NASA Flies Cubic’s Nuvotronics Wide-Band Antenna
April 16 2020 - 7:01AM
Business Wire
Cubic Mission Solutions’ Nuvotronics technology
enables NASA’s next-generation snow measurement system to operate
over six frequency bands from a single antenna aperture
Cubic Corporation (NYSE:CUB) today announced Nuvotronics,
operating within its Cubic Mission Solutions (CMS) business
division, provided advanced multi-frequency antenna technology to
enable the successful validation of NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center’s (NASA-GSFC) Snow Water Equivalent Synthetic Aperture Radar
and Radiometer (SWESARR).
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Rendering of SWESARR multi-band feed and
0.34-meter reflector dish (Left). DHC-6 Twin Otter carrying the
SWESARR instrument during the February SnowEx 2020 flight campaign
(Right). Image Credits NASA Goddard.
Snow is critical to Earth’s ecosystem. It reflects sunlight back
to space, insulates Earth’s surface and delivers life sustaining
water by means of snowmelt. Currently, NASA does not have a global
high-resolution satellite mission to track and study the amount of
water contained in snow, known as Snow Water Equivalent (SWE). To
cost effectively meet this gap, NASA scientists need innovative
airborne instruments to overcome challenges of differing terrains,
depth and melt conditions.
In winter 2019–2020, Nuvotronics provided wide-band
multi-frequency antenna technology for use in an airborne data
validation study for the SWESARR instrument during the NASA SnowEx
campaign. The study collected ground measurements at multiple
locations and analogous airborne measurements using a DHC-6 Twin
Otter Aircraft operated by the Naval Postgraduate School’s (NPS)
Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies
(CIRPAS). Nuvotronics’ microwave antenna technology enabled SWESARR
to operate over six frequency bands from a single antenna aperture,
ensuring overlapping measurements. Multi-frequency operation
increases the quality of data collected, at a lower cost.
Nuvotronics’ technology collected natural radiation coming from
layers of snow, providing information that is combined with active
radar data to infer the volume of water held in snowpack.
Nuvotronics’ specific contributions include a X-Ka Band 11x12
element line array and a X-W band Vivaldi array demonstrator.
NASA-GSFC integrated the X-Ka band array with a 0.34-meter
reflector and a Ka band digital beamforming back-end into the
airborne instrument on an active roll compensation platform
developed by another partner company. Nuvotronics’ PolyStrata®
technology enabled seamless integration, rich data collection and
excellent noise performance in a compact radiometer.
“We are proud of the part we played in NASA’s mission to
remotely measure Snow Water Equivalent, which is critical for water
resource management and climate studies,” said Martin Amen, vice
president and general manager of Cubic Nuvotronics. “Our
participation demonstrates how our highly innovative technology has
enabled next-generation, multi-band radiometry instrumentation to
support the measurement of precipitation rate; integrated water
vapor; cloud liquid water and ice; ocean surface wind speed; snow
water equivalent; sea ice concentration; and land surface
temperature, which has never been done before. This also proves the
air platform worthiness of PolyStrata enabled advanced
systems.”
“We are thrilled with the exceptional results,” said Mike
Twyman, president of Cubic Mission Solutions. “The achievement of
these critical milestones demonstrates our ability to leverage
PolyStrata technology to build wide-band phased arrays from X to W
band.”
Nuvotronics is continuing its efforts to advance NASA’s
next-generation instruments to track SWE. This milestone and
successful airborne demonstration of capability is a key feedback
point.
SWESARR is developed through NASA Earth Science Technology
Office (ESTO) Instrument Incubator Program (IIP) and Goddard’s
Internal Research and Development Program. Funding for SnowEx
flights were provided by the NASA Terrestrial Hydrology
Program.
About Cubic Corporation
Cubic is a technology-driven, market-leading provider of
integrated solutions that increase situational understanding for
transportation, defense C4ISR, and training customers worldwide to
decrease urban congestion and improve the militaries’ effectiveness
and operational readiness. Our teams innovate to make a positive
difference in people’s lives. We simplify their daily journeys. We
promote mission success and safety for those who serve their
nation. For more information about Cubic, please visit the
company’s website at www.cubic.com or on Twitter @CubicCorp.
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Media Contact Crystal Nguyen
Corporate Communications Cubic Corporation PH: +1 858-505-2593
Crystal.Nguyen@cubic.com
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