Ahead of the start of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season starting June 1, NASA launched a new mission aimed at improving hurricane forecasting.

The NASA mission includes a constellation of cubesats called TROPICS . The first 2 cubesats were launched on May 7 from Mahia, New Zealand aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket. 2 more satellites will be launched from the same location in 2 weeks.

Together, 4 satellites, each weighing about 5.5 kg and the size of a bread loaf, will monitor tropical cyclones from low Earth orbit. Each cubesat will orbit about 550 km above the Earth’s surface and collect rainfall, temperature and humidity data every hour during storms.

satellites TROPICS

In comparison, existing meteorological satellites collect similar data every 6 hours, which makes it difficult and slow to measure the intensity of storms. The 1-hour data collection rate allows scientists to understand the instantaneous changes that can occur within a storm, affecting its structure and stability, and help meteorologists improve their forecasting models. TROPICS observations will complement existing meteorological satellites and could ultimately be linked to a broader understanding of the entire Earth system.

What’s more, real-time data collected can help determine where a hurricane will make landfall and how intense it will be. This will allow people living in coastal areas to be better prepared for a possible evacuation.

The concept of cubesats

The data collected by TROPICS will be shared with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) and other partners. The satellites will measure water vapor, predominantly located in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the Earth’s atmosphere where most weather events occur.