Engineering |

Catalyst: Seeding award to build a partnership with NASA JPL

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +1200

A Catalyst: Seeding project, Bridging CMOS and Photonic Spectroscopy for Stratospheric Water Vapour Measurements, establishes a formal research collaboration between the University of Otago and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Harald Schwefel is principal investigator, with Dr Subash Khanal of NASA JPL as co-applicant. Annika Seppälä leads the atmospheric science, Mallika Suresh the photonic science, and Randy Pollock the systems engineering. On the JPL side the project also draws on Dr Adrian Tang, who directs JPL’s Space System-on-Chip programme, and Dr Nathaniel Livesey, who led the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder for nearly two decades and sits on Tuwhiri’s advisory board.

Catalyst:Seeding is administered by the Royal Society Te Apārangi on behalf of MBIE. It funds the building of international research relationships rather than the research those relationships go on to produce, which is exactly what is needed here.

Why water vapour

Tuwhiri’s instrument was conceived for ozone. Water vapour is a natural second target: the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, closely tied to atmospheric circulation, extreme weather and ozone recovery — and poorly observed in the stratosphere, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai eruption made the gap plain. It injected an unprecedented quantity of water vapour into the stratosphere, and the observing system was not well placed to track what followed.

Ozone and water vapour sensing share their physical principles but differ in frequency and in what calibration demands. Extending the photonic approach from one to the other is a real piece of work, not a relabelling.

Benchmarking against a proven instrument

Laboratory validation only takes a millimetre-wave spectrometer so far. At some point it has to be measured against an instrument whose behaviour is already understood.

JPL has a compact, flight-proven CMOS spectrometer operating at the 183 GHz water line. The project’s aim over two years is technical alignment — workshops, research exchanges and joint engineering studies — working towards flying the two sensors side by side on a Kea Aerospace Kea Atmos stratospheric aircraft. Measuring the same air at the same moment with a new instrument and an established one is the most credible way to find out what the new one can actually do.

That is a rare opportunity. It also reduces the risk carried by everything Tuwhiri builds afterwards.

Millimeter-Wave Atmospheric Radiometry via Nonlinear Optical Upconversion

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +1300

Learning how Antarctic campaigns are run

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +1300

Programme Lead Harald Schwefel spent part of November 2025 in Antarctica, working alongside of the University of Otago on her sea ice research.

The scientific contribution was one reason for going. The other was reconnaissance. Tuwhiri intends to fly its radiometer on balloons from Antarctica, and a polar deployment is unlike any other kind of fieldwork: the logistics chain, the weather windows, the constraints on what can be carried and what can be repaired on site all shape the instrument long before it is built.

Understanding how an Antarctic campaign is actually organised — how far ahead decisions must be made, what support exists on the ice, and where things typically go wrong — is the sort of knowledge that does not transfer from reading about it. Bringing it back into the engineering team’s planning is worth more than the time it cost.

Tuwhiri Programme Kick-off Meeting

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The occasion

Everyone in the programme in one place for the first time: three research areas, the advisory board, industry partners, and colleagues from Adelaide, Caltech, Earth Sciences New Zealand, Waikato, AUT and the Paihau–Robinson Research Institute.

The welcome function opened with a mihi whakatau, followed by a welcome from Programme Lead Professor Harald Schwefel. Jessa Barder then presented the programme’s new name — Tuwhiri, from the Māori word meaning a clue, or means of discovering something hidden, which is an appropriate metaphor for what an atmospheric sounder does, as well as to reveal or make known, which is an accurate description of the programme’s goals.

Sunday 19 July — Welcome function

Terrace Lounge, University Union Building.

Mihi whakatau, the welcome from the Programme Lead, the presentation of the programme name, and guided tours of the research laboratories.

Monday 20 July — Setting out the problem

Walsh Building.

The morning established why the work matters and where each area currently stands. Annika Seppälä opened on the case for space-based climate and atmosphere monitoring. Mallika Suresh followed on dielectric resonators for nonlinear optical upconversion of microwave signals, and Randy Pollock set out the engineering team’s staffing, status and open questions.

The second session widened the frame: Peter Gibson on climate change projections for New Zealand from CMIP6, Andrey Matsko on microphotonics for spaceborne timing and remote sensing, and Withawat Withayachumnankul on terahertz technology from devices through to sensing and communications.

The afternoon split in two. One workshop took on sensor, platform and data systems integration, chaired by Betina Pavri and Mallika Suresh; the other planned the atmospheric science model simulations, chaired by Annika Seppälä.

The day closed with Jessa Barder on plans for community engagement, a contribution from Richard Querel, and open discussion.

Tuesday 21 July — From requirements to instrument

Centre for Innovation and Mellor Laboratories.

The morning ran from the science down to the hardware. Hamish Lewis presented late-century projections of climate extremes across New Zealand; Florian Sedlmeir on millimetre-wave atmospheric radiometry via nonlinear optical upconversion; Hannah Kessenich on a new diagnostic metric for quantifying Antarctic ozone hole dynamics; John Cater on thermal and mission design; and Betina Pavri on Kea Mk1 interface requirements and environmental test planning.

Two further workshops ran in parallel. The first brought the atmospheric and engineering teams together on instrument requirements for science, chaired by Randy Pollock — the conversation that decides what the instrument has to achieve. The second, chaired by Greg Bodeker, addressed uptake and impact.

A poster session ran over lunch, and Harald Schwefel closed the meeting.