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(Last updated 9/14/01)

 

NASA FUNDS RESEARCH ON ADVANCED SENSOR FOR GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will help Ohio State University engineers design, build, and test a prototype advanced sensor for studying the Earth's climate.

Through its Instrument Incubator Program (IPP), NASA awarded $921,000 to Joel T. Johnson, associate professor of electrical engineering, and Steven W. Ellingson, research scientist at Ohio State's ElectroScience Laboratory, for the three-year project.

While Johnson's research focuses on orbiting instruments that detect conditions down on earth, his co-principal investigator brings a different kind of skill set to the project. Ellingson develops innovative techniques for ground-based radio astronomy antennas to receive signals from outer space.

"Our work may sound very different, but the issues involved for this sensor are very similar," Johnson said. "I'm just looking down at the earth while Steve's looking up at the sky."

With fellow ElectroScience Lab researcher Grant Hampson, Johnson, Ellingson, and their students will construct a sensor called a microwave radiometer, which is capable of precisely measuring sea surface salinity -- the amount of salt in the water. Changes in salinity reveal subtle circulation patterns in the ocean that play an important role in global climate.

The novel sensor will gather this information by measuring the small amounts of microwave radiation naturally emitted by the ocean.

Satellites with optical sensors can't detect sea properties at night, or through clouds, but microwave sensors can. A satellite equipped with the Ohio State radiometer would be capable of 24-hour observation over all the world's oceans.

The Ohio State researchers' main challenge will involve finding a way to eliminate signal interference from cell phones, air traffic control radar, and the myriad other sources of radio "noise" on earth. The radiometer to be developed will include a special processing component to remove unwanted interference.

NASA's IPP program funds the development of technologies which could lead to future flight instruments that are smaller, less resource intensive, less costly, and require less time to build.

This latest round of funding focused on earth science remote-sensing instruments. NASA selected 11 projects from around the country, for a total commitment of $29,604,000 over three years.

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Contact: Joel T. Johnson, (614) 292-1606;
Johnson.1374@osu.edu

Written by Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu