Through the Center Innovation Fund, the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) allocates a small portion of the NASA workforce and procurement budget to internal research and development to feed early stage innovation in technology and exploration. Activities within the Center Innovation Fund are proposed and led by NASA scientists and engineers. These activities and creative initiatives pursue emerging technologies that leverage talent and capabilities at NASA Langley Research Center.
Through the Independent Research and Developments activity, NASA Langley Research Center allocates funds to invest in early stage, high-payoff technologies and systems that are aligned with the NASA and Langley strategic plans and have high potential for future applications.
Some projects will align only with either CIF or IRAD support, but many are supported by a combination of both programs to leverage the most from limited resources. The investment in these early stage technologies is intended to mature them to the point that, if successful, they can substantially influence future Mission Directorate programs and projects, and receive follow-on support from NASA programs, external partners, or through commercialization.
","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"CIF","isActive":true,"description":"Through the Center Innovation Fund, the Space Technology Mission Directorate allocates a small portion of the NASA workforce and procurement budget to internal research and development to feed early stage innovation in technology and exploration. Activities with in the Center Innovation Fund are proposed and led by NASA scientists and engineers. These activities and creative initiatives pursue emerging technologies that leverage talent and capabilities at the NASA Centers.
","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"isActive":true,"description":"Catalyst is a portfolio of early stage programs that specialize in different innovation constituencies and mechanisms to push the state of the art in aerospace technology development","programId":92327,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"title":"Catalyst","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"Catalyst"},"parentProgramId":92327,"programId":64,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"stockImageFileId":36643,"title":"Center Innovation Fund","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"CIF"},"parentProgramId":64,"programId":167,"responsibleMd":{"organizationId":4875,"organizationName":"Space Technology Mission Directorate","acronym":"STMD","organizationType":"NASA_Mission_Directorate","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Mission Directorate"},"responsibleMdOffice":4875,"stockImageFileId":36655,"title":"Center Innovation Fund: LaRC CIF","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"LaRC CIF"},"description":"The IM-CW system is currently designed for CO2 integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) measurements. Backscattered science signals of the online and offline wavelengths from the surface as well as aerosols and clouds are simultaneously collected with a telescope, optically filtered with a narrow band optical filter, and detected by a single detector. Both the science and reference signals are amplified, electronically filtered and then digitized for retrievals of column CO2 using IPDA approach. Post processing of the digitized science and reference data allows for discrimination between ground and intermediate scatterers using the matched filter technique. Our technique takes a repeating signal such as a repeating CW sweep or pulse train, interpolates it using our unique frequency domain reordering technique. This interpolation technique takes a repeating waveform and converts it into a single waveform interpolated by the number of repeats in the sample. This is then enhanced further with our unique variation on the Richardson Lucy deconvolution technique and using a point spread function derived through measurement. By iterating the RL deconvolution by a specific amount, we have been able to enhance the resolution as much as 2 orders of magnitude, making it possible to use a low-resolution lidar to measure tree canopy height or discriminate between thin clouds. This has been demonstrated both in ground testing and flight tests. The results were published in Optics Letters in two separate journal articles. These results were also presented at both the American Geophysical Union and the European Geophysical Union.","benefits":"
The technique will help with atmospheric model development
","releaseStatus":"Released","status":"Completed","viewCount":1238,"destinationType":[],"trlBegin":6,"trlCurrent":7,"trlEnd":7,"lastUpdated":"02/15/26","favorited":false,"detailedFunding":false,"projectContacts":[{"contactId":225372,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Joel","lastName":"Campbell","fullName":"Joel F Campbell","fullNameInverted":"Campbell, Joel F","middleInitial":"F","email":"joel.f.campbell@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","projectContactRole":"Principal_Investigator","projectContactId":544959,"projectId":34962,"programContactRolePretty":"","projectContactRolePretty":"Principal Investigator"}],"programContacts":[{"contactId":233104,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"John","lastName":"Nelson","fullName":"John C Nelson","fullNameInverted":"Nelson, John C","middleInitial":"C","email":"john.c.nelson@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Director","programContactId":253,"programId":167,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Director","projectContactRolePretty":""},{"contactId":159179,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Gary","lastName":"Fleming","fullName":"Gary A Fleming","fullNameInverted":"Fleming, Gary A","middleInitial":"A","email":"gary.a.fleming@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Manager","programContactId":256,"programId":167,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Manager","projectContactRolePretty":""},{"contactId":377059,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Phillip","lastName":"Williams","fullName":"Phillip