RIT is deploying several radio frequency receivers across the campus. These will act as antenna elements for a Space Weather Observatory that will monitor ionospheric structures in real time. This data will be correlated to data from various spacecraft that have been positioned between the earth and the sun to measure changes in the flow of ions from the sun. Sudden bursts of these ions have been known to induce large ground currents that, in turn, have caused failures in the power grid. Moreover, NASA has recently announced (late October, 2008) that they have confirmed the existence of magnetic portals that transport these ions at extremely high density and deposit them in a random walk fashion across the earth's ionosphere. One of the additional missions of the Observatory will be to try to capture real time images of the termination points of these portals at the ionosphere. Over time, three dimensional tomography techniques will be developed to produce 3D movies of the ionosphere as it changes through the day.

Project Readiness Package (Draft)

Week 1

Project Overview Presentation

P09571 Project Summary

Norms and Values example

Norms and Values

P09571 Summary

Week 1 Status Report (Pdf)

Milestones

Needs Overview

Milestone Schedule

Work Breakdown Structure

Team Norms, Values, and Ethics

Status Report Week 1

Week 2

2 Quarter Schedule

Final Specifications

Customer Needs Final

Work Break Down Structure

Team Roles

Benchmarking (Pdf)

Initial Concept Generation (Pdf)

Antenna Placement Picture

Week 3

Brainstorming and Concept Generations (Pdf)

Final Concept Selection Process (Pdf)

Week 4

Risk Assessment

Engineering Analysis

Assembly analysis (pdf)

Platform analysis (pdf)

Week 5

2 Quarter schedule revised

Specifications rev C

Design Review I Notes

Week 6-10 Documents

Bill of Materials

Lessons Learned

Design Review II Presentation

Design Review II Notes

Final Review Presentation

Final Review Notes

Project Name

Space Weather Observatory to Monitor Ionosphere

Project Number

P09571

Project Family

Imaging

Track

Printing & Imaging

Start Term

2008-2

End Term

2008-3

Faculty Guide

Dr. Roger Dube (CIS)/Marcos Esterman (ISE)

Faculty Consultant

Bill Nowak (Xerox)

Graduate Teaching Assistant

N/A

Primary Customer

Dr. Roger Dube

Image

Explaining solar storms

Effects of space weather

Mission Statement

Staffing Requirements

Intellectual Property Considerations

Preliminary Work Breakdown Structure

Team Values and Norms

Required Resources

Identify Customer Needs

Establish Target Specifications

Generate Product Concepts

Select Product Concept(s)

Test Product Concept(s)

Set Final Specifications

Concept Design Review Documents (SD I)

Detailed Design Review Documents (SD I)

Managerial Design Review Presentation (SD I)

Technical Conference Publication (SD II)

Poster Publication (SD II)

Managerial Design Review Presentation (SD II)

Photo Gallery