Engineering Physics Commons^™

Engineering Path Trajectories With Gravitational Fields, Eliane Dean, Aidan Hart, Isabel Noot, Nathan Browning, Valeria Villazon Fito

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

This project explores how vector calculus concepts play a role in aerospace engineering though spacecraft trajectory design. In particular, the notion of vector fields is used to model the gravitational force, whose work done is expressed through line integrals. By taking the curl of the gravitational field and showing it is zero, the field is recognised as conservative, implying that the work done by gravity is path independent. This property is conceptually linked to gravitational potential energy and the principle of energy conservation. The results are then applied to spacecraft motion, where engineers use energy-base methods to determine efficient trajectories …

Robust Real-Time Uav Target Tracking With Onboard Vision-Based Yaw Control, Rylan Malarchick, Jose Castelblanco, Enrique Amaya, Carmen Dimario, Graysen Brinkman, Chirag Kumar, Kiwon Yoon, Sajid Berhane

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

Autonomous tracking of agile unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) presents significant challenges for real-time perception and control systems. This work presents AIRHOUND (Autonomous Intelligent Rotorcraft for Hostile Object Unified Navigation and Detection), a UAV platform implementing vision-based yaw tracking through a modular ROS2 software architecture. The system employs YOLOv8 object detection optimized with NVIDIA TensorRT for embedded deployment on an NVIDIA Jetson Orin companion computer. Detected targets are processed through a geometric tracking module that converts pixel coordinates to angular yaw errors using pinhole camera intrinsics, with a proportional controller generating rate-limited yaw commands. These commands are streamed to a PX4 …

Developing A Multi-Band Gnss Remote Sensing Station To Measure Precipitable Water Vapor For Flash Flood Nowcasting, Madison Gleydura

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Flash flood nowcasting in Central and Southern Appalachia is particularly challenging due to steep terrain, narrow valleys, highly localized rainfall patterns, and limited measurement coverage. Traditional remote sensing methods, such as Doppler radar and microwave radiometry, suffer from reduced resolution at long range and signal blockage by mountains. GNSS-meteorology offers an established alternative for measuring precipitable water vapor and is currently integrated into several numerical weather models. Recent research demonstrates that commercial-grade GNSS receivers can produce tropospheric products comparable to those from geodetic-grade equipment. The gaps in mountain coverage can be addressed by developing a low-cost, self-contained embedded system that …

Information Theory Analysis Of The Solar Wind Magnetic Structures For Space Weather Prediction, Katherine Holland

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Forecasting space weather at Earth is highly complicated, because of the limited measurements of the dynamic processes in the Sun that span multiple temporal, spatial, and energy-scales. The solar wind is a highly structured, multi-scale, evolving plasma and consists of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), stream interaction regions (SIRs), expanding flux tubes (Borovsky, 2008), and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) discontinuities and fluctuations. The aim of this research is to improve our understanding of the evolution and dissipation of different scale-size solar wind magnetic structures as they move from the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1 (L1) to Earth's bow shock and, ultimately, to …

Building The Erau Solar Telescope: Advancing Heliophysics Research And Education Through Optical Innovation, Erin Abraham, Sarah Hoover, Skylar G. Butler, Margret Stanley, Gwynlyn Hannah

Student Research Symposium (SRS)

The new Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) Solar Telescope represents a campus-wide collaboration to design and install a high-resolution solar observatory. The ERAU solar telescope, aiming for first light by Summer 2026, will integrate research-grade instrumentation, student training opportunities, and expand public engagement with the ERAU observatory. The telescope is housed within a 2.3-meter refurbished dome structure whose electrical and structural systems are being upgraded to support automated dome rotation and environmental stabilization. The optical design features a multi-element lens and mirror assembly optimized for a 1° field of view. The optical assembly includes a downport centered in the dome that …

Developing Sky Plots Of Rocket Launches From Gps Scintillation Data, Ishaan Dey, Kshitija Deshpande

