Very interesting article on the SpaceFlightNow web site:
The whole project is COOL on many levels. Eight 64 pound satellites will be launched from an air dropped rocket into 3,000 mile high generally tropical orbits (the hurricane forming belt).
The air drop is from the last Lockheed L-1011 still flying, which is cool.
The second is that the air launch 51,00 solid rocket booster is extremely cost effective
"The diminutive satellites do not have their own rocket engines, so engineers devised a way to use torque wheels to pivot the observatories up or down and use the force of aerodynamic drag to fine tune their orbits." Cool.
"For example, tipping the satelliteÛªs orientation to expose the blunt side of its solar panels to the air flow ÛÓ light but still measurable at the CYGNSS fleetÛªs altitude ÛÓ will cause the craft to slow down and change position relative to the rest of the constellation."
"Once the spacing is settled, each satellite will be about 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers) apart with their tracks taking them between 35 degrees north and south latitude on each hour-and-a-half lap around Earth."
One essential part of the payload is a typical GPS receiver using a top side antenna for precise positioning from the GPS constellation above. That GPS signal will have the minimum of atmospheric disturbance. The second part are bottom mounted antennas collecting reflected GPS signals from the ocean surface. Those multipath GPS signals will have been through the atmosphere twice. These are research satellites just gathering data. When the research is complete I anticipate much larger satellites with multiple receivers transmitting real time information on atmospheric conditions.
Sounds like a Cool Mister Wizard project.
For those of you that do not understand "Cool" or "Mr. Wizard", Oh well!
Paul in PA