NASA Selects Blue Canyon to Provide Satellite Buses for PolSIR Mission

NASA has ordered two 12U cubesat buses from RTX’s Blue Canyon Technologies for the Polarized Submillimeter Ice-cloud Radiometer mission, which will study high-altitude ice clouds in tropical and subtropical regions to improve the accuracy of climate forecasts.

The satellite buses will carry PolSIR radiometers to monitor the full diurnal cycle of high-altitude ice clouds through two separate wavelengths in two spectral bands and gather data to inform climate models and determine potential changes to the Earth’s atmosphere in the future, RTX said.

The cubesats will be launched in separate orbits three to nine hours away from each other to ensure daily and continuous monitoring of ice content.

As part of the agreement with NASA, Blue Canyon will also provide mission operations services.

According to Chris Winslett, general manager of Blue Canyon Technologies, the company is positioned to support the project, citing previous weather monitoring missions it supported, including the Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems Demonstration and the Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats.