A High-Altitude Airborne Radar as a NASA Student Research Experience

Abstract:

The Millimeter-wave Airborne Radar for Learning and Education (MARBLE) was developed initially as an undergraduate student-team research project, as part of NASA’s Undergraduate Student Instrument Project (USIP) program. MARBLE is a Ka-band weather radar intended for collecting radar data from the cloud-tops of large, deeply convective storms. The student team designed, developed, and performed lab and ground tests. Members of the student team also traveled to NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center on several occasions to support flight tests of the radar. The radar was flown abord NASA’s ER-2, a high-altitude aircraft for Earth-science research which can operate above 60,000 feet, in September of 2018, and has since worked on data processing and data quality improvements. There were special design considerations for the instrument to be able to successfully operate at such an altitude, where temperatures can be lower than -60 °F. The design process, as well as testing procedures and results are presented in this work. The radar was operationally successful during the initial flights, and those results are also presented.