Project Grant 20204000033002

This Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program / Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program totaling $153,622 will support the development of a novel low-cost snow water equivalent (SWE) measurement system using a single global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver. NWB Sensors Inc. will write software to implement their proposed method for measuring snowpack data with...

The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $623,849.55 Cooperative Agreement grant to Hydroinnova LLC on February 9, 2024 under the Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program (CFDA 15.078). The 2.5-year project aims to demonstrate and deploy two novel methods for measuring snow water equivalent, a critical parameter for improving water supply forecasts in drought-prone regions of the western U.S. Specifically, Hydroinnova will develop, test, and validate a cosmic ray muon...

The National Science Foundation awarded a $275,000 Small Business Innovation Research Phase I Project Grant to Applied Research Team Inc. of Denver, Colorado under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084). The grant will support the development of machine learning algorithms to improve snowpack depth and water content retrieval from C-band and X-band radar data. Accurate snowpack information is critical for water management in the Western U.S., but current retrieval...

The Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $1,003,256.99 Cooperative Agreement to Applied Research Team Inc. on January 4, 2024 under the Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program (CFDA 15.078). This project aims to demonstrate how the combination of weather radar data and ground-based monitoring can effectively measure snow water equivalent (SWE) at high resolution. The project will focus on multiple headwater watersheds in the Upper Colorado River Basin and the Rio Grande River Basin, utilizing both...

The Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $1,094,619 Cooperative Agreement to the Desert Research Institute (DRI) at the Nevada System of Higher Education under the Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program (CFDA 15.078). The project aims to enhance water supply forecasting in the western U.S. by deploying a novel non-contact infrared snow temperature profiler (STP) to measure vertical snow temperature profiles during federal snow survey operations. This data will be used to validate and improve...

The U.S. Geological Survey awarded a $499,999 Cooperative Agreement under the Assistance to State Water Resources Research Institutes program (CFDA 15.805) to Cornell University to develop a distributed sensor network that integrates edge-AI and photogrammetric techniques to automate real-time urban flood monitoring and mapping. Key deliverables include: A minimum viable product (MVP) sensor network to map urban pluvial flood extents and depths in real-time, including storm sewer stage...

The Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $1,084,428 Cooperative Agreement to the Regents of the University of Colorado under the Snow Water Supply Forecasting program (CFDA 15.078) to develop a Surface Snow Water Equivalent Data Fusion System (SWE-Fusion) for the western United States. The primary objective is to provide improved surface snow water equivalent estimates to enable better decision-making during anomalous hydrologic conditions like drought and flooding. The University will combine...

This $189,543 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) supports the development of a low-cost, lightweight hygrometer for in situ measurements of water vapor in the tropical tropopause layer on high-altitude balloons. The hygrometer will replace the previously used sensor in the RACHUTS instrument package, which collects temperature, humidity, and cloud particle observations to study cirrus cloud formation. The new sensor uses wavelength modulation...

Transcend Engineering and Technology, LLC was awarded a $181,395 Project Grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture within the Department of Agriculture under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. The grant aims to develop a spatially dense, multi-level soil moisture sensor using commodity radio frequency electronic components to infer soil water content from dielectric properties. Phase I will determine feasibility and quantify tradeoffs between accuracy and...

Wolverine Radar Company received a $300,000 Project Grant award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under the NOAA Small Business Innovation Research Program to develop impermeability monitoring solutions using synthetic aperture radar data. The company will compare impermeability scores for Ann Arbor, Michigan derived from publicly available Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar data to scores obtained from high-resolution aerial photography. While the radar data has lower resolution...