A Williams","fullNameInverted":"Williams, Phillip A","middleInitial":"A","email":"phillip.a.williams@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Manager","programContactId":284,"programId":167,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Manager","projectContactRolePretty":""}],"leadOrganization":{"organizationId":4852,"organizationName":"Langley Research Center","acronym":"LaRC","organizationType":"NASA_Center","city":"Hampton","stateTerritoryId":7,"stateTerritory":{"abbreviation":"VA","country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"name":"Virginia","stateTerritoryId":7,"isTerritory":false},"country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"zipCode":"23681","projectId":34962,"projectOrganizationId":572840,"organizationRole":"Lead_Organization","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"Lead Organization","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Center"},"otherOrganizations":[{"organizationId":4852,"organizationName":"Langley Research Center","acronym":"LaRC","organizationType":"NASA_Center","city":"Hampton","stateTerritoryId":7,"stateTerritory":{"abbreviation":"VA","country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"name":"Virginia","stateTerritoryId":7,"isTerritory":false},"country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"zipCode":"23681","projectId":34962,"projectOrganizationId":572840,"organizationRole":"Lead_Organization","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"Lead Organization","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Center"}],"primaryTx":{"taxonomyNodeId":11221,"taxonomyRootId":8817,"parentNodeId":11216,"code":"TX08.1.5","title":"Lasers","description":"Passive laser technologies, such as laser heterodyne radiometry, can involve low-power elements such as distributive feedback (DFB) lasers. Active laser systems that pass through the atmosphere to make a measurement, such as light detecting and ranging (LIDAR), require higher-powered laser elements.","exampleTechnologies":"Pulsed lasers, and the electro-optical components that support them like fibers, gratings, crystals, laser diodes, electro-optical modulators, nanolasers","level":3,"hasChildren":false,"selected":false,"isPrimary":true,"hasInteriorContent":true},"primaryTxTree":[[{"taxonomyNodeId":11215,"taxonomyRootId":8817,"code":"TX08","title":"Sensors and Instruments","level":1,"hasChildren":true,"selected":false,"hasInteriorContent":true},{"taxonomyNodeId":11216,"taxonomyRootId":8817,"parentNodeId":11215,"code":"TX08.1","title":"Remote Sensing Instruments and Sensors","description":"Remote sensing instruments and sensors include components, sensors, and instruments that are sensitive to electromagnetic radiation; particles (charged, neutral, dust); electromagnetic fields, both direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC); acoustic energy; seismic energy; and whatever physical phenomenology the science requires. These instruments and sensors can be active or passive devices, depending on the measurement regime and detection technology.","level":2,"hasChildren":true,"selected":false,"hasInteriorContent":true},{"taxonomyNodeId":11221,"taxonomyRootId":8817,"parentNodeId":11216,"code":"TX08.1.5","title":"Lasers","description":"Passive laser technologies, such as laser heterodyne radiometry, can involve low-power elements such as distributive feedback (DFB) lasers. Active laser systems that pass through the atmosphere to make a measurement, such as light detecting and ranging (LIDAR), require higher-powered laser elements.","exampleTechnologies":"Pulsed lasers, and the electro-optical components that support them like fibers, gratings, crystals, laser diodes, electro-optical modulators, nanolasers","level":3,"hasChildren":false,"selected":true,"hasInteriorContent":true}]],"technologyOutcomes":[{"technologyOutcomeId":95359,"projectId":34962,"project":{"projectId":34962,"title":"Cloud and tree canopy thickness detection from low resolution Lidars","startDate":"2014-11-01","startYear":2014,"startMonth":11,"endDate":"2015-10-01","endYear":2015,"endMonth":10,"programId":167,"program":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"LaRC CIF","isActive":true,"description":"Through the Center Innovation Fund, the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) allocates a small portion of the NASA workforce and procurement budget to internal research and development to feed early stage innovation in technology and exploration. Activities within the Center Innovation Fund are proposed and led by NASA scientists and engineers. These activities and creative initiatives pursue emerging technologies that leverage talent and capabilities at NASA Langley Research Center.
Through the Independent Research and Developments activity, NASA Langley Research Center allocates funds to invest in early stage, high-payoff technologies and systems that are aligned with the NASA and Langley strategic plans and have high potential for future applications.
Some projects will align only with either CIF or IRAD support, but many are supported by a combination of both programs to leverage the most from limited resources. The investment in these early stage technologies is intended to mature them to the point that, if successful, they can substantially influence future Mission Directorate programs and projects, and receive follow-on support from NASA programs, external partners, or through commercialization.
","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"CIF","isActive":true,"description":"Through the Center Innovation Fund, the Space Technology Mission Directorate allocates a small portion of the NASA workforce and procurement budget to internal research and development to feed early stage innovation in technology and exploration. Activities with in the Center Innovation Fund are proposed and led by NASA scientists and engineers. These activities and creative initiatives pursue emerging technologies that leverage talent and capabilities at the NASA Centers.
