A research team from The University of Scranton has set out to answer a few questions whose answers may\u00a0benefit\u00a0communication systems around the world.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s Heliophysics Citizen Science Investigations program awarded the University a $568,117 grant to discover more information about the weather in space and how those conditions affect the reliability of high-frequency communication systems used on Earth.<\/p>\n
The three-year project, titled \u201cIonospheric Model Validation and Development of an Open-Source High Frequency Ray-Tracing Toolkit\u201d\u00a0is led by Kornyanat “Kukkai” Hozumi, Ph.D.,\u00a0research scientist at Scranton. Dr. Hozumi is serving as the principal investigator with collaborators\u00a0Nathaniel Frissell, Ph.D.,\u00a0associate professor of physics and engineering, and\u00a0Mark Fenner, Ph.D.,\u00a0assistant professor of computing sciences, on the interdisciplinary team.\u00a0The grant was awarded in February 2026 with work slated to continue through January 2029.<\/p>\n
The Scranton team is researching how radio waves travel through the ionosphere, a region of the upper atmosphere that enables long-distance radio communication.\u00a0Disturbances caused by solar activity can disrupt these signals, affecting aviation, emergency alerts, military\u00a0operations\u00a0and global radio networks.<\/p>\n
Researchers will develop a freely available, open-source software toolkit capable of modeling radio wave propagation in three dimensions. This\u00a0represents\u00a0a significant advancement from the earlier two-dimensional tools.<\/p>\n
Amateur radio operators from within the influential and prolific Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI) community\u00a0will test tools and contribute data that will then be analyzed by the researchers.<\/p>\n
While several aspects of the work have already been outlined, the project centers on four key goals: 1. Developing a three-dimensional, open-source, high-frequency ray-tracing toolkit; 2. Validating leading ionospheric models using data from the global\u00a0HamSCI\u00a0network; 3. Studying space weather\u2019s effects on radio signals; 4. Broadening access to data through public seminars and other avenues that support researchers,\u00a0students\u00a0and amateur radio operators.<\/p>\n