As described in another blog post, CYGNSS is a constellation mission with eight satellites. Typically, when you launch a single satellite, you use a single rocket to put it into orbit. With eight satellites, you might think that we would use eight rockets to get them into orbit. While this would be really nice, it […]
Science in the Fast Lane
The field team continues to have good weather and is ahead of schedule. They have completed the seismic and magnetic resonance soundings. They drilled into the aquifer about 15 meters below the surface and are starting hydrology measurements. All science equipment is running well and the team is in good spirits. There has only been […]
Sending Seismic Waves Through the Ice
Anatoly, Nick, and I arrived in Kulusuk on July 24 after a very long journey from Maryland and France. We spent the day organizing and weighing gear from the container and are in serious need of a warm meal and good night’s sleep. This field season the seismic measurements are the top priority since they […]
A Dash to the Field
Our team’s season has gotten off to a great start! So good that the field team was whisked into the field site early; so fast they couldn’t even get off a blog post. So I will fill you in from a nice comfy office in Colorado. If you have followed our blogs in the past, […]
Back to Southeast Greenland This Summer
Hi there, Our team is heading back to Southeast Greenland after about two months spent away from the ice sheet. These two months were busy; they consisted of fixing and maintaining some of our equipment (tents, thermal drill, piezometer heads…), starting to analyze samples, process the data collected in the spring, and preparing the logistic […]
Calculating Coverage Statistics with CYGNSS
The CYGNSS satellite mission is actually eight satellites working together as a constellation, instead of one big satellite. The good and bad of having 8 small satellites versus one big satellite were discussed in the previous post. When the mission was proposed, we had already decided how many satellites we needed to have. Deciding on […]
CYGNSS – Helping to Predict Hurricane Strength
In October of 2016, NASA will launch a constellation of Micro-Satellites called CYGNSS, which stands for the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System. The primary science goal of the mission is to better understand how and why winds in hurricanes intensify, which is interesting from both scientific and practical points of view. CYGNSS is quite a unique satellite […]
Q&A: Life in the Field with SMAPEx-4
Researcher Amy McNally spent two weeks in Yanco, Australia to participate in the three week Soil Moisture Active Passive Experiment-4 (SMAPEx-4) field campaign in May. The field campaign measures soil moisture and related data using ground and airborne instruments. The data is used to validate actual data and algorithms from the SMAP satellite. In the […]
SMAP Gathers Soil Data in Australia
It’s 3 a.m. in Yanco, Australia, a remote region located 380 miles (612 kilometers) west of Sydney. While most people are still in bed, a small team of scientists prepares for takeoff in an aircraft that will gather data about the soil below. The early-risers are investigating the amount of moisture in the top 2 […]