Dartmouth Events

Physics and Astronomy/Thayer Plasma Seminar - Kerri Cahoy, MIT

Title: "Observing Earth's Atmosphere and Ionosphere with CubeSat Sensors"

Tuesday, May 21, 2019
3:00pm – 4:00pm
Wilder 115
Intended Audience(s): Public
Categories: Lectures & Seminars

Abstract: CubeSats in low Earth orbit can improve temporal and spatial sampling of the atmosphere and ionosphere. MIT is developing several CubeSat missions using sensors for measurements of ionospheric and upper atmospheric properties, such as vector antennas for measuring Auroral Kilometric Radio Emission, coordinated GPS radio occultation measurements for gravity wave tomography, laser occultation that leverages optical communications crosslinks for concurrent measurements of atmospheric composition and temperature, deployables for precise upper atmospheric density measurements, CCD and CMOS imaging detectors, as well as scintillators with photomultipliers for energetic particle measurements. Distributed sensors on CubeSat platforms have the potential to complement traditional satellite sensors and to improve physical models.  

 
Bio: Dr. Kerri Cahoy is an Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and leads the Space Telecommunications, Astronomy, and Radiation (STAR) Laboratory. Cahoy received a B.S. (2000) in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, and M.S. (2002) and Ph.D. (2008) in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Dr. Cahoy previously worked as a Senior RF Communications Engineer at Space Systems Loral, and as a postdoctoral fellow at NASA Ames. Cahoy currently works on nanosatellite atmospheric and ionospheric sensing missions (MicroMAS, NASA TROPICS, AERO/VISTA), optical communications (NASA CLICK), and exoplanet technology demonstration (DARPA DeMi) missions.
For more information, contact:
Tressena Manning
6036462854

Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.