Aidan Daly
RTX subsidiary Blue Canyon Technologies was selected by NASA for its Polarized Submillimeter Ice-cloud Radiometer mission, which aims to study clouds forming at high altitudes or above tropical and sub-tropical regions.
The small satellite manufacturer and mission services provider will build two 12U CubeSat buses and design and manufacture the bus platforms, RTX said Wednesday.
Chris Winslett, general manager of Blue Canyon Technologies, said in a press release Thursday, “Supporting this critical mission builds on our heritage of weather monitoring missions including TEMPEST-D and TROPICS.”
Blue Canyon will also provide mission operations services.
The PolSIR instrument will observe the full diurnal cycle of high-altitude ice clouds to improve climate forecasts. It is expected to provide climate models with insights into future changes in Earth’s atmosphere.
The PolSIR spacecraft will be equipped with radiometers and will observe the clouds’ daily cycle of ice content through two separate wavelengths in two spectral bands.
