James Jones, Northrop Grumman, Kevin Scro, Air Force Space Command – Space and Missile Systems Center – Remote Sensing Directorate, David Payne, Northrop Grumman, Ryan Ruhge, Northrop Grumman, Brandon Erickson, Northrop Grumman, Sage Andorka, Northrop Grumman, Catherine Ludwig, Northrop Grumman, Jody Karmann, Northrop Grumman, Drew Ebelhar, Northrop Grumman
Keywords: scintillation, model,UHF, L-band, GPS, communications, space weather,space situational awareness, SSA,environmental impacts
Abstract:
Ionospheric Scintillation refers to random fluctuations in phase and amplitude of electromagnetic waves caused by a rapidly varying refractive index due to turbulent features in the ionosphere. Scintillation of transionospheric UHF and L-Band radio frequency signals is particularly troublesome since this phenomenon can lead to degradation of signal strength and integrity that can negatively impact satellite communications and navigation, radar, or radio signals from other systems that traverse or interact with the ionosphere. Although ionospheric scintillation occurs in both the equatorial and polar regions of the Earth, the focus of this modeling effort is on equatorial scintillation. The ionospheric scintillation model is data-driven in a sense that scintillation observations are used to perform detection and characterization of scintillation structures. These structures are then propagated to future times using drift and decay models to represent the natural evolution of ionospheric scintillation. The impact on radio signals is also determined by the model and represented in graphical format to the user. A frequency scaling algorithm allows for impact analysis on frequencies other than the observation frequencies. The project began with lab-grade software and through a tailored Agile development process, deployed operational-grade code to a DoD operational center. The Agile development process promotes adaptive promote adaptive planning, evolutionary development, early delivery, continuous improvement, regular collaboration with the customer, and encourage rapid and flexible response to customer-driven changes. The Agile philosophy values individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a rigid plan. The end result was an operational capability that met customer expectations. Details of the model and the process of operational integration are discussed as well as lessons learned to improve performance on future projects.
Date of Conference: September 15-18, 2015
Track: Atmospherics/Space Weather