Theater Weather Imaging & Cloud Characterization Sensor (TWICCS)
TWICCS will obtain global EO/IR imagery of clouds and near-ground atmospheric conditions.
Current wide field of view imagery for the DoD is provided by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellites, of which all are well past their expected life.
Starting in 2017, Brandywine Photonics has been awarded multiple SBIR contracts to develop a solution to the weather gaps of Theater Weather Imaging and Cloud Characterization. The TWICCS payload for the WeatherSat will demonstrate the capabilities of a push-frame, multispectral imager in acquiring high quality weather data covering Visible through Longwave Infrared. Data products supported include Theater Weather Imagery (i.e. discrimination of ground fog, dust, and smoke, etc.) and Cloud Characterization data (cloud phase, cloud top temperature, mid and low-level clouds, etc.) The mission objective is to prove that a constellation of small low-cost satellites can fill the role previously held by flagship GEO and LEO satellites, without sacrificing data quality or revisit rate (<1-min average for a 16- satellite constellation.) The field of view of the instrument is 2000 Km with a 1 Km Visible resolution in the Day-Night Band, and 2 Km resolution in the infrared bands at the edge of field. Brandywine designed the instrument, and is currently involved with Assembly, Integration, and Test of the 10 cameras. Delivery of the TWICCS payload in early 2023.
AFRL/NOAA - Compact Hyperspectral Infrared Sounding Interferometer (CHISI)
CHISI will provide moisture, temperature, and greenhouse gas (GHG) profiles to support improved weather forecasting.
Current Infrared Sounding measurements from the Cross-Track Infrared Sounder on Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) provide data only every 6 hours at 14-km resolution, at a cost of over $1B.
The Compact Hyperspectral Infrared Sounding Instrument (CHISI) project is to design, build, and test an affordable Infrared Sounder deployed in a large constellation to provide revisit times of <1 hour at a resolution of 7-km or better. Development of the CHISI breadboard was performed under an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contract, while upgrades to the detector and calibrator are ongoing under a NOAA Phase III SBIR. Key innovations made by the Brandywine team include the field widened interferometer and the blackbody calibrator design. The breadboard was built in a 1-year period during COVID, and the blackbody and detector upgrades are expected to be completed in 1Q2023.
NOAA – MetNet SounderSat Architecture Study
Improving weather and climate observations through a constellation of small satellites.
The current weather satellite architecture of NOAA and Space Force consists of large old satellites costing $1-4 Billion dollars to replace.
Through the NOAA SounderSat solicitation, Brandywine performed a study regarding the cost, performance, and reliability of a constellation of SmallSats providing Infrared Sounding, Microwave Sounding, Upper Atmospheric Limb Observations, and GNSS-Radio Occultation. These satellites would be built on a spacecraft bus with 80% commonality between missions, with a common communications network. The MetNet Team provided performance of each of these measurements through a constellation of 14-18 ESPA-class satellites, providing 1-hour global revisit. The study concluded that a SmallSat constellation would provide all the functionality of the Joint Polar Satellite System at one-tenth the cost, with better resiliency, upgradeability, and spatial resolution.