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

Sky plots displaying GPS satellite and rocket launch trajectories are developed to determine the spatial correlation between satellites that display ionospheric scintillations and heavy thrust-producing rockets. The trajectories of three major Falcon Heavy and Artemis 1 rocket launches are used within this paper. Python code is utilized to compute and plot Ionospheric Pierce Point (IPP) coordinates which are then used to produce satellite trajectories from the receiver's point of view. Rocket latitude, longitude, and altitude data is integrated within the code to provide extensive detail into the location of the rocket in relation to GPS satellites that displayed scintillations from …

Characterization Of A Magnetically Contained Hot Filament Plasma Source With A Wide-Sweeping Langmuir Probe, Jonas Rowan

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Ionospheric plasma research in the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Laboratory’s Space Plasma Chamber has been hindered by the lack of a suitable plasma diagnostic instrument and understanding of its hot-filament plasma source. This thesis describes efforts made to remedy both problems. A wide-range Sweeping Langmuir Probe was developed with a ±35 V sweeping range to fully analyze ion and electron saturation regions in the entire IV curve. A method was derived to estimate the chamber source’s filament temperatures. The new Langmuir probe was integrated into a refurbished automated system designed in Python to measure plasma parameters for various chamber conditions, …

Statistical Study Of Solar Wind Conditions Prior To Substorm Onsets, Luke H. Francis

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Due to complex, multi-region, coupled plasma systems, auroral substorm onsets have been historically difficult to predict. The northward turning of the interplanetary magnetic field was considered the primary candidate as an external triggering mechanism for substorm onsets. However, that was later shown to be coincidental in nature. This study is motivated by recent multi-spacecraft observations that show how several magnetosheath jets at the bow shock were heavily correlated to substorm onsets, indicated by a strongly radial IMF interval. In the past, studies have looked at small samples of substorms in order to make large-scale predictions. However in this study, a …

High-Latitude Ionospheric Irregularities Characterized Through Machine Learning Methods, Anna-Marie Bals

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This study uses Machine Learning and data-driven techniques to understand plasma irregularities in high-latitude regions better. By combining observations and recent findings from modeling, the goal is to identify and classify scintillation signatures caused by different types of irregularities in the ionosphere. The focus is on irregularities from electron precipitation in the auroral oval and ExB drifts in the polar cap. Using Machine Learning tools, the study aims to distinguish between different scintillation signatures and link them to their sources, improving our ability to detect and characterize these events. Using multiple instruments and advanced filtering, the aim is to enhance …

Contaminated Sweeping Langmuir Probes On Sounding Rocket Platforms, Rachel Conway

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Sweeping Langmuir Probes (SLPs) are one of the most commonly used probes on sounding rocket missions. They offer measurements of plasma density, electron temperature, and both relative and absolute payload charging. One of the major implementation challenges, however, is contamination on the surface of the probe such that collected IV curves become distorted. This distortion can result in deflated densities, inflated temperatures, and erroneous charging measurements. This dissertation aims to expand our understanding of contamination's impact on SLP data and offer new mitigation methods appropriate for the sounding rocket platform.

SPICE, Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis, is used to …

Measuring The Ion Temperature Of A Plasma Jet Undergoing Instability-Driven Heating, Mario Avila

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Outlined are arrangements to measure the ion temperature of a plasma jet undergoing instabilities and an examination of experiment findings. The jet, formed by puffing a controlled amount of Nitrogen or Argon gas into Embry-Riddle's cylindrical vacuum chamber and then ionizing it via high-voltage electronically switched capacitor banks, is regulated to undergo three distinct instability regimes, stable, current-driven, and pinched (or detached), dependent on the voltage of an externally applied bias field and initial conditions. Ion temperature measurements of plasma are inferred through analysis of the Doppler-broadening observed spectroscopically at relevant wavelengths. To improve measurements, this arrangement implements a unique …

Space Radiation Assessment And Mitigation: Meeting The Growing Demand For Shielding Solutions By Enhancing Models And Exploring Novel Shielding Opportunities, M. Laura Sorgi Johann

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The rapid growth of satellite technology and the increasing presence of vulnerable technology and human life in space have highlighted the need for improved shielding materials. Industry standard protocols for shielding are being pushed to their limits as we gain a deeper understanding of the harsh space environment and as chip sizes approach the scale of radiation wavelengths. Furthermore, the commercialization of space is attracting interest from industries such as pharmaceuticals and semiconductor crystal growing, as they explore the potential benefits of zero-gravity production environments. However, the eagerness to develop lighter shielding and the lack of consideration for existing tools …

