Lightning Spectrometer for Ionospheric Disturbances

Abstract -Students have had to become familiar with lightning propagation and ionospheric occurrences through analysis and research which revealed that lightning acts as an electric dipole antenna emitting radio wave propagation that affects the ionosphere. This property is being used to design a new low-cost ground/satellite observation capability to measure dispersion and total electron content. The signal path is determined by locating the lightning using time of flight to both the spacecraft and inexpensive ground stations. This specialized monitoring system involves a transformation of an alternating signal to a direct signal at which point the data is efficiently buffered and time stamped for convenient downlink. This will allow for a client to download the data and perform their own analysis of the ionosphere or for the engineered satellite-based monitoring system to perform detailed trending. The eventual goal of this project is to provide a nano-satellite package for low earth orbit with the capabilities described previously