Advancing the Radio Frequency Payload for a 3-D Lightning Geolocation Capability with a Constellation of CubeSats

CubeSpark is a new CubeSat mission concept is under development by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to make detailed 3-dimensional (3-D) measurements of lightning on a global scale, which would yield transformational information about the structure of thunderstorms. CubeSpark will use a small constellation of CubeSats in low Earth orbit, to make combined radio frequency (RF) and optical measurements of lightning. Each CubeSat will be equipped with an RF payload that would independently detect and record impulsive radio emissions from lightning; the synthesis of these measurements, coupled with complementary onboard optical lightning mapping observations, would provide the latitude, longitude, and most critically, altitude of the numerous individual lightning components that comprise a lightning flash. The result would be a map of the 3-D structure of a lightning flash. This 3-D structure is intimately linked to the precipitation and vertical motions of a thundercloud; thus, lightning observations are a powerful tool that can provide insight into the microphysical and dynamical processes of severe storms. CubeSpark would enable these measurements to be sampled from all over the globe over the course of many orbits, giving a rich data set covering many different environments, which is the key to understanding the underlying physical processes of storms. The satellite-based RF global 3-D lightning geolocation capability has been proven with operational LANL-designed RF payloads on GPS satellites in support of nuclear treaty monitoring missions; however, at medium Earth orbit the signal to noise ratio is much smaller than it would be from the low Earth orbit of CubeSpark. Additionally, the RF 3-D lightning mapping technique is also commonly used in ground-based arrays, but the range of those sensors is limited to only a few hundred kilometers. By contrast, global, optically based lightning mapping from space has been proven by MSFC's Optical Transient Detector (OTD) and Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) instruments, but alone these measurements can only resolve lightning structure in 2 dimensions (latitude and longitude). By combining RF and optical lightning mapping measurements, not only do we add the altitude information essential for understanding the structure of thunderstorms, but we can also resolve lightning flashes in higher detail than with either capability alone. Thus, from low-Earth orbit, CubeSpark will provide unique dual-phenomenology 3-D measurements of lightning that will give critical insight into global thunderstorm processes. These data are important to the NASA Earth Science focus areas of Weather, Atmospheric Composition, and Climate Variability and Change, and are highly relevant to the most recent Decadal Survey. LANL has decades of experience in the development of RF payloads on satellites for nuclear treaty monitoring, while MSFC has extensive experience in making global observations of thunderstorms from space. In order to advance the CubeSpark concept, components from existing RF payload designs need to be miniaturized for the size, weight, and power requirements of a CubeSat. We will leverage LANL's expertise to modify the analog and digital components of the RF receiver and the amplifier for an active antenna, while MSFC will establish rigorous lightning measurement requirements that the new components will meet. The receiver and amplifier components for CubeSpark are currently at TRL 2. The proposed work to increase this TRL includes 1) identifying new subcomponents that will reduce size, weight and power of the component; 2) producing prototypes of the new components, which includes component design, layout, fabrication and assembly; and 3) initial laboratory hardware tests to verify basic functionality, power consumption and performance. This work, which is critical for enabling the CubeSpark mission, will advance these components to TRL 4.

Accelerate mission development and reduce risk by developing critical components and subsystems for advanced instruments and observing systems

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