Small satellites can help warn of the next big hurricane

The constellation of tropical satellites will reduce this delay by providing a new and accurate look at each region of 16 to 24 kilometers in low latitudes every 30 to 40 minutes. According to Bill Blackwell, “You’re always flying a new satellite over your storm and making a new measurement that is capturing and changing all the dynamics and the temperature, humidity areas and rainfall and rain bands.” principal investigator of the project.

To achieve this, nanosatellites must be launched to a very specific orbital configuration. In early 2022, two units will be upgraded simultaneously to three different rocket trips facilitated by the launch provider. Astra. Each pair of satellites will share an orbit at a small angle to the equator — 30 degrees — on the opposite side of the world, but following the same trajectory. When the three pairs are in orbit, they will cross the equator at different points, just like the three floating peaks. This unique configuration of a pair of satellites that trace gradual paths around the world will allow for more frequent coverage of any part of the tropical zone. (The test unit will also continue to orbit as the seventh member of the team, but will be used primarily for research and experiments, and perhaps when additional support over storms is needed).

Each unit has a microwave radiometer, so researchers and advertisers can see phenomena that cannot be seen with the naked eye, such as water vapor and temperature information. When the data is returned to Earth, it will be linked directly to the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center and included in numerical weather forecast models.

For tropical cyclones, forecasters focus on minimum storm pressure and maximum winds, says Tropics project scientist Scott Braun. These key variables help define storm intensity, and having more data in real time can make the predictions of these models more accurate. Continuous data on storm intensity will be “useful for understanding things like rapid acceleration and weakening and how it relates to the evolution of rainfall.”

A few researchers with NOAA have already tested how effective this extra data can be. In one paper It will be published in the American Meteorological Society Monthly Weather Review (and already online), a team conducted a virtual pre-test of the new system. “You basically do a computer simulation of a tropical cyclone and then analyze the data you would get from your new observation system from that simulation,” says Robert Rogers, a meteorologist in the NOAA Hurricane Research Division in Miami. co-author on paper. “Ideally, you see improvement in your predictions.”