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2016

Utah State University

OPAL

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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Atmospheric Modeling For Opal Mission, Preston Hooser May 2016

Atmospheric Modeling For Opal Mission, Preston Hooser

Physics Capstone Projects

Opal is a CubeSat mission which will measure the neutral temperature of the lower thermosphere (90-140km). It will do this by studying the O2 atmospheric band (A-band), a photoemission of excited molecular oxygen. One of the goals of OPAL is to detect and measure gravity waves traveling up through the region from storms below. In order to do this, it is important to understand the effects of gravity waves on the emission. This paper will describe efforts made to model the atmosphere for preflight mission simulation.


Opal Cubesatellite Flight And Line Of Sight Integration Modeling, Kenneth Zia Apr 2016

Opal Cubesatellite Flight And Line Of Sight Integration Modeling, Kenneth Zia

Physics Capstone Projects

The Optical Profiling of the Atmospheric Limb (OPAL) mission is funded by NSF to gather global thermosphere temperatures. OPAL will be able to resolve the temperature profiles through observing day-time emissions of O2 A-band (~760nm) emissions. This is done by using integrated line-of-sight measurements of the A-band through a tangential view of the atmosphere down to 90km and up to 140 km. The OPAL instrument is on a 3U CubeSatellite (30cm×10cm×10cm) and is expected to follow the International Space Station (ISS) orbit (~400km altitude). Having an accurate model of the OPAL CubeSatellite’s position and the attitude of its optical …


Algorithms For The Optical Profiling Of The Atmospheric Limb Radiometry Data Analysis For The Opal Cubesat, Eric D. Ashby Apr 2016

Algorithms For The Optical Profiling Of The Atmospheric Limb Radiometry Data Analysis For The Opal Cubesat, Eric D. Ashby

Physics Capstone Projects

The Optical Profiling of the Atmospheric Limb (OPAL) mission is a CubeSat (NSF) project with aims to measure the temperature in the thermosphere between 90 and 140 km. The temperatures are inferred from the characteristic emission lines of molecular oxygen called the O2 A-band (around 760 nm). These temperatures will be used to better understand the evolution of the upper atmosphere during a solar storm and to analyze the temperature signatures of gravity waves. Multiple steps are required to retrieve temperature data from the OPAL satellite. Initially, the data must be deconvoluted from line-of-sight images. Spectral data must then be …