Embry-Riddle's Dr. Kshitija Deshpande Wins Prestigious NSF Early Career Award

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Efforts to improve space weather prediction by leveraging big data and machine learning, directed by Dr. Kshitija Deshpande of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, received a highly competitive, five-year National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program  (CAREER) award of nearly $500,000.

Deshpande, an assistant professor of Engineering Physics, plans continuing investigations of atmospheric events that can disrupt a wide range of communications, affecting satellites, air traffic control, and even radio dispatches on Earth. Her NSF funding will also support a variety of new educational opportunities for Embry-Riddle students.

Understanding disturbances in a region of the upper-atmosphere called the ionosphere is critically important for preventing devastating economic impacts, Deshpande explained. A powerful space weather event could cause trillions of dollars in damages in North America alone while leaving 20-40 million people without power for up to two years, researchers have found. If Global Positioning Systems (GPS) were knocked offline for a single day, the cost could reach $1 billion.

"Being recognized by the NSF in this way is a major accomplishment,” said Provost Lon Moeller. “The NSF Early Career Award will allow Kshitija to deepen our fundamental knowledge of events in space that can compromise communication. It will also lead to new opportunities for her students. We’re all very proud of Kshitija.”

By winning the NSF Early Career Award, Deshpande has reaffirmed Embry-Riddle’s status as an institution that is rapidly advancing science, engineering and innovation, Moeller added.

Dr. Karen Gaines, dean of the College of Arts & Science on Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach Campus, also commended Deshpande. “Kshitija is both an exceptionally insightful researcher and a dedicated educator who is deeply invested in the success of her students,” Gaines said. “This latest honor is well-deserved. We take great pride in her achievement.”

Preventing Communication Outages

Solar disturbances blast plasma from the sun at speeds of up to 1 million miles per hour. Those fast-moving particles strike the Earth’s protective magnetic shield, streaming all the way down to the ionosphere, triggering rapid variations in the radio signals received on the ground. Such “ionospheric scintillation” events during extreme geomagnetic conditions can wreak havoc on navigation and communications, disrupting civilian, military and commercial operations.

Deshpande is looking in particular at how the ionospheric irregularities or structures affect communication over the high-latitude or polar regions. Relatively little is known about space weather impacts over the Earth’s icy poles, where it’s difficult to set up scientific instruments. To learn more, Deshpande’s team leverages data from ground-based sensors in the Arctic and Antarctic to understand scintillation impacts on a constellation of satellites called the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS).

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