Balloon Borne Gps-Enabled Radiosondes That Enable Simultaneous Multi-Point Atmospheric Sensing With A Single Ground Station, Peter A. Ribbens

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Radiosondes are balloon borne atmospheric instruments that are a critical tool for understanding dynamics in the lower layers of the atmosphere. The low-cost radiosondes developed in the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab have been further developed to improve the system's use as a science-quality atmospheric instrument that is unique in its ability to simultaneously track multiple sondes with a single ground station. Sensors to measure temperature and pressure were added to improve measurements of the atmospheric state. A printed circuit board shield and 3D-printed shell were designed to make mass manufacturing possible. A thermistor-based temperature sensor was developed and tested …

Radio Propagation Through Density Irregularities In The Auroral Ionosphere, Pralay Raj Vaggu

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

A radio wave propagating through a structured or turbulent ionosphere undergoes multiple effects, such as refraction, diffraction, etc., that distort the incident radio wave by inducing phase and amplitude fluctuations. These fluctuations are called ionospheric scintillation. Scintillation effects can be detrimental to Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) such as Global Positioning System (GPS), but the observed effects can be used as a tool to study the underlying plasma process that causes scintillation. Scintillation is commonly seen in equatorial and high-latitude regions. This study centers around the scintillation and its causative plasma processes that dominantly happen in the high-latitude ionosphere …

Low Cost Magnetometer Calibration And Distributed Simultaneous Multipoint Ionospheric Measurements From A Sounding Rocket Platform, Joshua W. Milford

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Low-cost and low-size-weight-and-power (SWaP) magnetometers can provide greater accessibility for distributed simultaneous measurements in the ionosphere, either onboard sounding rockets or on CubeSats. The Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Laboratory (SAIL) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has launched a multitude of sounding rockets in recent history: one night-time mid-latitude rocket from Wallops Flight Facility in August 2022 and three mid-latitude rockets from White Sands Missile Range during the October 2023 annular solar eclipse. All rockets had a comprehensive suite of instruments for electrodynamics and neutral dynamics measurements. Among this suite was one science-grade three-axis fluxgate magnetometer (Billingsley TFM65VQS / TFM100G2) and up …

Statistical Characteristics Of High-Frequency Gravity Waves Observed By An Airglow Imager At Andes Lidar Observatory, Alan Z. Liu, Bing Cao

Publications

The long-term statistical characteristics of high-frequency quasi-monochromatic gravity waves are presented using multi-year airglow images observed at Andes Lidar Observatory (ALO, 30.3° S, 70.7° W) in northern Chile. The distribution of primary gravity wave parameters including horizontal wavelength, vertical wavelength, intrinsic wave speed, and intrinsic wave period are obtained and are in the ranges of 20–30 km, 15–25 km, 50–100 m s−1, and 5–10 min, respectively. The duration of persistent gravity wave events captured by the imager approximately follows an exponential distribution with an average duration of 7–9 min. The waves tend to propagate against the local background winds and …

Vertical Take-Off And Landing Control Via Dual-Quaternions And Sliding Mode, Joshua Sonderegger

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The landing and reusability of space vehicles is one of the driving forces into renewed interest in space utilization. For missions to planetary surfaces, this soft landing has been most commonly accomplished with parachutes. However, in spite of their simplicity, they are susceptible to parachute drift. This parachute drift makes it very difficult to predict where the vehicle will land, especially in a dense and windy atmosphere such as Earth. Instead, recent focus has been put into developing a powered landing through gimbaled thrust. This gimbaled thrust output is dependent on robust path planning and controls algorithms. Being able to …

Mms Observations Of The Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability And Associated Ion Scale Waves, Rachel C. Rice

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The detailed mechanisms coupling the solar wind to Earth's magnetosphere are not yet fully understood. Solar wind plasma is heated non-adiabatically as it penetrates the magnetosphere, and this process must span scale sizes. Reconnection alone is not able to account for the observed heating; other mechanisms must be at work. One potential process is the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI). The KHI is a convective instability which operates at the fluid scale in plasmas, but is capable of driving secondary process at smaller scales. Previous work has shown evidence of magnetic reconnection, various ion scale wave modes, mode conversion, and turbulence associated …

