CubeSounder: Low SWaP-C 180 GHz Radiometer for Atmospheric Sensing Tested on High Altitude Balloons

TL;DR

CubeSounder is a compact, low SWaP-C 180 GHz radiometer designed for atmospheric water vapor sensing, successfully tested on high altitude balloons, demonstrating its potential for scalable microwave spectroscopy.

Contribution

This work introduces a low SWaP-C spectrometer with custom millimeter-wave filter banks, tested in high altitude balloon flights for atmospheric sensing.

Findings

Successful demonstration of CubeSounder on commercial stratospheric balloons.

Design and fabrication of custom millimeter-wave filter banks.

Initial data collection from balloon flights shows promising atmospheric measurements.

Abstract

Microwave sounding is the leading driver of global numerical weather forecasting, but is limited by the scalability of such instruments. With modern machining and commercial microwave components, it is now possible to design low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) microwave spectrometers while maintaining wide bandwidth performance. Here we report on the status of CubeSounder, a spectrometer tailored for water vapor radiometry that utilizes passive wave guide filter banks. After developing a prototype and high altitude balloon payload, we demonstrated CubeSounder on commercial stratospheric balloon flights. We report on our design process, especially the simulation and fabrication of the custom millimeter-wave filter banks. We also report the initial results of the data collected from the balloon flights.