with passive monitoring systems noted in the previous section. The low cost of the instrument (about $15K for the Phase I prototype) will allow wide deployment for significantly improved spatial resolution mapping of the ionosphere and its weather.