Acoustic/Gravity Wave Phenomena In Wide-Field Imaging: From Data Analysis To A Modeling Framework For Observability In The Mlt Region And Beyond, Jaime Aguilar Guerrero

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Acoustic waves, gravity waves, and larger-scale tidal and planetary waves are significant drivers of the atmosphere’s dynamics and of the local and global circulation that have direct and indirect impacts on our weather and climate. Their measurements and characterization are fundamental challenges in Aeronomy that require a wide range of instrumentation with distinct operational principles. Most measurements share the common features of integrating optical emissions or effects on radio waves through deep layers of the atmosphere. The geometry of these integrations create line-of-sight effects that must be understood, described, and accounted for to properly present the measured data in traditional …

Ultra-Low Frequency Waves At Middle Latitudes During Substorms: Observations And Modeling, Mergen Alimaganbetov

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This doctoral dissertation presents the results of investigation of the Ultra-Low Frequency (ULF) waves at middle latitudes during substorms. The dissertation consists of two major parts, observations and simulations. The research in this dissertation proposes that the main role in the generation of ULF waves at middle latitudes during substorm belongs to the plasmapause.

The first part of the dissertation presents results of the data analysis of 84 intense substorm events as well as an overview of space observation programs such as CRRES, Van Allen Probes and DMSP. Data used in this study are from the ACE satellite taken measurements …

Investigation Of Trajectory And Control Designs For A Solar Sail To The Moon, Michelle Nadeau

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

NASA’s Artemis program and other government and commercial projects are working toward establishing a sustainable human presence on the moon. This thesis investigates the technical feasibility of a solar sail-based spacecraft (sailcraft) as a low-cost method of delivering cargo or science instruments to the moon and demonstrates how this sailcraft could be controlled to change its orbit. The concept is a low-cost, commercial launch vehicle-deployable, CubeSat-based sailcraft with a square sail, assumed attitude control, and a small payload traversing from low-Earth orbit toward the moon with zero propellant use. In this thesis, methods for sailcraft to increase altitude, the trajectory …

Proton Aurora At Mars: Assessing The Characteristics, Variability, And Driving Mechanisms Of A Newly Discovered Phenomenon, Andréa C.G. Hughes

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The purpose of this doctoral research dissertation is to develop a deeper understanding of the phenomenology, variability and driving processes of proton aurora at Mars. Proton aurora are the most recently discovered of the three types of Martian aurora. Due to Mars’ lack of a global dipole magnetic field, the formation processes of Martian proton aurora are uniquely different than aurora on Earth. Martian proton aurora are expected to form on the planet’s dayside via electron stripping/charge exchange processes between solar wind protons and the neutral hydrogen corona. Herein, I present the results of a study of proton aurora at …

Potential Applications Of Electrodynamic Tethers, Sai Charan Petchetti

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

In recent decades, alternative propulsion systems have been investigated and have attracted great interest in the space community. Most of these alternative propulsion systems need propellants. One alternative propulsion system that does not require propellants and is not often discussed is electrodynamic tethers (EDTs). This paper speculates the potential applications of EDTs ranging from radiation belt remediation to momentum exchange tether re-boosting.

Foundations Of The Geometric Mechanics Udwadia-Kalaba Framework For Rigid Body Constrained Motion Analysis, Brennan S. Mccann

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Presented herein are multiple tools for constrained motion analysis extended to different dynamical frameworks. The Udwadia-Kalaba (UK) formalism for the constrained motion analysis of a point mass is a well-documented and applied methodology. Here, UK formulation is generalized to the dynamics of rigid bodies on nonlinear manifolds in the geometric mechanics framework. This approach simultaneously treats rotational and translational motion in a unified method without encountering singularites or non-uniqueness, issues that would arise were attitude parameterization sets used. The viability of this geometric mechanics UK formalism is demonstrated for the cases of fully and underconstrained systems. The nominal UK formalism …

