High Revisit-Rate Tropical Cyclone Observations From the NASA TROPICS Satellite Constellation Mission

New satellite constellations to provide high-resolution atmospheric observations from microwave (MW) sounders operating in low-Earth orbit are now coming online and are providing operationally useful data. The first of these missions, the NASA Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) Earth Venture (EVI-3) mission, was successfully launched into orbit on May 7 and 25, 2023 (Eastern Daylight Time, two CubeSats in each of the two launches). TROPICS is now providing nearly all-weather observations of 3-D temperature and humidity, as well as cloud ice and precipitation horizontal structure, at high temporal resolution to conduct high-value science investigations of tropical cyclones (TCs). TROPICS is providing rapid-refresh MW measurements (median refresh rate of better than 60 min early in the mission with four functional CubeSats, and now approximately 70–90 min with three functional CubeSats) over the tropics that can be used to observe the thermodynamics of the troposphere and precipitation structure for storm systems at the mesoscale and synoptic scale over the entire storm lifecycle. Hundreds of high-resolution images of TCs have been captured thus far by the TROPICS mission, revealing the detailed structure of the eyewall and surrounding rain bands. The new 205-GHz channel in particular (together with a traditional channel near 92 GHz) is providing new information on the inner storm structure, and, coupled with the relatively frequent revisit and low downlink latency, is already informing TC analysis at operational centers. Here, we present an overview of the TROPICS mission after two years of successful science operations with a focus on the suite of geophysical (Level 2) products (atmospheric vertical temperature and moisture profiles, instantaneous surface rain rate, and TC intensity) and the science investigations that have been enabled by these new measurements.

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Journal
Proceedings of the IEEE
Published
2025-01-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1109/jproc.2025.3582502
Primary Topic
Tropical and Extratropical Cyclones Research
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article
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article

High Revisit-Rate Tropical Cyclone Observations From the NASA TROPICS Satellite Constellation Mission

Yalei You, G. Perras, R. Vincent Leslie, Brittany A. Dahl et al.
Proceedings of the IEEE
Tropical and Extratropical Cyclones Research
article

High Revisit-Rate Tropical Cyclone Observations From the NASA TROPICS Satellite Constellation Mission

Yalei You, G. Perras, R. Vincent Leslie, Brittany A. Dahl, Sarah M. Griffin, Satya Kalluri, Min‐Jeong Kim, Jessica Braun, Toshihisa Matsui, Will McCarty, Jason Dunion, Ruiyao Chen, Ralf Bennartz, Galina Chirokova, James W. Darlow, Robert D. Rogers, Michael Pieper, Adam B. Milstein, William J. Blackwell, Michael DiLiberto, Frank D. Marks, Derrick Herndon, Robert Atlas, George R. Alvey, N. Zorn, Mark DeMaria, Patrick Duran, Christopher S. Velden, Zachary Griffith, Chris Kidd, Jeffrey D. Hawkins, Thomas J. Greenwald, Scott A. Braun, Kerri Cahoy
article en

Abstract

New satellite constellations to provide high-resolution atmospheric observations from microwave (MW) sounders operating in low-Earth orbit are now coming online and are providing operationally useful data. The first of these missions, the NASA Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) Earth Venture (EVI-3) mission, was successfully launched into orbit on May 7 and 25, 2023 (Eastern Daylight Time, two CubeSats in each of the two launches). TROPICS is now providing nearly all-weather observations of 3-D temperature and humidity, as well as cloud ice and precipitation horizontal structure, at high temporal resolution to conduct high-value science investigations of tropical cyclones (TCs). TROPICS is providing rapid-refresh MW measurements (median refresh rate of better than 60 min early in the mission with four functional CubeSats, and now approximately 70–90 min with three functional CubeSats) over the tropics that can be used to observe the thermodynamics of the troposphere and precipitation structure for storm systems at the mesoscale and synoptic scale over the entire storm lifecycle. Hundreds of high-resolution images of TCs have been captured thus far by the TROPICS mission, revealing the detailed structure of the eyewall and surrounding rain bands. The new 205-GHz channel in particular (together with a traditional channel near 92 GHz) is providing new information on the inner storm structure, and, coupled with the relatively frequent revisit and low downlink latency, is already informing TC analysis at operational centers. Here, we present an overview of the TROPICS mission after two years of successful science operations with a focus on the suite of geophysical (Level 2) products (atmospheric vertical temperature and moisture profiles, instantaneous surface rain rate, and TC intensity) and the science investigations that have been enabled by these new measurements.

Proceedings of the IEEE
Marshall Space Flight Center (US), Goddard Space Flight Center (US), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US), University of Wisconsin–Madison (US), University of Miami (US), University of North Carolina Wilmington (US), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (US), Vanderbilt University (US), Joint Typhoon Warning Center (US), NOAA National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (US), MIT Lincoln Laboratory (US), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (US), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
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