Big Weather Data from a Tiny CubeSat
This blog post originated in the 2018 Science Mission Directorate Science and Technology Report. PROJECT Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems Demonstration (TEMPEST-D) KEY POINTS The TEMPEST-D CubeSat demonstrated low-cost, lowrisk, millimeter wave radiometer technology that will enable constellations of small satellites to provide the first temporal observations of cloud and precipitation processes on a global scale. The TEMPEST-D CubeSat after deployment from the International Space Station (ISS) on July 13, 2018 (left). Shortly after becoming fully operational, TEMPEST-D captured this first full-swath image of Hurricane Florence on September 11, 2018 (right). The colors reveal the eye of the storm, surrounded by towering, intense rain bands. (Visual image of the storm clouds on right taken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s [NOAA] Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite [GOES]: NASA/NOAA/Naval Research Laboratory Monterey/JPL-Caltech) Imaging microwave radiometers on large government satellites have been providing critical weather data for over 40 years. The NASA Earth Science Division’s InVEST Program...