Next generation modular processing system for miniaturized remote sensing instruments

The study of climate-relevant processes in the atmosphere using airborne platforms is an important contribution to understanding our environment. The deployment of remote sensing instruments on aircraft or balloons requires powerful computer systems for data acquisition and instrument control. The ongoing trend towards further miniaturisation of instruments, with increasingly complex measurement tasks and higher data rates for use over longer flight durations, requires a new generation of control and processing units. These units must be significantly reduced in mass, volume and power consumption. In addition, a shift in data management from storage and post-processing to real-time data processing is required to reduce the increasing amounts of data and to transmit them to ground stations.

Based on years of experience with the GLORIA (Gimballed Limb Observer for Radiance Imaging of the Atmosphere) instrument and its current miniaturised version, GLORIA-Lite, a modular and reconfigurable data acquisition and processing platform has been developed. This platform is specifically designed to meet the demanding requirements of future long-duration flights in harsh environments, with significant optimisations in weight, volume and power consumption. Using state-of-the-art multi-processor system-on-chip (MPSoC) modules, the platform enables real-time data processing while significantly reducing the need for data storage or transmission. Redundancy in hardware and software using the multiple processor cores, together with a supervisor circuit, makes the platform ready for harsh environments. Thanks to its compact form factor, the ruggedised and fully reprogrammable hardware is adaptable to a wide range of applications, further enhancing its versatility and potential for use in various scientific and technological missions.

This presentation will show the prototype of the new processing platform, which will be used together with the GLORIA-Lite instrument during an upcoming balloon campaign. First processing steps and performance analysis will be presented.