The Coherent Electromagnetic Radio Tomography (CERTO) is a

radio beacon In navigation, a radio beacon or radiobeacon is a kind of beacon, a device that marks a fixed location and allows direction-finding equipment to find relative bearing. But instead of employing visible light, radio beacons transmit electromagnet ...

which measures

ionospheric The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an im ...

parameters in coordination with ground receivers. CERTO provides global ionospheric maps to aid prediction of radio wave

scattering Scattering is a term used in physics to describe a wide range of physical processes where moving particles or radiation of some form, such as light or sound, are forced to deviate from a straight trajectory by localized non-uniformities (including ...

. CERTO was developed by the Naval Research Lab and is one of the 4 experiment packages aboard the PicoSAT satellite. CERTO provides near–real-time measurements of the ionosphere.Harvard University: CERTO Ionosphere Sensing
/ref> CERTO was used for the Equatorial Vortex Experiment in 2013.

Specifications

*NSSDC ID: 2001-043B-01A *Mission: PicoSAT 9

References

NASA: Picosat Experiment 2001-43BKirtland AFB CERTO
Space science experiments Ionosphere Satellite meteorology Radio technology {{astrophysics-stub