","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"isActive":true,"description":"Catalyst is a portfolio of early stage programs that specialize in different innovation constituencies and mechanisms to push the state of the art in aerospace technology development","programId":92327,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"title":"Catalyst","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"Catalyst"},"parentProgramId":92327,"programId":64,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"stockImageFileId":36643,"title":"Center Innovation Fund","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"CIF"},"parentProgramId":64,"programId":167,"responsibleMd":{"organizationId":4875,"organizationName":"Space Technology Mission Directorate","acronym":"STMD","organizationType":"NASA_Mission_Directorate","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Mission Directorate"},"responsibleMdOffice":4875,"stockImageFileId":36655,"title":"Center Innovation Fund: LaRC CIF","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"LaRC CIF"},"description":"The IM-CW system is currently designed for CO2 integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) measurements. Backscattered science signals of the online and offline wavelengths from the surface as well as aerosols and clouds are simultaneously collected with a telescope, optically filtered with a narrow band optical filter, and detected by a single detector. Both the science and reference signals are amplified, electronically filtered and then digitized for retrievals of column CO2 using IPDA approach. Post processing of the digitized science and reference data allows for discrimination between ground and intermediate scatterers using the matched filter technique. Our technique takes a repeating signal such as a repeating CW sweep or pulse train, interpolates it using our unique frequency domain reordering technique. This interpolation technique takes a repeating waveform and converts it into a single waveform interpolated by the number of repeats in the sample. This is then enhanced further with our unique variation on the Richardson Lucy deconvolution technique and using a point spread function derived through measurement. By iterating the RL deconvolution by a specific amount, we have been able to enhance the resolution as much as 2 orders of magnitude, making it possible to use a low-resolution lidar to measure tree canopy height or discriminate between thin clouds. This has been demonstrated both in ground testing and flight tests. The results were published in Optics Letters in two separate journal articles. These results were also presented at both the American Geophysical Union and the European Geophysical Union.","benefits":"
The technique will help with atmospheric model development
","releaseStatus":"Released","status":"Completed","destinationType":[],"trlBegin":6,"trlCurrent":7,"trlEnd":7,"favorited":false,"detailedFunding":false,"programContacts":[{"contactId":159179,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Gary","lastName":"Fleming","fullName":"Gary A Fleming","fullNameInverted":"Fleming, Gary A","middleInitial":"A","email":"gary.a.fleming@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Manager","programContactId":256,"programId":167,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Manager","projectContactRolePretty":""},{"contactId":377059,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Phillip","lastName":"Williams","fullName":"Phillip A Williams","fullNameInverted":"Williams, Phillip A","middleInitial":"A","email":"phillip.a.williams@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Manager","programContactId":284,"programId":167,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Manager","projectContactRolePretty":""},{"contactId":233104,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"John","lastName":"Nelson","fullName":"John C Nelson","fullNameInverted":"Nelson, John C","middleInitial":"C","email":"john.c.nelson@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Director","programContactId":253,"programId":167,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Director","projectContactRolePretty":""}],"endDateString":"Oct 2015","startDateString":"Nov 2014"},"relatedProjectId":23341,"relatedProject":{"projectId":23341,"title":"CubeSat Constellation Design for Air Traffic Monitoring","startDate":"2014-11-01","startYear":2014,"startMonth":11,"endDate":"2015-10-01","endYear":2015,"endMonth":10,"programId":160,"program":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"ARC CIF","isActive":true,"description":"Through the Center Innovation Fund, the Space Technology Mission Directorate allocates a small portion of the NASA workforce and procurement budget to internal research and development to feed early stage innovation in technology and exploration. Activities with in the Center Innovation Fund are proposed and led by NASA scientists and engineers. These activities and creative initiatives pursue emerging technologies that leverage talent and capabilities at the NASA Centers. ","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"CIF","isActive":true,"description":"Through the Center Innovation Fund, the Space Technology Mission Directorate allocates a small portion of the NASA workforce and procurement budget to internal research and development to feed early stage innovation in technology and exploration. Activities with in the Center Innovation Fund are proposed and led by NASA scientists and engineers. These activities and creative initiatives pursue emerging technologies that leverage talent and capabilities at the NASA Centers.
