SwRI awarded $54 million contract to develop QuickSounder weather satellite
QuickSounder will launch the first in a new generation of NOAA low-Earth orbit environmental satellites
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SWRI WILL BUILD QUICKSOUNDER, THE FIRST IN A NEW GENERATION OF NOAA LOW-EARTH ORBIT ENVIRONMENTAL SATELLITES. THE INSTITUTE WAS SELECTED BY NASA AND NOAA FOR THE $54 MILLION CONTRACT.
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CREDIT: SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE
SAN ANTONIO — January 8, 2024 —NASA and NOAA have selected Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) to develop QuickSounder, the first in a new generation of NOAA low-Earth orbit environmental satellites. Under the $54 million contract, SwRI will design and build the satellite and operate it for three years.
QuickSounder will kick off NOAA’s Near Earth Orbit Network (NEON) program. The Near Earth Orbit Network is a collaborative mission between NASA and NOAA. NASA will manage the development and launch of the satellites for NOAA, which will operate them and deliver data to users worldwide. NEON satellites will provide critical data to support weather forecasting, climate monitoring and environmental observation.
As a pathfinder mission and NOAA’s first environmental smallsat, QuickSounder will serve as a prototype for its next generation of environmental satellites. While environmental satellites usually take 10 years or longer to develop and launch, QuickSounder is expected to launch in mid-2026 – less than 27 months after the award. Improved development timelines will provide NOAA the opportunity to fly newer, more advanced technology instruments in the future.
“Our team is very excited to play such an important role in working with NOAA to develop their next generation satellite architecture,” said Michael McLelland, vice president of SwRI’s Space Systems Division
QuickSounder will carry NOAA’s Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) instrument, which provides information about the physical properties of Earth’s atmosphere – such as temperature and moisture - that heavily influence weather patterns. QuickSounder represents a leap forward in data latency for environmental satellites, delivering 95% of collected data within 30 minutes. Quicker data delivery will significantly improve NOAA’s weather forecasting ability.
Over the next two years, SwRI will design and build QuickSounder and integrate the ATMS instrument. Additionally, the Institute will perform environmental testing (thermal vacuum, vibration and acoustic) on the completed spacecraft to ensure that it will survive the launch and space environments. A little larger than a typical washing machine, the satellite will be 2.6 feet (80 cm) wide and 3.7 feet (114 cm) long and weigh about 465 pounds (211 kg), including the xenon propellant used by its small electric propulsion thruster.
SwRI will deliver QuickSounder to the launch site when it’s completed in 2026, perform launch vehicle integration, support the launch, and then will checkout and operate the satellite from the Institute’s Mission Operations Center in Boulder, Colorado, until 2029.
All design, fabrication and testing processes will occur within SwRI’s 74,000-square-foot Space System Integration Facility at its San Antonio headquarters. The facility is specifically configured to rapidly respond to commercial and government spacecraft needs, particularly small satellites targeted at emerging “new space” applications.
For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/industries/space-engineering or https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-awards-noaas-quicksounder-spacecraft-contract.
Unlocking Earth's ammonia mysteries: China's HIRAS/FY-3D satellite reveals first global map
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SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING IS A UNIQUE TECHNIQUE FOR GLOBALLY MONITORING THE EARTH'S ENVIRONMENT. RED AND YELLOW SHADING INDICATES REGIONS WITH A HIGH AMMONIA (NH3) CONCENTRATION AROUND THE WORLD, E.G., INDIA, WEST AFRICA, AND EAST CHINA.
view moreCREDIT: ADVANCES IN ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES
Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) is a trace gas that causes environmental problems and harms human health. Chinese scientists have established a full-physical retrieval algorithm to derive the concentration of the atmospheric ammonia from the Hyperspectral Infrared Atmospheric Sounder (HIRAS) onboard the Chinese FengYun (FY)-3D satellite, presenting the first atmospheric NH3 column global map observed by the HIRAS instrument.
The research was conducted by ZHOU Minqiang, an associate researcher from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with ZHANG Xingying, a senior researcher at the China Meteorological Administration.
The research paper has been published in the Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (AAS), and featured as the cover story in the third printed issue of the journal in 2024.
Lead author of the research paper Dr. ZHOU Mingqiang underscores the significance of this landmark achievement, saying that monitoring global atmospheric ammonia levels is pivotal to grasping its environmental impact and influence on climate change. "The HIRAS instrument's ability to capture NH3 hotspots worldwide represents a significant leap in our capacity to track and understand its spatiotemporal distribution," he says.
The HIRAS NH3 columns were compared with the measurements of the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), a hyperspectral infrared sounder residing on the European Space Agency's MetOp series of polar orbiting satellites, showing good consistency between the two instruments, and thus verifying the reliability of the FengYun (FY)-3D satellite's ammonia observation data. Professor ZHANG Xingying, corresponding author of the research paper, notes, "This aligns with our efforts to utilize multiple satellite instruments for a holistic understanding of atmospheric ammonia dynamics."
Professor ZHANG also acknowledges that the challenges still remain ahead. "Although our study marks a significant leap, we are still making efforts to refine the HIRAS NH3 retrievals. Continued research aims to reduce the uncertainty of satellite-based NH3 monitoring for a comprehensive understanding of its global impact."
This pioneering work marks a significant stride in Chinese satellite-based atmospheric monitoring, offering crucial insights into global NH3 distribution. The findings hold promise for advancing our understanding of atmospheric composition and its implications for environmental and climate studies.
JOURNAL
Advances in Atmospheric Sciences
ARTICLE TITLE
The First Global Map of Atmospheric Ammonia (NH3) as Observed by the HIRAS/FY-3D Satellite
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
5-Jan-2024
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