Researchers ready for a new space mission to shed light on Brazil’s vexing GPS problem

In sure areas of Brazil, do not be shocked in case your GPS gadget behaves erratically. For years, researchers have been scratching their heads, in search of an answer to the unreliable GPS indicators in areas close to the Amazon. The trigger? Plasma bubbles in space.

Subsequent week, NASA will launch a joint U.S.-Brazil satellite that might be deployed from the Worldwide House Station, with scientific devices developed by Utah State College (USU) and collaborators. The objective of the mission is to analyze plasma bubbles that type excessive within the ionosphere over the equator.

Charles Swenson, a professor {of electrical} and pc engineering at USU, has labored with Brazil’s Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica for years, creating the satellite and researching solutions to why this space of the globe is so extremely affected by the space climate phenomenon.

The Scintillation Prediction Statement Analysis Job, or SPORT, is a joint mission between the USA and Brazil designed to measure the state of the ionosphere, which lies 50 to 600 miles above Earth’s floor, and to find out why plasma bubbles typically type there.

The satellite, constructed by Brazil, is in regards to the measurement of two loaves of bread and hosts the scientific space climate measurements supplied by the U.S. group of collaborators led by Swenson.

When radio waves from GPS satellites journey throughout plasma bubbles within the ionosphere, the indicators can turn into distorted. This distortion is named scintillation, an issue that impacts GPS reliability and negatively impacts Brazil’s army, precision agriculture and automatic touchdown methods on the nation’s airports.

Understanding the situations that result in plasma bubbles will assist electrical engineers design GPS know-how that’s much less inclined to scintillation.

“The solutions to those questions can enhance the flexibility of researchers to foretell the formation of plasma bubbles and perceive the situations beneath which density anomalies develop within the ionosphere,” Swenson stated.

Radio receivers on the bottom in Brazil will document the scintillation sample on waves that move by way of the ionosphere and examine them to the satellite measurement of turbulent plasma in space.

Brazil is situated beneath what is named the South Atlantic Anomaly or the South American Magnetic Anomaly, which happens when space radiation dips too near Earth on account of a weak point within the magnetic subject. Researchers need to know if this area is completely different than different equatorial websites for plasma bubbles.

Swenson and collaborators plan to make use of SPORT to use the identical procedures to different longitudes across the globe that may be affected by ionospheric irregularities as effectively. Swenson is the principal investigator on the Joint NASA-Brazil SPORT CubeSat mission to review the situations and potential triggers for plasma bubbles in space.

The Sport CubeSat mission is scheduled to launch no sooner than Nov. 21 from NASA’s Kennedy House Heart as part of the SpaceX-26 industrial resupply mission to the Worldwide House Station.