NASA Grant Funds About 85 Space-Weather Monitoring Stations
Back to Radio in the NewsA NASA-funded project will deploy about 85 space-weather monitoring stations across the United States, expanding a research network that uses amateur radio expertise to study the ionosphere. The stations will collect radio-signal and ionospheric observations under a five-year, nearly $5.5 million award led by the University of Scranton.
The university announced the award on Oct. 21, 2026. Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, founder of the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation community, or HamSCI, will lead the project, called “Discovering the SPARC: Space Physics Through Amateur Radio Connections.” The agreement totals $5,495,781 and runs through 2031.
The new Citizen Science Space Weather Monitors will contribute observations to a national research network while serving as public education tools. The award also supports separate “Discovery Stations” in schools, libraries, museums and other public venues, where visitors will be able to see real-time space-weather data.
Space-Weather Monitoring Builds on HamSCI Research
The expansion builds on HamSCI’s work connecting amateur operators with researchers studying HF propagation. Its existing Personal Space Weather Station network includes GRAPE receivers—the Great Radio Amateur Propagation Experiment—which monitor frequency-standard broadcasts such as WWV, WWVH and CHU.
HamSCI’s GRAPE science documentation explains how changes in the propagation path produce small Doppler shifts in a received carrier. With stable frequency references at the transmitter and receiver, those variations provide measurements of changing ionospheric conditions.
The observations support studies of traveling ionospheric disturbances, solar flares, eclipses and geomagnetic storms. Combined with measurements from other instruments, they can help researchers examine how those events affect HF propagation and improve ionospheric models.
GRAPE is part of HamSCI’s existing instrumentation. The SPARC announcement does not specify which receivers or other instruments will equip the approximately 85 new monitors.
Schools Will Combine NASA Data With Radio Observations
ARRL is one of five collaborating institutions. In the Oct. 29 issue of the ARRL Letter, the organization said its share of the funding will support a new four-day Teachers Institute program on space weather for high school STEM educators.
The course will combine NASA mission data with observations from the citizen-science monitoring network. Participating teachers will also help expand monitoring stations at schools, connecting classroom investigations with continuing data collection.
Other institutional partners are the Space Science Institute, MIT Haystack Observatory, the University of Alabama and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Kera Collective will evaluate the project.
The university has not yet detailed station locations, deployment dates or host-selection arrangements.
Sources and Further Reading
- University of Scranton: SPARC Award and Planned Monitoring Network
- ARRL: Space-Weather Teachers Institute and Project Partnership
- HamSCI: GRAPE Doppler Monitoring and Ionospheric Research