As the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season heats up, NASA is getting better prepared with more weather satellites to gather more consistent data from Earth’s tropical belt where storms form.
On Wednesday, NASA launched a test satellite ahead of six small weather satellites called TROPICS (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats). Those six will launch in 2022 to gather microwave observations of a developing storm’s precipitation, temperature and humidity. The observations will be nearly every hour, which has not been possible with other much larger satellites that gather readings every several hours.
“It is more important than ever that NASA and our partners invest in missions like TROPICS to better understand extreme weather,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement on NASA. gov.
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season produced a record 30 named storms, with 10 quickly intensifying and some throttling up by 100 mph in two days.
Scott Braun, TROPICS project scientist and a research meteorologist, said TROPICS starts a new era of using a constellation of small satellites to watch storms globally.
The satellite launched on June 30 is identical to the other six but is called a pathfinder because it will fully test the technology and other systems. The satellites are small, just 4x4x14 inches. They will each contain a microwave radiometer developed at MIT to detect temperature, moisture and rainfall in the atmosphere.
Because the satellites are small, they can fly at lower altitudes and are more cost-effective, according to NASA officials. The actual radiometer is about the size of a coffee mug, compared to radiometers on current satellites that are the size of a washing machine.
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