","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"isActive":true,"description":"Catalyst is a portfolio of early stage programs that specialize in different innovation constituencies and mechanisms to push the state of the art in aerospace technology development","programId":92327,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"title":"Catalyst","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"Catalyst"},"parentProgramId":92327,"programId":64,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"stockImageFileId":36643,"title":"Center Innovation Fund","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"CIF"},"parentProgramId":64,"programId":160,"responsibleMd":{"organizationId":4875,"organizationName":"Space Technology Mission Directorate","acronym":"STMD","organizationType":"NASA_Mission_Directorate","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Mission Directorate"},"responsibleMdOffice":4875,"stockImageFileId":36646,"title":"Center Innovation Fund: ARC CIF","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"ARC CIF"},"description":"Global and local air traffic can be tracked and used for control from ground-based stations by receiving the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) signal. The ADS-B signal, emitted from the aircraft's Mode-S transponder, is currently tracked by terrestrial based receivers but not over remote oceans or sparsely populated regions such as Alaska or the Pacific Ocean. Lack of real-time aircraft time/location information in remote areas significantly hinder optimal planning and control because bigger \"safety bubbles\" (lateral and vertical separation) are required around them until they reach radar-controlled airspace. Moreover, it presents a search-and-rescue bottleneck. Aircrafts in distress, e.g. Air France AF449 that crashed in 2009, take days to be located or cannot be located at all, e.g. Malaysia Airlines MH370 in 2014. We propose to a) build a tool for designing a constellation of small satellites based on real-world air traffic data in order to b) demonstrate through high-fidelity simulation and modeling the value of space-based ADS-B monitoring, which will lead to c) recommendations for cost-efficient deployment of a constellation of small satellites to increase safety and situational awareness in currently poorly-served surveillance areas. Aircraft locations in remote areas can be retrieved with minimum delay by using an optimized constellation of cubesats in low Earth orbit that will receive ADS-B signals from aircraft and relay it to ground stations. The 140 kg Proba-V spacecraft hosted an ADS-B payload, developed by DLR, as technology demonstration proving that space-based ADSB is possible. The 2 kg GOMX-1 2U cubesat with an ADS-B receiver, that operated from 2013-14 and collected >3.5 million frames of aircraft states, showed that cubesats are capable of similar success. However, one receiver, with a half power beam width (HPBW) of 20deg and gain 10dB, cannot provide continuous coverage of any remote location. Nonetheless, GOMX-1, developed and operated by GomSpace ApS (Denmark), serves as an ideal theoretical first unit for a cubesat constellation. Constellation design for ADS-B reception is a complex problem dependent on the following parameters: area of interest (e.g. Alaska), expectations of air traffic and ADS-B receiver characteristics (e.g. HPBW, signal attenuation, signal interference probability while congestion, SNR). The design variables are: Constellation type (e.g. optimal Walker, streets of coverage, F8/BB, Flowers), number of satellites, orbital parameters (e.g. altitude and inclination constrained by type), and available ground stations. A unique combination of design variables represents an architecture. We propose to develop a tool that will automatically generate hundreds of architectures and evaluate them based on the following objectives: Percentage of airplanes covered within the area of interest (A%), certainty of aircraft states (S%), delay in relaying the information to ground (D), cost per packet ($C). We will simulate air traffic in the area of interest using a high-fidelity airspace simulator (Future ATM Concepts Evaluation Tool) developed in Code AF to obtain aircraft states that will serve as the \"truth\" input data. ADS-B receiver characteristics, signal integrity/interference, single satellite cost and cost to build multiple copies will be obtained from our partner, GomSpace, and included within the performance simulation. Architecture generation and evaluation will be performed by a MATLAB-driven STK engine. Existing and imminent ground station information will be used, e.g. SpaceFlight Networks' new facility in Tonsina, AK to be operational in QY2014. Costs for typically available launches as a function of orbit parameters will be used. Preliminary constellation design using such an approach has been demonstrated successfully for Earth Radiation Budget estimation. Our tool will provide trades between performance (A% covered at S% with D) and cost ($C) for Pareto potential architectures. Decision makers can evaluate these trade-offs for any location - Alaska and Pacific Ocean will be use cases – and select a few options that theoretically demonstrate critical functions within programmatic constraints. Finally, the performance-cost efficiency will be compared to that expected from the Iridium Constellation, which will host ADS-B receivers on its 66 satellites and scheduled to start operations in 2018.","benefits":"Demonstrates potential application of CubeSat technology in a practical setting. Potential benefits to FAA, and any organizations that use the National Airspace