Next generation global atmospheric water content observations leveraging Starlink constellation

This activity is to advance a concept and demonstrate technology and an approach which could greatly improve future atmospheric water content characterization beyond the state-of-the-art. The communication signals from the SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, like those of weather radars, contain rich information on atmospheric gases, clouds, and precipitating hydrometeors, which causes the well-known phenomenon “rain fade” in satellite communications. Processing the signals from a single or multiple Starlink satellites to a ground receiver with multi-angle views provides the ability to retrieve vertical water content profiles. This effort will lead to establishment of next generation of global water content observations with a bistatic/multistatic SmallSat constellation leveraging Starlink signals and ground receiving networks, which would greatly benefit to NASA, NOAA, and future climate and weather applications. Specifically, the team will build a ground system to receive Starlink signals and develop a physics-based algorithm to retrieve atmospheric water content, such as water vapor amount, cloud water content, and rain rate, to prove the concept in this first project year.

The team expects the project will attract interests from a large community. For example, climate and water-energy cycle communities within NASA, operational facilities such as weather centers at NOAA, research institutes and universities, local/state/federal governments, policy makers, and general public for severe weather disaster mitigation. The success of the project will provide a real-time global observation of water content with high spatiotemporal resolution which would improve the understanding and prediction of climate and weather systems. This is particularly important given that the number of severe weather events, like hurricanes, have increased dramatically over the last 20 years. The project will support the observation goals of the Aerosol, Cloud, Convection and Precipitation (ACCP) mission of the current NASA Earth science decadal survey, in which LaRC plays a critical role. The proposed efforts are also strongly related to the Planetary Boundary Layer incubation mission of the decadal survey, an area within which LaRC has Study Team technical leadership and the desire to increase technical solution contribution.

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