Lab-Developed Technology Launches on Satellite

  • Published
  • By Eva Blaylock,
  • Space Vehicles Directorate
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  The AFRL-developed Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) launched aboard a satellite platform as part of a joint effort with the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. The technology is aimed at helping the Department of Defense better understand and forecast the impacts of ionospheric scintillation on communication and navigation systems.

AFRL worked in conjunction with various government and industry partners to develop six ionospheric sensors, which were subsequently integrated into the overall system. Each sensor performs a specific task related to collecting data in the ionospheric equatorial region. Collectively, these sensors will aid efforts to analyze and predict the effects of ionospheric scintillation, a naturally occurring phenomenon that causes disruption or degradation of radio waves as they pass through ionospheric plasma.

Leveraging both satellite and ground-based data processing technology, C/NOFS provides the first-ever capabilty to forecast the impacts of ionospheric scintillation on the operational performance of ultra-high-frequency satellite communication and Global Positioning System navigation systems.

SMC and prime contractor General Dynamics built the spacecraft bus and also provided Orbital Sciences Corporation's Pegasus launch vehicle. C/NOFS launched from the Army's Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands.

The C/NOFS program is an advanced concept technology demonstration effort, with AFRL functioning as the technical manager, Air Force Space Command as the transition and operational manager, and US Strategic Command as the user sponsor.
AFRL and its government and contractor teams will use the data collected by C/NOFS sensors to create physics models that will, in turn, assist scientists in identifying and forecasting conditions conducive to ionospheric scintillation. The research team will also disseminate C/NOFS data and resultant products for use by various DOD organizations.