System, especially in areas without ADS-B ground infrastructure.","releaseStatus":"Released","status":"Completed","destinationType":[],"trlBegin":4,"trlCurrent":6,"trlEnd":6,"favorited":false,"detailedFunding":false,"programContacts":[{"contactId":176367,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Harry","lastName":"Partridge","fullName":"Harry Partridge","fullNameInverted":"Partridge, Harry","email":"harry.partridge@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Manager","programContactId":106,"programId":160,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Manager","projectContactRolePretty":""},{"contactId":159179,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Gary","lastName":"Fleming","fullName":"Gary A Fleming","fullNameInverted":"Fleming, Gary A","middleInitial":"A","email":"gary.a.fleming@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Manager","programContactId":231,"programId":160,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Manager","projectContactRolePretty":""},{"contactId":233104,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"John","lastName":"Nelson","fullName":"John C Nelson","fullNameInverted":"Nelson, John C","middleInitial":"C","email":"john.c.nelson@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Director","programContactId":228,"programId":160,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Director","projectContactRolePretty":""}],"endDateString":"Oct 2015","startDateString":"Nov 2014"},"technologyOutcomePartner":"Other","technologyOutcomeDate":"2014-11-01","technologyOutcomePath":"Advanced_To","infoText":"Advanced within the program","infoTextExtra":"Another project within the program (CubeSat Constellation Design for Air Traffic Monitoring)","isIndirect":false,"infusionPretty":"","isBiDirectional":true,"technologyOutcomeDateString":"Nov 2014","technologyOutcomeDateFullString":"November 2014","technologyOutcomePartnerPretty":"Other","technologyOutcomePathPretty":"Advanced To","technologyOutcomeRationalePretty":""},{"technologyOutcomeId":104496,"projectId":34962,"project":{"projectId":34962,"title":"Cloud and tree canopy thickness detection from low resolution Lidars","startDate":"2014-11-01","startYear":2014,"startMonth":11,"endDate":"2015-10-01","endYear":2015,"endMonth":10,"programId":167,"program":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"LaRC CIF","isActive":true,"description":"
Through the Center Innovation Fund, the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) allocates a small portion of the NASA workforce and procurement budget to internal research and development to feed early stage innovation in technology and exploration. Activities within the Center Innovation Fund are proposed and led by NASA scientists and engineers. These activities and creative initiatives pursue emerging technologies that leverage talent and capabilities at NASA Langley Research Center.
Through the Independent Research and Developments activity, NASA Langley Research Center allocates funds to invest in early stage, high-payoff technologies and systems that are aligned with the NASA and Langley strategic plans and have high potential for future applications.
Some projects will align only with either CIF or IRAD support, but many are supported by a combination of both programs to leverage the most from limited resources. The investment in these early stage technologies is intended to mature them to the point that, if successful, they can substantially influence future Mission Directorate programs and projects, and receive follow-on support from NASA programs, external partners, or through commercialization.
","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"CIF","isActive":true,"description":"Through the Center Innovation Fund, the Space Technology Mission Directorate allocates a small portion of the NASA workforce and procurement budget to internal research and development to feed early stage innovation in technology and exploration. Activities with in the Center Innovation Fund are proposed and led by NASA scientists and engineers. These activities and creative initiatives pursue emerging technologies that leverage talent and capabilities at the NASA Centers.
","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"isActive":true,"description":"Catalyst is a portfolio of early stage programs that specialize in different innovation constituencies and mechanisms to push the state of the art in aerospace technology development","programId":92327,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"title":"Catalyst","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"Catalyst"},"parentProgramId":92327,"programId":64,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"stockImageFileId":36643,"title":"Center Innovation Fund","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"CIF"},"parentProgramId":64,"programId":167,"responsibleMd":{"organizationId":4875,"organizationName":"Space Technology Mission Directorate","acronym":"STMD","organizationType":"NASA_Mission_Directorate","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Mission Directorate"},"responsibleMdOffice":4875,"stockImageFileId":36655,"title":"Center Innovation Fund: LaRC CIF","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"LaRC CIF"},"description":"The IM-CW system is currently designed for CO2 integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) measurements. Backscattered science signals of the online and offline wavelengths from the surface as well as aerosols and clouds are simultaneously collected with a telescope, optically filtered with a narrow band optical filter, and detected by a single detector. Both the science and reference