Built a sounding rocket payload that measured S band signals transmitted by the NEXRAD Doppler Radar Network. Sounding rocket launched from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, and our payload successfully predicted the mode that NEXRAD was operating in.
Payload consisted of a single patch antenna tuned to 2.865 GHz (frequency of Norfolk, VA NEXRAD station), LNA, bandpass filter, HackRF SDR, Raspberry Pi, and an environmental suite.
Launched from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on a Terrier Improved Malemute Rocket.
Team was prepared for antenna element to separate entirely on reentry, however our entire payload survived relatively unscathed.
Results were exactly as simulations had suggested, ensuring that the flight hardware would increase the chances of achieving mission success.
Length and frequency of signal pulses correlate to Volume Coverage Pattern (VCP), and the signal we measured in space perfectly matched up to the VCP that NEXRAD was in at that time.
Since there are NEXRAD stations all across the country and they operate on similar frequencies, we were successfully able to measure the Denver NEXRAD from the summit of a 14,115 foot peak.