Finite-Time State Estimation For An Inverted Pendulum Under Input-Multiplicative Uncertainty, Sergey V. Drakunov, William Mackunis, Anu Kossery Jayaprakash, Krishna Bhavithavya Kidambi, Mahmut Reyhanoglu

Publications

A sliding mode observer is presented, which is rigorously proven to achieve finite-time state estimation of a dual-parallel underactuated (i.e., single-input multi-output) cart inverted pendulum system in the presence of parametric uncertainty. A salient feature of the proposed sliding mode observer design is that a rigorous analysis is provided, which proves finite-time estimation of the complete system state in the presence of input-multiplicative parametric uncertainty. The performance of the proposed observer design is demonstrated through numerical case studies using both sliding mode control (SMC)- and linear quadratic regulator (LQR)-based closed-loop control systems. The main contribution presented here is the rigorous …

Non-Linear Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Interactions At High Latitudes, Beket Tulegenov

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Non-linear, 3D electromagnetic coupling between the ionosphere and magnetosphere is investigated in this dissertation. The study is based on a non-linear, 3D, reduced magnetohydrodynamic model describing interaction between dispersive Alfven waves and the nightside high-latitude ionosphere. Results are presented from a numerical study of small-scale, intense magnetic field-aligned currents observed in the vicinity of the discrete auroral arc by the Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling in the Alfven Resonator (MICA) sounding rocket launched from Poker Flat, Alaska, on 19 February 2012. The goal of the MICA project was to investigate the hypothesis that such currents can be produced inside the ionospheric Alfven resonator …

Planar Ion Probe For Low-Latitude Ionosphere/Thermosphere Enhancements In Density Cubesat Mission, Liam Owen Gunter

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

One of the crucial measurements for characterizing any space weather event is absolute plasma density and plasma density fluctuations, both spatially and temporally. Langmuir probes are the oldest and most proven instruments for these in-situ measurements. This thesis enumerates the development of a miniaturized low-noise Langmuir probe intended for a dual CubeSat mission to study equatorial temperature and wind anomaly in the Earth’s ionosphere.

The Langmuir probe instrument developed is of a planar geometry and fix biased in the ion saturation region, i.e. negative w.r.t. spacecraft chassis. Operating the Langmuir probe in the ion saturation region avoids excessive spacecraft charging …

On Atmospheric Lapse Rates, Nihad E. Daidzic

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

We have derived and summarized and most important atmospheric temperature lapse rates. ALRs essentially govern vertical atmospheric air stability and creation of some cloud types. The sensitivity analysis of various atmospheric lapse rates and their dependence on actual ideal-gas air properties and gravitational attraction was conducted for the first time to the best of our knowledge. SALR, which has DALR as the upper asymptote, showed steepest decrease at around 9 degrees Celsius then flattening out and apparently approaching another asymptotic solution which has not been investigated as it falls outside of the terrestrial temperature range. ISA lapse rates are adopted …

Nonlinear Sliding Mode Observer Applied To Microalgae Growth, Rebecca J. Griffith

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Modeling biological processes, such as algae growth, is an area of ongoing research. The ability to understand the multitude of parameters that influence this system provides a platform for better understanding the dynamics of microalgae growth. Empirical modeling efforts look to understand sources of driving nutrients that influence harmful algal blooms (HABs). These harmful algal blooms are dense aggregates that have an increasingly negative impact on local economics, marine and freshwater systems, and public health. They result from a high influx of nitrogen and nutrients that drive the algae biomass to exponentially grow. This growth blocks out the sun, potentially …

Impacts Of Anisotropy, Wave Heating, And Neutral Winds On High-Latitude Ionospheric Dynamics, Meghan R. Burleigh

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Significant amounts of ionospheric plasma can be transported to high altitudes (ion upflow) in response to a variety of plasma heating and uplifting processes such as DC electric fields and precipitation. Once ions have been lifted to high altitudes, transverse ion acceleration by broadband ELF waves can give the upflowing ions sufficient energy for the mirror force to propel these ions to escape into the magnetosphere (ion outflow). In order to accurately examine the connection between upflow and outflow processes, a new two dimensional, anisotropic fluid model is developed.

The new model, named GEMINI-TIA, is based on a Bi-Maxwellian distribution …