Thursday, July 8, 2021
Sometimes, important discoveries do not have to result from new space missions. Discoveries may instead result from new and innovative ways to use data delivered by space missions already in progress. Using data in new ways which were never imagined when the mission was originally conceived is a great way to make space missions more appealing to the public, and more economical to scientists.
As reported by NASA, a June 2021 paper by University of Michigan scientists Evans and Ruf in the IEEE “Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing” revealed exactly this kind of innovative thinking. Evans and Ruf recognized a need for scientists to be able to track microplastics in the ocean, as these tiny harmful plastic particles must be tracked before there is any chance of remediating them. While designing and building a Space Mission for this purpose would have been time consuming and expensive, they looked for an innovative way to use data from an existing Space Mission to track microplastics.
Evans and Ruf employed data already being collected by NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System ( CYGNSS ), a space mission originally launched in 2016 to make accurate measurements of ocean surface winds to enhance our understanding of Hurricanes. It turns out the CYGNSS also uses a radar to measure ocean roughness. Using a known correlation between ocean surface wind speed and sea surface roughness, they looked for places where the roughness was different than models would have predicted. Examination of these areas revealed that the primary cause for this anomaly was the presence of microplastics. Tracking microplastics is now possible, and it did not require a new Space Mission!
If you would like to learn more about Space Missions, consider taking the upcoming ATI course entitled “Space Mission Fundamentals”. A detailed description of the course, and link for registration can be found here.
Other related ATI courses of possible Interest would include “Remote Sensing Information Extraction”, “New Directions in Remote Sensing”, and “Concurrent Engineering and Product Development”.
A complete list of ATI Courses can be found here.
About Applied Technology Institute (ATIcourses or ATI)
ATIcourses is a national leader in professional development seminars in the technical areas of space, communications, defense, sonar, radar, engineering, and signal processing. Since 1984, ATIcourses has presented leading-edge technical training to defense and NASA facilities, as well as DOD and aerospace contractors. ATI’s programs create a clear understanding of the fundamental principles and a working knowledge of current technology and applications. ATI offers customized on-site training at your facility anywhere in the United States, as well as internationally, and over 200 annual public courses in dozens of locations. ATI is proud to have world-class experts instructing courses. For more information, call 410-956-8805 or 1-888-501-2100 (toll free), or visit them on the web at www.ATIcourses.com.
Note: Accredited media are invited to attend for free.