• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
SRI logo
  • About
    • Press room
  • Expertise
    • Advanced imaging systems
    • Artificial intelligence
    • Biomedical R&D services
    • Biomedical sciences
    • Computer vision
    • Cyber & formal methods
    • Education and learning
    • Innovation strategy and policy
    • National security
    • Ocean & space
    • Quantum
    • QED-C
    • Robotics, sensors & devices
    • Speech & natural language
    • Video test & measurement
  • Ventures
  • NSIC
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • 日本支社
Search
Close

Ocean & space

SRI International helps scientists explore our oceans, upper atmosphere and outer space. From mission-ready imagers for space to advanced sensors for marine environments, we create tools and systems to shed light on these final frontiers.

CONTACT US

Core technologies and applications

SRI’s experienced teams work together across disciplines to create innovative engineering and operations solutions tough enough to withstand the extreme conditions of space and marine environments.

Space technologies

Compact sensors for uncompromising environments, small satellite payload and mission design, specialized signal processing and exploitation

Geospace systems

Advanced technology and systems for remote sensing, geolocation, communications and space situational awareness

Ocean modeling

Innovative modeling and forecasting for environmental characterization in ocean, nearshore and riverine domains

CMOS, CCD and ROIC design

Device design, simulation and process development for high-performance devices and camera assemblies, ROICs for custom-configured LIDAR and more

Our work

more +

  • moving water
    June 14, 2022

    Engineers look to river and ocean currents for clean energy

    Scientific American spotlights DOE-funded projects like SRI’s Manta kite, which are designed to harness the power of moving water

  • November 22, 2021

    Shedding light on the inner workings of the Sun

    SRI International researchers developed Active Pixel CMOS detectors for the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR). This is the only imaging instrument aboard the Parker Solar Probe.

  • November 22, 2021

    Making space research accessible to students, researchers and commercial entities

    Researchers at SRI International worked alongside other experts to create CubeSat technology.

Publications

more +

  • October 1, 2016

    Thermal insulator transition induced by interface scattering

    We develop an effective medium model of thermal conductivity that accounts for both percolation and interface scattering. This model accurately explains the measured increase and decrease of thermal conductivity with loading in composites dominated by percolation and interface scattering, respectively. Our model further predicts that strong interface scattering leads to a sharp decrease in thermal conductivity, or an insulator transition, at high loadings when conduction through the matrix is restricted and heat is forced to diffuse through particles with large interface resistance. The accuracy of our model and its ability to predict transitions between insulating and conducting states suggest it can be a useful tool for designing materials with low or high thermal conductivity for a variety of applications.

  • December 1, 2015

    Topside Equatorial Ionospheric Density, Temperature, and Composition under Equinox, Low Solar Flux Conditions

    We present observations of the topside ionosphere made at the Jicamarca Radio Observatory in March and September 2013, made using a full-profile analysis approach. Recent updates to the methodology employed at Jicamarca are also described. Measurements of plasma number density, electron and ion temperatures, and hydrogen and helium ion fractions up to 1500 km altitude are presented for 3 days in March and September. The main features of the observations include a sawtooth-like diurnal variation in ht, the transition height where the O+ ion fraction falls to 50%, the appearance of weak He+ layers just below ht, and a dramatic increase in plasma temperature at dawn followed by a sharp temperature depression around local noon. These features are consistent from day to day and between March and September. Coupled Ion Neutral Dynamics Investigation data from the Communication Navigation Outage Forecast System satellite are used to help validate the March Jicamarca data. The SAMI2-PE model was able to recover many of the features of the topside observations, including the morphology of the plasma density profiles and the light-ion composition. The model, forced using convection speeds and meridional thermospheric winds based on climatological averages, did not reproduce the extreme temperature changes in the topside between sunrise and noon. Some possible causes of the discrepancies are discussed.

  • December 1, 2015

    Radar Detectability Studies of Slow and Small Zodiacal Dust Cloud Particles. II. A Study of Three Radars with Different Sensitivity

    The sensitivity of radar systems to detect different velocity populations of the incoming micrometeoroid flux is often the first argument considered to explain disagreements between models of the Near-Earth dust environment and observations. Recently, this was argued by Nesvorný et al. to support the main conclusions of a Zodiacal Dust Cloud (ZDC) model which predicts a flux of meteoric material into the Earth’s upper atmosphere mostly composed of small and very slow particles. In this paper, we expand on a new methodology developed by Janches et al. to test the ability of powerful radars to detect the meteoroid populations in question. In our previous work, we focused on Arecibo 430 MHz observations since it is the most sensitive radar that has been used for this type of observation to date. In this paper, we apply our methodology to two other systems, the 440 MHz Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar and the 46.5 Middle and Upper Atmosphere radar. We show that even with the less sensitive radars, the current ZDC model over-predicts radar observations. We discuss our results in light of new measurements by the Planck satellite which suggest that the ZDC particle population may be characterized by smaller sizes than previously believed. We conclude that the solution to finding agreement between the ZDC model and sensitive high power and large aperture meteor observations must be a combination of a re-examination not only of our knowledge of radar detection biases, but also the physical assumptions of the ZDC model itself.

How can we help?

Once you hit send…

We’ll match your inquiry to the person who can best help you.

Expect a response within 48 hours.

Career call to action image

Make your own mark.

Search jobs

Our work

Case studies

Publications

Timeline of innovation

Areas of expertise

Institute

Leadership

Press room

Media inquiries

Compliance

Careers

Job listings

Contact

SRI Ventures

Our locations

Headquarters

333 Ravenswood Ave
Menlo Park, CA 94025 USA

+1 (650) 859-2000

Subscribe to our newsletter


日本支社
SRI International
  • Contact us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • DMCA
  • Copyright © 2022 SRI International