These little satellites could bring big advances to tropical storm forecasts

Image: European Space Agency via NASA

NASA is getting ready to launch tiny satellites into space that will help forecasters keep a closer eye on tropical storms. The satellites will make it easier for us to watch rapidly intensifying storms.

NASA's weather satellites can only check in on storms once a day. The principal investigator for the TROPICS mission and a researcher at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory said yesterday that they were missing a lot of what was happening in the storm.

Image: NASA/NOAA

The new set of satellites NASA plans to launch should give researchers more time to research. The first two satellites are expected to be launched on June 12th.

The satellites will circle the globe at an angle of around 30 degrees above the equator. The United States' mid-Atlantic region and Australia's southern coast are where most tropical cyclones are born.

Each satellite has an instrument that is about the size of a cup of coffee. The instrument can measure the heat and light coming from the air. More insight into how a storm develops and strengthens will be given by the frequenciesmeasured by the TROPICS satellites. 3D images of the environment will be able to be created.

Scientists hope to better understand tropical storms with more frequent observations from these satellites. Climate change is making storms in the Atlantic intensify more rapidly. When a storm like last year's Hurricane Ida explodes, forecasters and first responders are left scrambling to get people out of harms way.

It's important to have reliable eyes in the sky. The team is excited to get the constellation up and running.