LASP faculty and students are currently controlling NASA's Student Nitric Oxide Explorer satellite, or SNOE, designed and built primarily by CU-Boulder students and launched in February 1998. CU-Boulder is one of only a handful of universities in the nation capable of the satellite control. In addition to controlling the SNOE spacecraft, LASP controlled two British high-technology satellites from 1986 to 1998. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a partner in the mission, will use the data for improved storm warnings and weather forecasting by more accurately determining the paths of tropical storms and hurricanes. Scatterometers send high-frequency microwave pulses to the ocean surface and measure the echoed pulse back to the satellite.
Ripples sensed by the instruments allow scientists to compute wind speed and direction.
The satellite will circle the Earth every 101 minutes at an altitude of 500 miles, beaming down data to NASA ground stations 15 times a day. We felt it was important science, and are pleased to be a participant. CU-Boulder and Ball teamed up in 1982 on the Student Mesosphere Explorer satellite project. Ball Aerospace built the spacecraft, which was controlled by CU-Boulder students and faculty from 1981 to 1989. SME was the first NASA satellite ever entirely controlled and operated by a university.