signals are amplified, electronically filtered and then digitized for retrievals of column CO2 using IPDA approach. Post processing of the digitized science and reference data allows for discrimination between ground and intermediate scatterers using the matched filter technique. Our technique takes a repeating signal such as a repeating CW sweep or pulse train, interpolates it using our unique frequency domain reordering technique. This interpolation technique takes a repeating waveform and converts it into a single waveform interpolated by the number of repeats in the sample. This is then enhanced further with our unique variation on the Richardson Lucy deconvolution technique and using a point spread function derived through measurement. By iterating the RL deconvolution by a specific amount, we have been able to enhance the resolution as much as 2 orders of magnitude, making it possible to use a low-resolution lidar to measure tree canopy height or discriminate between thin clouds. This has been demonstrated both in ground testing and flight tests. The results were published in Optics Letters in two separate journal articles. These results were also presented at both the American Geophysical Union and the European Geophysical Union.","benefits":"
The technique will help with atmospheric model development
","releaseStatus":"Released","status":"Completed","destinationType":[],"trlBegin":6,"trlCurrent":7,"trlEnd":7,"favorited":false,"detailedFunding":false,"programContacts":[{"contactId":159179,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Gary","lastName":"Fleming","fullName":"Gary A Fleming","fullNameInverted":"Fleming, Gary A","middleInitial":"A","email":"gary.a.fleming@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Manager","programContactId":256,"programId":167,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Manager","projectContactRolePretty":""},{"contactId":377059,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Phillip","lastName":"Williams","fullName":"Phillip A Williams","fullNameInverted":"Williams, Phillip A","middleInitial":"A","email":"phillip.a.williams@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Manager","programContactId":284,"programId":167,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Manager","projectContactRolePretty":""},{"contactId":233104,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"John","lastName":"Nelson","fullName":"John C Nelson","fullNameInverted":"Nelson, John C","middleInitial":"C","email":"john.c.nelson@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Director","programContactId":253,"programId":167,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Director","projectContactRolePretty":""}],"endDateString":"Oct 2015","startDateString":"Nov 2014"},"technologyOutcomePartner":"Other_NASA_Program_or_Directorate","technologyOutcomeDate":"2015-10-01","technologyOutcomePath":"Transitioned_To","details":"This technique is currently being implemented in ACSENDS to help improve the resolution of lidar returns used in CO2 measurements. LAR-18537-1 & LAR-18539-1","infoText":"Transitioned To Other NASA Program or Directorate","infoTextExtra":"Other NASA Program or Directorate","isIndirect":false,"infusionPretty":"","isBiDirectional":false,"technologyOutcomeDateString":"Oct 2015","technologyOutcomeDateFullString":"October 2015","technologyOutcomePartnerPretty":"Other NASA Program or Directorate","technologyOutcomePathPretty":"Transitioned To","technologyOutcomeRationalePretty":""},{"technologyOutcomeId":94421,"projectId":34962,"project":{"projectId":34962,"title":"Cloud and tree canopy thickness detection from low resolution Lidars","startDate":"2014-11-01","startYear":2014,"startMonth":11,"endDate":"2015-10-01","endYear":2015,"endMonth":10,"programId":167,"program":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"LaRC CIF","isActive":true,"description":"Through the Center Innovation Fund, the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) allocates a small portion of the NASA workforce and procurement budget to internal research and development to feed early stage innovation in technology and exploration. Activities within the Center Innovation Fund are proposed and led by NASA scientists and engineers. These activities and creative initiatives pursue emerging technologies that leverage talent and capabilities at NASA Langley Research Center.
Through the Independent Research and Developments activity, NASA Langley Research Center allocates funds to invest in early stage, high-payoff technologies and systems that are aligned with the NASA and Langley strategic plans and have high potential for future applications.
Some projects will align only with either CIF or IRAD support, but many are supported by a combination of both programs to leverage the most from limited resources. The investment in these early stage technologies is intended to mature them to the point that, if successful, they can substantially influence future Mission Directorate programs and projects, and receive follow-on support from NASA programs, external partners, or through commercialization.
","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"CIF","isActive":true,"description":"Through the Center Innovation Fund, the Space Technology Mission Directorate allocates a small portion of the NASA workforce and procurement budget to internal research and development to feed early stage innovation in technology and exploration. Activities with in the Center Innovation Fund are proposed and led by NASA scientists and engineers. These activities and creative initiatives pursue emerging technologies that leverage talent and capabilities at the NASA Centers.
","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"isActive":true,"description":"Catalyst is a portfolio of early stage programs that specialize in different innovation constituencies and mechanisms to push the state of the art in aerospace technology development","programId":92327,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"title":"Catalyst","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"Catalyst"},"parentProgramId":92327,"programId":64,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"stockImageFileId":36643,"title":"Center Innovation Fund","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"CIF"},"parentProgramId":64,"programId":167,"responsibleMd":{"organizationId":4875,"organizationName":"Space Technology Mission Directorate","acronym":"STMD","organizationType":"NASA_Mission_Directorate","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Mission Directorate"},"responsibleMdOffice":4875,"stockImageFileId":36655,"title":"Center Innovation Fund: LaRC CIF","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"LaRC CIF"},"description":"The IM-CW system is currently designed for CO2 integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) measurements. Backscattered science signals of the online and offline wavelengths from the surface as well as aerosols and clouds are simultaneously collected with a telescope, optically filtered with a narrow band optical filter, and detected by a single detector. Both the science and reference signals are amplified, electronically filtered and then digitized for retrievals of column CO2 using IPDA approach. Post processing of the digitized science and reference data allows for discrimination between ground and intermediate scatterers using the matched filter technique. Our technique takes a repeating signal such as a repeating CW sweep or pulse train, interpolates it using our unique frequency domain reordering technique. This interpolation technique takes a repeating waveform and converts it into a single waveform interpolated by the number of repeats in the sample. This is then enhanced further with our unique variation on the Richardson Lucy deconvolution technique and using a point spread function derived through measurement. By iterating the RL deconvolution by a specific amount, we have been able to enhance the resolution as much as 2 orders of magnitude, making it possible to use a low-resolution lidar to measure tree canopy height or discriminate between thin clouds. This has been demonstrated both in ground testing and flight tests. The results were published in Optics Letters in two separate journal articles. These results were also presented at both the American Geophysical Union and the European Geophysical Union.","benefits":"
The technique will help with atmospheric model development
","releaseStatus":"Released","status":"Completed","destinationType":[],"trlBegin":6,"trlCurrent":7,"trlEnd":7,"favorited":false,"detailedFunding":false,"programContacts":[{"contactId":159179,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Gary","lastName":"Fleming","fullName":"Gary A Fleming","fullNameInverted":"Fleming, Gary A","middleInitial":"A","email":"gary.a.fleming@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Manager","programContactId":256,"programId":167,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Manager","projectContactRolePretty":""},{"contactId":377059,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Phillip","lastName":"Williams","fullName":"Phillip A Williams","fullNameInverted":"Williams, Phillip A","middleInitial":"A","email":"phillip.a.williams@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Manager","programContactId":284,"programId":167,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Manager","projectContactRolePretty":""},{"contactId":233104,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"John","lastName":"Nelson","fullName":"John C Nelson","fullNameInverted":"Nelson, John C","middleInitial":"C","email":"john.c.nelson@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Director","programContactId":253,"programId":167,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Director","projectContactRolePretty":""}],"endDateString":"Oct 2015","startDateString":"Nov 2014"},"relatedProjectId":23341,"relatedProject":{"projectId":23341,"title":"CubeSat Constellation Design for Air Traffic Monitoring","startDate":"2014-11-01","startYear":2014,"startMonth":11,"endDate":"2015-10-01","endYear":2015,"endMonth":10,"programId":160,"program":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"ARC CIF","isActive":true,"description":"Through the Center Innovation Fund, the Space Technology Mission Directorate allocates a small portion of the NASA workforce and procurement budget to internal research and development to feed early stage innovation in technology and exploration. Activities with in the Center Innovation Fund are proposed and led by NASA scientists and engineers. These activities and creative initiatives pursue emerging technologies that leverage talent and capabilities at the NASA Centers. ","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"CIF","isActive":true,"description":"Through the Center Innovation Fund, the Space Technology Mission Directorate allocates a small portion of the NASA workforce and procurement budget to internal research and development to feed early stage innovation in technology and exploration. Activities with in the Center Innovation Fund are proposed and led by NASA scientists and engineers. These activities and creative initiatives pursue emerging technologies that leverage talent and capabilities at the NASA Centers.
","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"isActive":true,"description":"Catalyst is a portfolio of early stage programs that specialize in different innovation constituencies and mechanisms to push the state of the art in aerospace technology development","programId":92327,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"title":"Catalyst","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"Catalyst"},"parentProgramId":92327,"programId":64,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"stockImageFileId":36643,"title":"Center Innovation Fund","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"CIF"},"parentProgramId":64,"programId":160,"responsibleMd":{"organizationId":4875,"organizationName":"Space Technology Mission Directorate","acronym":"STMD","organizationType":"NASA_Mission_Directorate","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Mission Directorate"},"responsibleMdOffice":4875,"stockImageFileId":36646,"title":"Center Innovation Fund: ARC CIF","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"ARC CIF"},"description":"Global and local air traffic can be tracked and used