Observation of atmospheric gravity waves using a Raspberry Pi camera module on board the International Space Station

TL;DR

This study used a Raspberry Pi camera on the ISS to observe atmospheric gravity waves in clouds, successfully identifying small-scale waves with horizontal wavelengths of 1.0 to 4.7 km, demonstrating a cost-effective method for atmospheric observation.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel application of a Raspberry Pi camera on the ISS for observing atmospheric gravity waves, showcasing a low-cost, student-involved experimental setup for space-based atmospheric research.

Findings

Detected small-scale gravity waves with wavelengths of 1.0 to 4.7 km

Developed a code to optimize cloud imaging during ISS orbit

Demonstrated feasibility of using Raspberry Pi for space-based atmospheric observations

Abstract

We identified and computed the horizontal wavelengths of atmospheric gravity waves in clouds using a visible camera installed on a window of the Columbus module of the International Space Station (ISS) and controlled by a Raspberry Pi computer. The experiment was designed in the context of the Astro Pi challenge, a project run by ESA in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, where students are allowed the opportunity to write a code to be executed at the ISS. A code was developed to maximize the probability of capturing images of clouds while the ISS is orbiting the Earth. Several constraints had to be fulfilled such as the experiment duration limit (3 hours) and the maximum data size (3 gigabytes). After receiving the data from the ISS, small-scale gravity waves were observed in different regions in the northern hemisphere with horizontal wavelengths in the range of 1.0 to 4.7 km.