NASA TROPICS Constellation Fully Operational & Ready For Hurricane Season

NASA's TROPICS (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats) are now fully operational, and are ready to bolster monitoring efforts for the ongoing Atlantic hurricane season.

The four cubesats, launched aboard Rocket Lab Electron rockets on May 7 and May 25, have been diligently undergoing tests of their primary instruments: microwave radiometers designed to gather critical temperature and humidity data from tropical storms.

These small satellites are positioned in orbits inclined at 33 degrees, ideally tailored to traverse the tropical storm belt, enabling them to revisit weather systems every hour—a groundbreaking feat in storm observation.

Initial data analysis from the four satellites and insights gleaned from the TROPICS Pathfinder, a prototype satellite launched in 2021, have shown promising results. 

"It's working just like we hoped it would work," - William Blackwell Principal Investigator for TROPICS at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory

While microwave instruments have been utilized on satellites for decades, TROPICS is pioneering with its four-satellite constellation that can revisit storm systems every hour. This frequency of observations presents a transformative shift, allowing for real-time tracking of storm dynamics as they materialize and evolve. 

The TROPICS satellites not only offer a higher frequency of observations but also deliver superior data quality. The precipitation rain rate estimate derived from TROPICS Pathfinder data outperforms state-of-the-art instruments mounted on significantly larger spacecraft.

The development of the TROPICS constellation has been the result of over a decade of intensive efforts to craft small microwave instruments that can fit within the confined spaces of cubesats and included multiple demonstration missions to validate radiometers operating in 12 bands.

Despite facing a setback in June 2022, when two cubesats were lost due to an Astra Rocket 3.3 launch failure, the TROPICS constellation persevered. Following Astra's withdrawal of Rocket 3.3 from the market, NASA promptly enlisted Rocket Lab to launch the remaining four satellites.

While no immediate plans for additional TROPICS satellites have been announced, NASA affirms that the mission's scientific objectives can still be met with the four existing spacecraft.

Tomorrow.io, a leading weather data company, has embraced the TROPICS technology and intends to deploy microwave radiometers for its constellation of 18 cubesats designed to gather comprehensive weather data.

In the realm of meteorological observation and hurricane tracking, the TROPICS cubesats are poised to revolutionize our understanding and response to tropical storm systems, marking a pivotal advancement in the world of space-based weather monitoring.