for control from ground-based stations by receiving the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) signal. The ADS-B signal, emitted from the aircraft's Mode-S transponder, is currently tracked by terrestrial based receivers but not over remote oceans or sparsely populated regions such as Alaska or the Pacific Ocean. Lack of real-time aircraft time/location information in remote areas significantly hinder optimal planning and control because bigger \"safety bubbles\" (lateral and vertical separation) are required around them until they reach radar-controlled airspace. Moreover, it presents a search-and-rescue bottleneck. Aircrafts in distress, e.g. Air France AF449 that crashed in 2009, take days to be located or cannot be located at all, e.g. Malaysia Airlines MH370 in 2014. We propose to a) build a tool for designing a constellation of small satellites based on real-world air traffic data in order to b) demonstrate through high-fidelity simulation and modeling the value of space-based ADS-B monitoring, which will lead to c) recommendations for cost-efficient deployment of a constellation of small satellites to increase safety and situational awareness in currently poorly-served surveillance areas. Aircraft locations in remote areas can be retrieved with minimum delay by using an optimized constellation of cubesats in low Earth orbit that will receive ADS-B signals from aircraft and relay it to ground stations. The 140 kg Proba-V spacecraft hosted an ADS-B payload, developed by DLR, as technology demonstration proving that space-based ADSB is possible. The 2 kg GOMX-1 2U cubesat with an ADS-B receiver, that operated from 2013-14 and collected >3.5 million frames of aircraft states, showed that cubesats are capable of similar success. However, one receiver, with a half power beam width (HPBW) of 20deg and gain 10dB, cannot provide continuous coverage of any remote location. Nonetheless, GOMX-1, developed and operated by GomSpace ApS (Denmark), serves as an ideal theoretical first unit for a cubesat constellation. Constellation design for ADS-B reception is a complex problem dependent on the following parameters: area of interest (e.g. Alaska), expectations of air traffic and ADS-B receiver characteristics (e.g. HPBW, signal attenuation, signal interference probability while congestion, SNR). The design variables are: Constellation type (e.g. optimal Walker, streets of coverage, F8/BB, Flowers), number of satellites, orbital parameters (e.g. altitude and inclination constrained by type), and available ground stations. A unique combination of design variables represents an architecture. We propose to develop a tool that will automatically generate hundreds of architectures and evaluate them based on the following objectives: Percentage of airplanes covered within the area of interest (A%), certainty of aircraft states (S%), delay in relaying the information to ground (D), cost per packet ($C). We will simulate air traffic in the area of interest using a high-fidelity airspace simulator (Future ATM Concepts Evaluation Tool) developed in Code AF to obtain aircraft states that will serve as the \"truth\" input data. ADS-B receiver characteristics, signal integrity/interference, single satellite cost and cost to build multiple copies will be obtained from our partner, GomSpace, and included within the performance simulation. Architecture generation and evaluation will be performed by a MATLAB-driven STK engine. Existing and imminent ground station information will be used, e.g. SpaceFlight Networks' new facility in Tonsina, AK to be operational in QY2014. Costs for typically available launches as a function of orbit parameters will be used. Preliminary constellation design using such an approach has been demonstrated successfully for Earth Radiation Budget estimation. Our tool will provide trades between performance (A% covered at S% with D) and cost ($C) for Pareto potential architectures. Decision makers can evaluate these trade-offs for any location - Alaska and Pacific Ocean will be use cases – and select a few options that theoretically demonstrate critical functions within programmatic constraints. Finally, the performance-cost efficiency will be compared to that expected from the Iridium Constellation, which will host ADS-B receivers on its 66 satellites and scheduled to start operations in 2018.","benefits":"Demonstrates potential application of CubeSat technology in a practical setting. Potential benefits to FAA, and any organizations that use the National Airspace System, especially in areas without ADS-B ground infrastructure.","releaseStatus":"Released","status":"Completed","destinationType":[],"trlBegin":4,"trlCurrent":6,"trlEnd":6,"favorited":false,"detailedFunding":false,"programContacts":[{"contactId":176367,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Harry","lastName":"Partridge","fullName":"Harry Partridge","fullNameInverted":"Partridge, Harry","email":"harry.partridge@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Manager","programContactId":106,"programId":160,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Manager","projectContactRolePretty":""},{"contactId":159179,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Gary","lastName":"Fleming","fullName":"Gary A Fleming","fullNameInverted":"Fleming, Gary A","middleInitial":"A","email":"gary.a.fleming@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Manager","programContactId":231,"programId":160,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Manager","projectContactRolePretty":""},{"contactId":233104,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"John","lastName":"Nelson","fullName":"John C Nelson","fullNameInverted":"Nelson, John C","middleInitial":"C","email":"john.c.nelson@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Director","programContactId":228,"programId":160,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Director","projectContactRolePretty":""}],"endDateString":"Oct 2015","startDateString":"Nov 2014"},"technologyOutcomePartner":"Other","technologyOutcomeDate":"2014-11-01","technologyOutcomePath":"Advanced_To","infoText":"Advanced within the program","infoTextExtra":"Another project within the program (CubeSat Constellation Design for Air Traffic Monitoring)","isIndirect":true,"infusionPretty":"","isBiDirectional":true,"technologyOutcomeDateString":"Nov 2014","technologyOutcomeDateFullString":"November 2014","technologyOutcomePartnerPretty":"Other","technologyOutcomePathPretty":"Advanced To","technologyOutcomeRationalePretty":""}],"libraryItems":[],"states":[{"abbreviation":"VA","country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"name":"Virginia","stateTerritoryId":7,"isTerritory":false}],"endDateString":"Oct 2015","startDateString":"Nov 2014"}}